Tank is still cloudy

[jthomas0385]

Its been a week today and my tank is still cloudy.. It looked better yesterday but than I moved some sand around and made it cloudy again. It just seems that after a week it should have settled. Should I shut the powerheads and filter off?

 

[robertmathern]

How cloudy are we talking. It should have cleared up by now do you have a pic of the tank. How much did you stur up the sand when you moved it arround? Also what kind of sand did you use the dry stuff in bags at the lfs. Did you rince the sand real good before adding it to your tank.

 

[jthomas0385]

I used 100 lbs of oolite live sand. I only stirred it up a little bit. You can hardly see the rocks in the back of the tank.

 

[jthomas0385]

should i turn my filter and powerheads off?

 

[steelytom]

you should keep the powerhead on, just make sure it is not blowing down in the sand. What kind of filter are you running, if it is a canister or any kind of mechanical filter it will probably clog fast with the water so cloudy. I am not familiar with the live sand, but I know the dry sand has to be rinsed very well and still clouded up my tank for about three days. I dont thing it should be clouding like that this long. I wonder how live it actually is. I really don't see how sand can stay live on a shelf sealed in a bag. Just leave it alone for a while, I think once the bacteria cultures take hold that holds it together some.

 

[robertmathern]

There is no way that sand was live. But the dry stuff with a bag of bacteria. I would leave the power heads on because if you turn them off it will settle quicker. But when you turn them back on they will blow the sand up again. Just keep moving it arround intill it no longer blows the sand arround. And keep the filters clear and wait it out. I cant beleive it is still cloudy though.

 

[jthomas0385]

how do you clean the canister filter?? Its a wet/dry canister filter, if that makes a difference. Do you just rinse the filter media?? Thank you.