my water has been cloudy for 5 days! help!

[platinum75]

please someone give me some advice...
I have had freshwater tanks for years..I had piranhas but sold that setup so I could buy a 75 gallon tank. I wanted to try the saltwater world this time. I had no problem setting up a 10 gallon saltwater tank for my brother last year.
but when I tried to do the same for my new 75 gallon tank it turned out like **** !
this is what I did: I put 2 bags of coral in the tank and added a bag of reef sand. then I filled up the tank with water from my garden hose.
the water looked so milky that I had to empty it out and wash the coral and refill the tank.
after refilling the tank, I added a bag of live coral and then mixed the salt into the water.
the salt is mixed pretty well. there is just a very very fine layer of salt at the bottom.
the water was starting to clear, but i adjusted the bubble wand and touched the sand just a LITTLE bit and the whole tank looks like milk again!
the tank has been running for 5 days with 2 filters that cycle the tank 5 times an hour . is it normal for the water to still be really cloudy??

 

[reeferx]

Ouch. Yeah that is normal, esp. the way you did it. Usually, with crushed coral substrate and some dry sands, what you should do is rinse it prior to putting it in the tank.
The way you would do this is put some in a bucket, blast it with the hose, agitating it as the bucket fills. When full, dump the water from the bucket, being careful not to dump the crushed coral / sand out, a little is ok. Repeat until it is not that cloudy, then dump the substrate into your tank. Start over till you got all the substrate in your tank.
My 2 cents:
-Crushed coral is a crap trap and you would be better off with sand.
-Since you are using tap water, stick with fish. Anemones, corals, etc., will die from the metals that can be present in tap water.
-if you can afford it, get an r.o. filter for your tap. then if you start over, you can have the above and not just fish. Tap water also can contain silicates which cause algae blooms. You will find yourself cleaning your tank a lot more with tap water.

 

[reeferx]

Also, not sure if you did this, but you should make your salt water prior to putting it in the tank too.
If you do it in a bucket or new trash can a couple days prior to filling the tank and throw some airstones and / or powerheads in there, that will mix it better.

 

[platinum75]

thanks for the quick response! the problem is I don't feel like paying $50 dollars for more instant ocean! I am poor now that I bought my tank and stand. Anyway, the bag said i am not supposed to wash the coral. so will my tank be dusty forever, do I have to take the water out???
or should I just let the tank settle?

 

[rhomer]

Wow, you really need to do some research first. Thank goodness you haven't added any critters yet. Here's a quick guideline to get you going in the right direction.
First empty the water out of the tank. You could have a lot of salt mixed in the sand, and this will cause you all kinds of problems later.
Wash the sand out as described in the earlier post, and re-add the sand into the tank.
Goto the store and either buy the water from the lfs, or buy a dionizer or reverse osmosis filter. Try not to use tap water for your tank, this could cause serious alge breakouts.
Premix the water in a bucket to the correct specific gravity, then add the water to the tank.
You can keep the water less cloudy by placing a plate ontop of the sand then pouring the water onto the plate. This will keep the sand from clouding the tank too much.
Then before you do anything else sit down and determine what you want in your tank, and investigate what it will take to keep those items, such as filtration, lighting, water movement, etc.
And please don't let the lfs talk you into a slew of damels to cycle your tank. Goto the grocery, and buy some raw shrimp to cycle your tank.
Good luck

 

[catera]

just let it settle it should be fine. if you have nothing in the tank shut off the filters and just let it settle. hth

 

[efrank]

-I tryed to mix CC and Sand in a past tank and always wished that I had sand only, so you may want to consider that before you go any further.
-As for the cloudy water I had just like you are discribing until I added carbon and the water has been crystal clear evr since.

 

[platinum75]

so, there is no way I can salvage my tank?
I have to start over from scratch???
I don't think my pet shop sells premade salt water.
how am I going to get non-tap water?
I can't afford a machine to filter it....
Carbon ? should I just go to the pet shop and ask for some carbon for my tank?

 

[rhomer]

You can get distilled water from your local grocery store, This is all I used on my 20 reef. I have recently purchased a dionizer for 40 bucks. The water will cost about 30-40 cents a gallon at the grocery or the lfs. The lfs will sell the ro/di water that they use. I'm not sure how much this will cost. So it might be cheaper to get the di unit.
As for salvaging what you've got. I have to agree witht the others on the crushed coral. You really want to can that.
BTW tell us what lighting you have and your current filtration.

 

[reeferx]

You don't have to start over unless you want a reef tank and not a fish tank. just re-read what i said before.
like catera said, you can let it settle. it will take a while with those penguin filters. if you can borrow a diatom or magnum filter this will speed things up. and / or buy a poly filter pad and stick that in your penquin to help polish.
keep checking that salinity, the way you described it made me think of the dead sea.
take your time, before you throw fish in there.

 

[platinum75]

dude, you are funny. You mentioned the dead sea, thats exactly what I think when I look at my tank. it is a wasteland where not even a damsel can survive. My specific gravity is pretty high,
like...25+ ....yes it appears I have a lot of work and waiting to do.
thanks for taking time out to help me. I know you guys might get sick of us new people with the same dumb questions, but i was really concerned
about the situation of my "tank of death."
one more question..how badly does your sand/bottom cloud when you dusturb it?

 

[trying4reef]

Don't worry platnium75 I did roughly the same thing when i started a month ago except I did rinse my CC pretty well and it was still milky for about three days then it went away. If, over the next couple for months you get some money and want to make it into a full reef tank you can buy a good filter ( I like the wet/dry ones personally) and add a protien skimmer and let it run and it should fillter out the junk from the tap water, but you will want to look into a DI or RO machine for adding new water. just my .02

 

[platinum75]

I am glad I am not the only one. so I will just wait and see what happens. I didn't realize that saltwater aquariums were so scientific! and I though raising piranhas was complicated!
thanks, I feel better now since I am not the only one with milk instead of saltwater.I will reasearch more, and I will keep you updated on the progress of my 75 gallon verson of the Red Sea.

 

[efrank]

You should be able to buy a carbon cartridge for the filter you have at any LFS. That will clear it up. This is not as hard as it sounds you just have to pause before adding anything to the tank and really think about what it is going to do.

 

[platinum75]

SO since I used tap water, i will never be able to put any live corals or anything else but fish??
after the tank has cycled, what fish/inverts/whatever are good to start a new tank with? any suggestions?

 

[reeferx]

I would say it would be dicey at best. Even if you get away with for a while, one day your pipes could kick out some rust or something, and everything could melt. Too risky in my opinion.
I was helping someone out recently who's tap water tested positive for copper. This is another metal that will cause MAJOR problems in reef tanks. And it is hard to get rid of once it is introduced.
Metals just cause problems in 'closed' systems like aquariums.
As for the fish, well there are a lot of options there, just go hardy and try not to make choices by color-coordinating. If you post that question on the fish section, I am sure someone will help you out. I gotta get back to this pile on my desk. (I AM SUPPOSED TO BE WORKING!!!)
Good luck,
Matt
PS- You might want to look into better filtration down the road....