Cloudy Water

[dacia]

My mom just bought a new 35 gallon hexagon tank this weekend that she asked me to set up as a saltwater tank. She wanted to use sand instead of crushed coral, so before I put in the water I added about 2-3 inches of sand. I added the water after that and now all the water is cloudy. Is this normal? How long does it take to clear up? I have an HOB filter, 1 powerhead, and a protein skimmer in this tank. Thanks ahead of time for the help!

 

[tlk]

Yes it is normal and it can take a few days to clear up. What kind of sand did you use?

 

[dacia]

I used the playground sand from Home Depot. The company was Southdown. Someone else on this board recommended it to me. I liked the price...less than $5 for 50 pounds of it.

 

[dacia]

I bought it last night at the Home Depot in Concord near Carolina Mall. They had tons of it there for less than 5 bucks a bag.
What kinds of critters should I add? And of course I should wait until the LR and shrimp cycle it, right?

 

[beaslbob]

welcome to the hobby and best of luck!
you cloudy water should be clear in about 2-3 days. I recommend you cycle with a plain old molly not a dead shrimp. If you use live rock I recommend you wait three weeks to allow fish borne parasites (ICH) to die off before you add any fish. Finally I recommend you add all the macro algae you can get your hands on.

 

[reefnut]

Welcome, you are doing just fine cycling with the dead shrimp...

 

[dacia]

It's been almost a week and I can finally see through the whole tank. Maybe by the weekend it will look like a normal tank.
I did, however, test the water last night out of curiousity since I have LR and no filter or protein skimmer on. It is most definitely cycling as both ammonia and nitrite levels are maxxed out on my test kits. Never thought I would be happy to see the chemical levels in my tank that high...

 

[cb]

The clouding is normal. When I upgraded my tank and added a deeper sand bed mine was only cloudy overnight but when we added the water we were careful not to disturb the sandbed too much.