White water after adding sand...will go away?

[jwheeler]

I have a 180g that I've had the LR and water in it for a month, but just now had the money to get sand. I got Agramax sand, and rinsed it all. My whole tank is white now, cant see anything in it. On the top there is a white foam floating, I've scooped most of it out, its almost solid its so thick. I accidently let some of the white water drain into my sump, so I have the skimmer running now to try to clear it up, but I have the return pump shut off.
Will this white water go away over night? Or should I turn the return pump on and try to skim some of it out? Or just do I gigantic water change?
Thanks

 

[reefshadow]

Yes, it will clear up. If you are nervous about how it looks you can run some poly pad to help catch it, otherwise it will slowly settle. It can take a few days and you'll probably need to baste the dust off the rocks once a day. As the sand gets "heavier" with biofilm and bacs, it will puff up less easily.

I would just run all the regular pumps to give it a chance to settle where it will. otherwise you will probably find that when you turn on the return you get a second sandstorm as it adjusts to the flow.

GL!

 

[Eric Max]

i had this problem too when i added sand to my tank. it slowly cleared up as the grits settled day by day. it took just under three days for me to have crystal clear water again. i would leave the pumps off and to aid in the settling of the sand.

 

[kelly630]

great. I guess i'm in for this fun next weekend when my 180 gets delivered. I already have the sand here and I was told to "rinse it off." Tell me, how do you rinse off sand?!?!

 

[jwheeler]

I took a 5g bucket and drilled holes in the bottom, then put some filter screen in the bottom of the bucket, dumped the sand in the bucket, then filled bucket up with water, and all the water goes out the bottom, no sand. May be a more simple way of doing this, took me half the day, had 13 bags.

 

[vanmo92]

yes it will. I got the same sand And had the same question. And yes it will clear up. If you have your skimmer hooked up then It will clear even faster. No Worries.

 

[pana]

i rinsed my sand quite simply. just by using a bucket i half filled it with sand and than half freshwater, stirred it well every 2 minutes or so for atleast 10 minutes, let the dust settle at the top poured out the excess water. than used a large net, with very fine caching where no sand can escape and poured the sand in it. i had close to no cloudyness.