Will this help with the sandstorm?

[internexus]

I've been in the process of setting up my tank for a while and have put in all of the sand. I have had a sand storm for several days now and I honestly don't think the water is going to clear up 100%. If I added the salt mix now would that help clear it up because of the heavier SG of water compared to the dust particles and get this all settled? Or do I need to just start hitting some water changes on it?Thanks guys!

 

[sir_dudeguy]

No, do not put the salt in there. You need to mix the salt in the water before its in w/the sand. Otherwise half the salt grains will just sink to the bottom and get stuck in the sand and wont dissolve.

I'm assuming this was dry sand, not live. Empty your tank of all the water (i take it you've got freshwater in there now, correct?) and hose the heck out of the sand. You need to rinse it out a lot beforehand to get the dust out. It will eventually settle anyways, but rinsing really really helps.

Mix your saltwater in the tank while the sand is being rinsed, or just mix your saltwater in other tubs or whatever....put the sand in, put like pan or a plat on top of the sand in the tank, and start pouring your newly mixed saltwater on top of that pan/plate. When i've done this, it seems to create less of a sandstorm to begin with.

Last thing you can do...run a bit of carbon and/or a filter pad in a canister or HOB filter for a few days...those really help in my experience with sandstorms.

hope this helps

 

[internexus]

Is there a method to go about this without draining the tank down completely, thats a whole lotta RO water lol. What I was thinking for with the salt was to put it into the sump right where the water from the display comes in. There is a lot of flow there, in the middle part of it I can put a powerhead and then the return pump (mag9.5) would suck it all in and blow it throughout the display and back into the overflow for a repeat cycle. I thought this would be enough to mix it really well instead of it just hitting the bottom and never dissolving.

I initially tried rinsing the sand I put into the sump part thats going to function as the refuge and I cleaned that sand in a bucket for about 10 minutes with a solid stream of water and it never cleared so I decided it would just be the same to dump it in. I can't even see past an inch into the tank heh.

 

[t5Nitro]

In both of my tanks new I put the salt in the water after the sand. Just make sure you have a good amount of flow moving around the tank.

 

[WaterKeeper]

Back to the original problem. In a tank devoid of live sand the sandstorm can last as long as those on the Planet Dune. It is the bacteria that coat the surface of LS that help settle the fine particles. A cannister filter running a polishing cartridge can help clear things in fairly short order however.

 

[Whisperer]

Or a filter sock.

 

[internexus]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10252610#post10252610 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by WaterKeeper
Back to the original problem. In a tank devoid of live sand the sandstorm can last as long as those on the Planet Dune. It is the bacteria that coat the surface of LS that help settle the fine particles. A cannister filter running a polishing cartridge can help clear things in fairly short order however.

This is exactly what I was thinking, however I couldn't recall 100% the thoughts I had being legitimate. I want to get the salt in and start a cycle and figured it'd bring that sand on down appropriately.

Thanks a lot guys!

 

[kysard1]

I set up a tank last week, bad sandstorm at first. 24 hrs after I added the liverock it is crystal clear.

 

[WaterKeeper]

Chemist WaterKeeper beats the chemical engineer soundly about the head and shoulders. Twenty four hours? I hope the ammonia tests you are surely running don't spell bad news.

 

[kysard1]

Well the live rock settled the fine cloudy stuff quickly, but now that I added the lights I see that the larger sand particles are still flying around

 

[WaterKeeper]

Sorry Kysard I misread your post and thought you said livestock not liverock. You can add live rock right in with the sand while adding livestock will take some time. Sorry.

 

[chemesgh]

I had to deal with that twice with my 55 gal, when I first set it up, and then when we moved and I set it back up here in Pensacola. To help clear up the finer sand particles, I just put a sock on my overflow tubing, and ran a powerhead with a sponge filter on, and cleaned both fairly frequently over the weekend. (both times I set the tank up on a Friday night). Mine cleared up within a couple of days both times.

Also, I added salt with sand already in the tank both times I set up my 55. I never had a problem with it not completely dissolving, just made sure I had decent circulation in the tank. SG always came out on the mark.