now im startin to worry

[mr pink floyd]

my sandstorm cleard up a little last night, i tried to move rocks, but it clouded up realy bad again, so last ngiht i took all rocks and 2 fish out so it only crabs and snalis and a serpent star.

its been another 24 hours since it was last kinda clear, and i dont think i see too much progress.


i have my 2 marineland biowheels goin at 300 gph (combined, with 2 sponges ineach i rinse out every once in a while to clear otu some sand)

also i have a powerhead goin, i forgot how many gph it was, but total is 16x turnover, should i be worried that it wont clear up?

 

[mr pink floyd]

out of 13 people nobody has any input???

 

[mr pink floyd]

^^^^^^

 

[Shoestring Reefer]

What are the circumstances? Added sand? Added more flow?

 

[todd2000]

I would turn the powerhead off, and give the sand some time to settle

 

[mr pink floyd]

powerhead is off now, i took all water out, added abotu 3 inches of southdown, very very fine sand, and put water back in, i was going to do it one way but wnded up not doing it so i got a big storm, it hasnt settled for 2 days now, and im wondeering if it ever will, once/if it does im going to get really heavy thick sand and ptu maybe an inch on tip of this to hep keep it down for when i put things back in

 

[kirstenk]

Keep the powerhead off and I would suggest you put the rock back into the tank. This will help greatly in getting the water to clear. When sand/silt settles on the rock, gently blow it off with a turkey baster.

 

[Dubbin1]

Pink it is going to take some time but everything will be fine. It is going to fog back up everytime you move the rock around until the sand is loaded with bacteria.

 

[mr pink floyd]

aight so i should put the rock back in?

 

[kirstenk]

Yes.....the rock will enable the sand to fill with bacteria..........

 

[The_Nexis_One]

So.... what's going on here? ;-)

Is this a new setup with new sand? or is this really old sand with lots of detritus?

If you want your sand storm to calm down - why not turn off some of your flow?

Generally speaking, once new sand gets a bacterial coating it doesn't storm any more, even if you stir it up a bit.

*edit* seems it took me too long to post

yeah - what they said ^^^

John.

 

[mr pink floyd]

thanks i jus tput abck some lr i was gettin really owrried, bwecasue school starts monday, and i was hoping to hav the tank back up and runnin god again by sunday, but not lokoin like it will happen, oh well who needs geometry and world civ anyways? haha

 

[stingers81]

keep the powerhead on....bacteria needs to attach itself to the sand grains....if you turn off your powerhead, yes it will settle faster but once you put your powehead back on it will cloudup again....are you running carbon? carbon helps in clearing up the water so if you don't...get some!!

 

[The_Nexis_One]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6821510#post6821510 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by stingers81
keep the powerhead on....bacteria needs to attach itself to the sand grains....if you turn off your powerhead, yes it will settle faster but once you put your powehead back on it will cloudup again....are you running carbon? carbon helps in clearing up the water so if you don't...get some!!

I'm affraid I can't agree with either of these statements.

1) Bacteria will coat the grains whether they are in suspension or not - if it only happened when they were in suspension, our tanks would take weeks to settle... I'm affraid (and glad) it doesn't work that way. As long as you have some water movement so you don't get stagnation or anoxic conditions somehow, bacteria will colonize the sand.

2) Carbon will do 'nothing' to help settle the sand grains from his water. Carbon absorbes organics by locking them in micropores in the carbon itself and also collects some toxic chems from the water - it does nothing for insoluble, inorganic particles such as sand.

IMHO - turn off the PH's until the sand settles, give the system some time (a couple days) with just the return going and then give them a try again. EXPECT SOME SAND TO STIR UP. But it should not be a cloud (should be more like a lite snow) and should settle quickly. If it stirs up again as a cloud - turn off the PH's and consider running a filter sock for a few days to help trap the micro grains of sand.

Best of luck,
John.

 

[stingers81]

depends what sand he's using...if its for dsb then you want to keep as much of the fine stuff as possible...the finer the better... keep at least one powerhead on to keep your water oxigenated

 

[masterswimmer]

The_Nexis_One is absolutely correct. Just don't rush it. Storms at sea stir up the ocean floor on the reefs too. Just let the system work.

PH off for a day or two. Let everything settle down. Make sure your PH is not pointed at the sandbed and turn it on after all is clear. Your two biowheels will keep your water oxygenated.

Russ

 

[Aquabucket]

An SD or arogonite milkshake ~ If you want to clear it up in a hurry ~ crank up the flow as much as possible, throw some cotton balls in an HOB filter and baste your LR often. 100lbs of SD sand will clear up in a day or so using this method.

 

[mr pink floyd]

its all clear and everythings back in