Cloudy water with Southdown

michaelstern

michaelstern

Member
I am in the middle of setting up my new 420 g FOLR:jumping:
I put 1" of rinsed southdown as a substrate. I then filled the tank 3/4 with water. (I left the remaining 1/4 to transfer the water and LR from My 100 g)
How long will it take for the cloudiness to settle.
Do I need to fill the tank so I can run the wet/dry to get out the dust?
Should I run my closed loom to circulate or leave it off to allow dust to settle?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
tyr-sog

tyr-sog

Member
Wow, going from a 125 to a 420, nice.
I'm jealous again, I'm going from a 125 to 240:nope:..Need bigger...lol
Anyways, I was talking to my LFS guy and he has some SD which I'm going to go pick up today. He told me that it clouds over bad and you have to rinse the crap put of it. Personally I'd let it settle with the pumps off for a few hours.
Do you have any pics of the 420? What is it 8'x3'x'3?
 
tyr-sog

tyr-sog

Member
I would think it would settle but stir up easy if disturbed. The more rinsed the less dust to be disturbed.:thinking:
 
newbie911

newbie911

Member
Try-sog wat LFS do you go to because i live in rochester o yeah and are you going to be selling anything when you switch tanks
Drew
 
tyr-sog

tyr-sog

Member

Originally posted by newbie911
Try-sog wat LFS do you go to because i live in rochester o yeah and are you going to be selling anything when you switch tanks
Drew

I go to them all.
Kees- 23mile rd & Vandyke
Aqutic Discoveries- 15mile rd & Ryan
Ocean & Seas- 696 & Gratiot
Alantis- 14mile Rd & Rochester Rd
Pet Connection- 5mile Rd & MiddleBelt
Tropicquarium- Down river
Aqotic Exotic(I think)- Opdyke and auburn area.
Most likely I'll be selling some stuff but it won't be for a few months. Not even sure what I will keep or not keep.
 
newbie911

newbie911

Member
hows tropicorium
i mainly go to exotic but wat on has the best prices
Ocean & Seas- Alantis(going tommarow), Pet Connection i havnt been to these any info on them?
Thanks drew
 
michaelstern

michaelstern

Member
Tyr-sog tank is 102" x 20" W x 32" H. Will post picture when it doesn't look like a giant bowl of milk
Does anyone know if a micron filter sock will work? Is it fine enough?
 
toughguy80

toughguy80

Member
I used 150lbs of Southdown in my 110G I didn't rinse it I just dumped it in. I heard from (I believe) NM Reef that the silt left on the unrinsed sand helps later somehow. Anyhow, it took about 6 days to be able to see the back of the tank. After about 1 and a half-2 weeks it was pretty clear. After 3 weeks it was definately crystal clear. For the 1st week I suggest leaving PH and skimmer off. I have a canister filter that I let run with a micro filter. Downside was I had to clean all the sand out about every 3 days. It's really a judgement call on your part. Also the sooner you get it to start cycling the better. The bacteria that builds up will greatly help to reduce the cloud. HTH:)
 
michaelstern

michaelstern

Member
I am going to try micron filters on my drains to see if that catches some. I also need to get my fish and the rest of my LR out of my 100 into this bowl of milk. I am not really cycling this tank. I am doing a bulk transfer of fish, rock, water, bio balls. I'll be moving basically all the bacteria over from my current tank. Plus, I'm adding a bunch more LR.
Anyway,I need to be able to see the fish to put them in.
:thinking:
 
chuckularone

chuckularone

Member
Sandbeds are all about surface area. The more surface area, the more places there are for bacteria to cling.
Think of the surface area this way:
If you have a boulder 10' in diameter you could probably paint it with 2 gallons of paint.
If, after you paint it, you smash that boulder into fist size rocks you now have a tiny percentage of partially painted rocks. It would take a heck of a lot more paint to cover all of those rocks.
Now think of the paint as bacteria.
You probably want to keep the silt in the tank even though it can take an annoyingly huge amount of time to settle the first time.
 
cosguy20

cosguy20

Member
same problem here, i have 80 pounds in my 40 and it clear up over nite and then i was reading on the board that you should stir the sand a couple times so that's what i did and now it's been cloudy for like 4 days now. tomorrow i'm going to go and get some lr. what 's the ratio of lr to gallons i forget.
 
greg'sreef

greg'sreef

New Member
Although I am sure your water is clear by now, my experience with Southdown (180 g tank, 200 lbs Southdown) was very milky water for about 4-5 days and nearly-clear water after about 10 days. Although adding (cured) live rock would help to clear water that is cloudy due to bio-load (i.e. high ammonia level), live rock is unlikely to help clear water that is cloudy due only to sand / silt. This must just settle out or be filtered out. Time is your best bet.
Note, your water might appear to still be cloudy after many days but this could be caused by cloudy glass / acrylic. The fine silt leaves a light residue on the tank walls. Lightly rub this off and you are likely to see crystal clear water if you have waited sufficient time.
--Greg
 
dragracer

dragracer

Member
Yes it does take a while to settle...about a week for it to be clear.....and it does tend to stick to the glass. Heres another word of advice. If you have a fish that likes to landscape.....expect to come home some days and not be able to see a thing in your tank. My Huma Huma enjoys driving me nuts by taking mouthfuls of sand and spitting it out directly infront of either a power head or my return. He thinks its funny!
 
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