my new 55........have a question

[am3gross20]

my question is this. i set it all up. the salt the water mixed in a 5 gallon bucket. then i put it in the tank. then i put the sand in and there is a great big sand cloud. cant see trew the tank at all. how long will it take for the dust to settle? and also should i shut my filters off while it is settling?
thanks mike

 

[thedj]

Id say turn your filters and powerheads on. get that stuff out of the water.

 

[bigarn]

Originally posted by theDJ
Id say turn your filters and powerheads on. get that stuff out of the water.
No....shut the filters and Ph's off. They can get clogged with sand and be damaged. The PH will just prevent the sand from settleing. It will settle..give it time.

 

[am3gross20]

good i shut the power heads and filters off.. any idea on how long before the dust settles. maybe a day or so

 

[bigarn]

Originally posted by am3gross20
good i shut the power heads and filters off.. any idea on how long before the dust settles. maybe a day or so
It varies...but that's a good guesstimate.

 

[snipe]

Close call there could have burnt up some high doller equipment . That would have lol but thats just me lol.

 

[fighting0]

it's been 24 hrs since i've put my sand in. i'm just starting to be able to see through the tank, but i'm VERY worried that the sand that is just hanging in the water won't settle out. and if it does and any small small disturbance might cause a dust cloud again (I.E. putting in LR or worse yet, when fish are swimming close to the bottom. the only way i could describe the size of the sand that doesn't seem to want to settle is "finer than grains of table salt or sugar." what should i do?

 

[evieb]

Do you have a skimmer? I know that when I put my sand in I shut off everything except the skimmmer. My tank was clear by the next morning. Give it some time.

 

[nikolai]

Originally Posted by fighting0
it's been 24 hrs since i've put my sand in. i'm just starting to be able to see through the tank, but i'm VERY worried that the sand that is just hanging in the water won't settle out. and if it does and any small small disturbance might cause a dust cloud again (I.E. putting in LR or worse yet, when fish are swimming close to the bottom. the only way i could describe the size of the sand that doesn't seem to want to settle is "finer than grains of table salt or sugar." what should i do?
I had the same thing. It will be fine. Mine took around 3 days to clear out. Once it does, placing LR will stir the sand up some, but not to the point where you can't see anything. You'll find that as your tank ages, after stirring up sand, the dust cloud is less, and lasts for a shorter amount of time.

 

[fighting0]

thanks for the replies... hmmm .. maybe i'll have to get the skimmer sooner then, eh? thanks again!!

 

[swatskee]

wait it out, it will settle. i'd give it about 3 days max........

 

[tthemadd1]

Did you rinse your sand out in buckets before putting it in your tanks? You should have rinsed it in the bucket until the water is just hazy. This fine dust will eventually mix back into your water stream and clog your filters. I put some in a ten gallon frag tank and it took about half an hour to settle out. I rinsed it for a good hour though....
Good Luck,
themaddhatter

 

[fighting0]

OOOOPS! Nope, I didn't rinse it out... I just put it right into the tank. I guess I'll have to vacuum this "milky top layer" out.. some sand might go with it, but that's the price I'm going to have to pay (along with mixing more saltwater). Do you have an easier way of dealing with it?

 

[kaotik]

mine did the same thing. after a few days, once the majority of the sand was settled, i turned on my over-the-top power filter and it sucked all the cloudiness out of the water. Then i just removed the filters and rinsed all the fine sand out and put them back. Worked for me!! :happy: