oolitic sand

[birdy]

Three days ago I put 4 inches of Caribsea aragonite suger size or oolitic sand in my tank to set up a 46 gal reef. I have let it settle for three days and it was fairly clear this evening. I started up my powerheads and my prizm skimmer to see if they would stir up the substrate. Well it is a snowstorm in my tank. Will this stuff settle down or did I do something wrong?

 

[wally]

I would add some kind of mechanical filter until it clears in a few days. What you have is a lot of silty dust that needs to be filtered out.

 

[diatom]

Birdy~
It will settle down as the bacteria in the tank binds to the sand...probably a couple of weeks.

 

[lilmojo79]

I am planning on using sand also, do you need to wash the sand before adding it to your tank? Would this have prevented the silt problem or is this just part of the process?

 

[birdy]

Thanks for the replys,
I do have a emporer 400 running in the tank. I did a search and read some previous posts on the same subject. They recommended a type of filter material that would take the fine particles out. I went and got some last night and it made a huge difference. I was told to rinse the sand a little but not too much and that the cloudiness would go away after a few more days. Thanks again.

 

[option720]

You don't want to rinse the sand because those really small "silt" grains are really benificial for a DSB. The sand will settle within a couple days once the bacteria settles.