turn off filters when adding LS?

[bkc978]

OK, I have a tank that has been running for a while, but lately only has 1 fish in it (a VERY hardy false perc). I am getting ready to take out the CC substrate and add dry aragonite, and then LS later next week.
I thought I read somewhere that I should NOT run the filters to clear the water after adding the sand, becuase the fine grains of sand are beneficial and rather than collect them in the filter and throw them away i should let them settle back down into the sand bed - is this true?
I can easily keep my clown in a bucket for a day or 2 - but i wanted to get some input on this.
Thanks!

 

[thangbom]

yeah.. a lot of people turn there filter off so that the fine sand can settle.. but i personally dint care much for em.. so i kept my filter on and filtered this 'good fine sad' out..i dint care and still dont... and if u can take the fish out to house him in something els with a small powerhead ot bubble thing then do it.. it stays cloudy for a long time.. took me like 3 days to clean w/ my filter running.. and every hour i clean the filter pad .......

..

 

[bkc978]

Thanks ThaNgBom - I will probably put the fish, snail, and crab into a bucket, and give the tank 48 hrs to settle. After 48 i will just turn on the filters to srat cleaning up what is left. Did you really have to clean it every hour??? I will try putting a lot of filter floss in my canister filter (fluval 304)
Also, i heard of a technique, by ploacing the sand into a bag, then filling with water (sinking) the bag into the tank and dumping the contents directly onto the bottom - less cloudiness that way.

 

[bigarn]

Hmmm :thinking: .... Sounds like a good idea. Let us know how it works out.

 

[bkc978]

will do, the sand should be here tomorrow or the day after, I will post the results on this thread

 

[bkc978]

I added the 30# bag of aragonite last night.
I started to rinse the aragonite (per instructions on bag) but it was getting late, so I only rinsed about 1/2 - I placed it all back into the bag it came in, and 'sank' that bag into the tank.
Then I turned the bag on it's side and then upside down on the bottom of the tank, and I was AMAZED at how little dust came out. the bag appeared to still have sand in it but when I moved it I realized that what was left in the upside-down bag was most of the DUST (very milky, cloudy water), so i quickly closed the bag and turned it right-side up, and took it out of the tank.
I still had a lot of cloudiness in the water - but I think it would have gone much better had I realized that after tipping the bag upside down, to just close it and get it out of the tank without releasing the coloudy water from inside the bag into the tank.
This trick definately worked well - I suggest tying it the next time you add sand to your tank.