Did play sand mess up my tank?

jds61403

jds61403

Member
My 29gal is cycling with some live rock. I added some play sand (thought it was okay), rinsed it and put it in my water. 12 hours later my water is still very brown and cloudy. Have I totally messed up? Do I need to replace all my water? I'm running 2 MJ1200's but do not have a filter up yet. Tell me what to do!!! Wait it out, water change, etc....
Thanks for the help
 
nm reef

nm reef

Active Member
Can you be more specific on what sand you used? As for the "cloudy" water...that is normal whenever sand is added and primarily consists of silt and fine particles in the water column. In time it will clear up. You could use some type of mechanical filtration to speed the process along.
 
jds61403

jds61403

Member
It was a 50lb bag from Lowe's. Can't remember the exact brand and I'm at work so... Should I have vinegar tested (not even sure how to do that). I realize that some cloudiness is normal but it sat overnight and nearly looked the same this morning. Maybe it is becase I am not running a filter yet. Maybe I'm freaking out too soon. How long till I should be worried?
Thanks NM, I consider your word as good as gold.
 
turningtim

turningtim

Active Member
Run a filter and change the pads/filter floss often. Turn off the powerheads and let the sand settle. your just recycleing the sand storm....
HTH
Tim
 
hedonic

hedonic

Member
Originally Posted by jds61403
It was a 50lb bag from Lowe's. Can't remember the exact brand and I'm at work so... Should I have vinegar tested (not even sure how to do that). I realize that some cloudiness is normal but it sat overnight and nearly looked the same this morning. Maybe it is becase I am not running a filter yet. Maybe I'm freaking out too soon. How long till I should be worried?
Thanks NM, I consider your word as good as gold.

Store bought sand like this is usually not a pure calcium carbonate, and may have indordenent amounts od silicates in it. You may have heard that glass is made out of sand? Well it is actually made out of the silicates that are in sand. While some organisms may thrive in water with high silicates (various types of sponges), it can be harmfull to others. Also, you will loose out on a lot of the buffering capacity of typical argaonite sand, which may or may not be a problem depending on what you are planning on doing with the tank. What are your goals for the tank? Fish? Corals?
 
jds61403

jds61403

Member
I was planning on a reef tank.... Hope that it is not ruined. I still have the bag with the info on it. I was planning on putting a layer of live sand on top. What do you think?? :notsure:
 
hedonic

hedonic

Member
I think it will be okay, but invest in a Silicate remover. there is a great product called ROWAPHOS that abosrbes both Silicates and PO4 (organic phosphates, which would be present in your tank to some degree if you used tap water to set it up), I would run it a few times along with a POLYFILTER, before you introduce any delicate corals. Also, start with mushrooms and see how they do, don't make an anemone your first purchase.
 
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