Cloudy Water

[jdm01]

I have had my tank running for a few days. The water was just beginning to clear up. I reached in the tank to clean the glass and move some rock and it clouded over again? I have drilled tank and a combination of Marine sand crushed coral and puka shells. Is this a matter of vaccum the substrate mix and frequent water changes? I am assuming it is wise to leave out the live rock until this clears up?

 

[Witchdoctor_h]

Did you rinse the substrate before you put it in?

 

[jdm01]

Unfortunately not. The store folks said it was pre-washed and ready to go Does this make it a take out, rinse, and re-do?

 

[PatMayo]

You will always get some cloudiness when you disturb your substrate. That is normal. The key is don't mess with it. You can see my tank here:

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=780206

Looks clear right. Well when I mess with the sand all bets are off. Once the tank gets settled it will clear very rapidly.

It's nothing to worry about. My tank has now been up about 59 days and it looks even better now.

BTW I didn't rinse my substrate either. I used fine sand.

Regards,

Pat

 

[Witchdoctor_h]

I would. Since it's only been up for a few days. Put it in a bucket in the tub, and run water through it. Use your hand to move it around thoroughly, untill the water is pretty clear. Then, when you put it back in, do it slowly. Don't just dump it in. I used a measuring cup and gently spread it around. That will help keep the cloud at bay.

 

[Swanwillow]

didn't rinse mine either...

for the first month, cloudy... but now that the bacteria have settled in nicely, its stopped having a HUGE cloud, now its only a little one.

 

[Witchdoctor_h]

I rinsed mine. The cloud was gone in two days. Now if I accidently stir up my sand, there is still no cloud.
It helped me.

 

[bjonesjr1]

by rinsing your "Live Sand" when you buy it from the LFS, do you wash away the benifical bacteria that comes with it away and pretty much start out with dead sand or does the bacteria stay around ??? Basically are you sacrificing the beneficial bacteria that comes with the sand when you buy it, to have a clear tank in a few days by rinsing it off.

 

[Witchdoctor_h]

I don't buy "live Sand". I buy regular sand, and rinse it. When you add LR the beneficial bacteria will migrate from the rock to the sand, thus making it "live". It's cheaper to do it that way.

 

[doox00]

I rinsed the heck out of my southdown, it was clear within hours after rinsing it so well, when i first put it in, I did a bad job of rinsing it, mistate.. now if I mess with the sand.. it just settles back and and no cloud whatsoever, its worth spending a really long time rinsing the heck out of it.

 

[bertoni]

I don't rinse my sand because the fine particles make a good home for various sandbed creatures. If you wait a bit, the cloud will go away. Rinsing live sand will pretty much kill it, but the bagged live sand isn't very live anyway.

To get good live sand, you'll need to seed it with some animals. BillsReef.com gets some good reviews, and I've ordered animals from ipsf.com and inlandaquatics.com. That's expensive, though, and might not be worth it if you don't want a live DSB.