New Tank Help

[warlockgp]

I just added water and sand to a new tank and it's really murkly, (22LBS or aragonite and 50LBS play sand and i got 20 LBS of LS which i haven't added yet, should i add the LS while the water is murky or wait until it clears and should i have my powerfilter going to help with the murky water or it wouldn't help any ways or make it worse.
Need Help please.............

 

[skirrby]

im pretty sure the murkeyness will go away within a few hours to a day... i dont see a reason not to add the live sand now

 

[warlockgp]

Would it matter if the LS is not evenly distributed??? and should i have the powerheads on or off???
Thanks...........

 

[elfdoctors]

The live sand will actually help the murkiness go away. When your sand becomes live, a bacterial coating develops around each grain and it settles down to the bottom faster.

 

[moonrs]

It's too late now, but if you didn't rinse the base sand (not the live sand) before you put it in the tank, the dust that's within the sand could cause your tank to be cloudy for days... IMO, and from what I've read, you should always rinse off the sand you put in your tank before using it. This does not apply to live sand; you use the live sand right out of the bag. Running your filter with your powerheads should greatly contribute to the water clearing up. Lastly, I would distribute the live sand evenly across the bottom, if only to give a uniform appearance to sand in the bottom of your tank. HTH... Moonrs

 

[warlockgp]

I asked and was told NOT to rinse it..............
GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
Oh well, hopefully it'll be soon, the tank that's up and running it's leaking so that's y i got the 30G this weekend, else i would have waited to get a 50 or a 100.
Thanks for all your help people

 

[moonrs]

Well, warlockgp, at least it's only a few extra days off murkiness... Rather than losing money.
Anyway, when I rinsed my non-live sand, I put a few pounds of sand into a bucket at a time, put in a little tap water and swished it around several times with my hand. After letting the water settle a few seconds, I carelfully poured out the excess water and repeated the process, until the water was relatively clear. The only problem with doing it this way, is it's somewhat time-consuming, and I've only got a 30gallon tank. Anyway, good luck with your new tank... :joy:

 

[flamehawk]

I rinsed all of my SD sand before adding to my 125g over 2 years ago. It helped and the cloudy conditions were clear in 1 day. If you have a cannister filter, you'll have to clean it out after murkiness clears since all the powde will be trapped. Patience and all should be ok.

 

[warlockgp]

Patience, such a horrible word.