simple sand question

[KafudaFish]

Hey everyone,
I finally have sand and water in my tank. Yeah team. It has been three days and the water is still cloudy. I can see maybe 6 inches into the tank.
The sand seems to have settled for the most part but there is still the problem of cloudy water. There is only 50# of southdown sand in about 75 gallons of water. I have an ehiem canister with ceramic rings and foam sponges filtering the water. It has helped some but not much. Is there anything else I could do such as run carbon, do a water change, etc to clear the water?

 

[gflat65]

Run a micron filter to remove the cloud. I'm entirely familiar with Eheim filters, but I usually run a Magnum HOB 250 with the micron filter for the first few days and it clears up pretty quickly. If you have powerheads running (or other forms of current), make sure they are not pointed towards the sand, as Southdown will take a little while to completely settle out. It took about 9 months of small sand storms for mine to stop. When I say sand storms, I mean particles floating for no apparent reason, not the cloudiness you are seeing now. Now the only sand storms come when the engr goby decides manifest destiny is the way to go... The cloudiness should subside soon, though. The amount of water turnover in the tank will contribute to the amount of sand in the sand storms after the initial clearing.

 

[Runner]

I have had to do this a couple of times. Once I put some filter floss in a cannister filter and ran it. Another time I put a fine-thread filter pad in my sump. I had to clean both out daily for a few days before they did their job and cleaned things up. The basic Eheim filter sponges won't do the trick. You need to add something a little 'finer' to pull out the dust.

 

[KafudaFish]

Ok, I figured it was fine particle sand that was suspended. I will have to pick up something at the store to filter. Thanks.

 

[Sk8r]

Don't worry too much, however: as your bacteria begin to grow in the sand, it will bind the dust down.

 

[KafudaFish]

I picked up a bag and some "cotton" so we will see. The tank continues to clear on its own and there is some sand inside the filter. I just have been busy laying new floor at my in-laws. Payback for building my stand and canopy and stand and canopy and stand and ......

 

[cb9tunerguy]

add some live rock. that will clear it up quickly

 

[KafudaFish]

cb:
I will be adding my LR this weekend. I just needed the original sand storm to decrease. In one night the water has cleared 70%. The funny thing is there is a perfect horizontal line dividing clear vs. cloudy water. I'll have to add some additonal water movement to the tank to get the rest up.