Southdown Sand users

[ty1on73]

I just moved my fish to quarantine because of ich. I just added about 95lbs of Southdown Sand to my tank after removing all the crushed coral. The tank settled overnight however the surface of the sand, when disturbed, recreates cloudy water. I am ready to put my live rock and hermits back in the tank but I feel the crabs will create cloudy water.
What have other Southdown users do after adding the sand and will the silt from this sand harm my crabs and/or snails?
Ty

 

[pigeoncreek1]

Your situation is totally normal. The fine particules that were suspended in the water column are now on top of the sand bed. My tank clouded up easily for about 2 weeks or so. Once the bacteira builds up in the sandbed, you won't have any more problems...
Also, the silt will not harm your clean up crew!

 

[wrassecal]

Actually, adding your live rock back in will help settle the sand as it will provide more bacteria for the sand to cling to (scientific explanation ) It won't hurt your crabs either.

 

[dindi]

try the diatom xl filter to help. it polishes the water and will create oxygen exchange and gets rid of parasites and junk in the water. nothing new just IMO

 

[thomas712]

I agree that this is perfectly normal, not uncommon for a 2 week period being cloudy, might want to change your filters more often until it clears.
Over time the silt will settle down to the bottom, eventually you will see the larger paticles surface, it will look like some little dump truck came by and dumped a small load here and there.
Add the live rock now You may also find a clean new turkey baster good in the next few weeks to clean the silt off that settles on the rocks.
Thomas

 

[ty1on73]

Thanks for the info. Everything is in and the H2O is starting to clear again. It is funny to see my red leg hermit run across the tank with a little cloud of dust behind him. He is my 4 y.o. daughter's new favorite.

 

[josh]

Glad to hear that you made the switch and things are going well. The silt is really what you are after, the finer the better. So just in case you were thinking of trying to use some sort of filter floss, dont! It will filter out the good stuff!
Keep up updated.....