How long before cloudy tank clears up

[dolph]

Yesterday I put a little over 200 pounds of sand in my tank. The tank was already filled with water. The tank has been extremely cloudy ever since. How long before it clears up?

 

[Icefire]

1-4 days

 

[TekCat]

Agreed, give it a few days. If you have LR in, the bacteria will clump finer sand particles together and they will sink down faster. Also, you could put mechanical filtration in to help to remove dust.
Or just sit tight

 

[dolph]

No LR yet. As soon as it clears ie will put the base rock back into the tank along with the LR and get a couple of shrimps to start the cycle. I now wish I added the sand and rocks before the water

I guess you live and learn!

 

[Icefire]

Don't put shrimp if you have live rock!
a very small pinch of fish food will feed the bacteria.

 

[chase33]

I agree. It should only take a few days. Took my 120g 4 days and I doubt if yours is as cloudy as mine was.

 

[TekCat]

Good point Icefire, there is no need to jump start cycle when using LR. Even if LR is cured (assuming you get it shipped) there will be some sort of cycle. Depending on amount of die off on LR it will be long or short one. But again, you dont need shrimp thing.

From my experience (limited but none the less) I've done LR curing in tank and outside of the tank, I'd suggest curing it outside of the tank. This way when LR sheds junk it wont get trapped under the sand. In any case, good luck!