cloudy water

[ctkecth]

Just put sand in my tank after rinsing for what I considered a great deal of time. The water obviously clouded up. I was not running any of my equipment as it settled. I turned things on today and of course the tank exploded into a haze of sentiment. I utilized crushed coral and a bio-wheel filter on my 55 and had no real problem. I am running water through a 30 gallon sump and skimmer without any mechanical filtration. Should I run a mechanical filter to clear out the sentiment. Ultimately I don't want a mechanical filter, I just want to run the skimmer and have live rock. I have micron bags on aquarium output and a sponge filter on the return pump.

 

[gwh57]

I will most likely settle on it's own. Was this dry sand that you washed and then put into the tank? How long/many times did you wash it?

 

[ctkecth]

It was dry and I spent a good twenty minutes with each 20 lb bag.

 

[gwh57]

I suspect what you have is trash and dust in the water. You can wait it out or try to filter it out. Dry play sand is difficult to wash and must be rinsed several times. Did you rinse it until the water was clear?

 

[ctkecth]

Of course not. You see I figure I want to get the tank just right so I spend forever geting the tank ready to receive water and then when I do, I can't wait to get the sand in. So I rush the most basic of processes in the efforts to get the tank that much further along- all for the end result- I have to continue to wait (of course it has to cycle so I would be waiting anyway) but now I can just look at the cloudy water and kick myself for being an idiot.