Ultra Newbie Question

[goldie]

I am kind of ashamed of myself already in this hobby
So i put some sand in my tank yesterday then i filled up a 5 gallon bucket added sand and dumped it in the tank. Now the water is so murkey its not even believable. I know you guys say that because of the new sand it will be but this is horrible, and i dont know what to do! Should i empty it out and start again? HELP!

 

[sepulatian]

Originally Posted by Goldie
I am kind of ashamed of myself already in this hobby
So i put some sand in my tank yesterday then i filled up a 5 gallon bucket added sand and dumped it in the tank. Now the water is so murkey its not even believable. I know you guys say that because of the new sand it will be but this is horrible, and i dont know what to do! Should i empty it out and start again? HELP!
Don't feel ashamed of yourself! The sand will have to settle. Have you turned on your filter yet? What does the water look like now? It can take a few days to completely settle.

 

[gwh57]

If you added sand to the existing water then it may take some time to settle down. Are you aerating the water? What kind of sand? You may have trash and dirt if you used dry "play sand". Did you wash it first? Was it wet?

 

[lion_crazz]

As Sepulatian said, never feel ashamed of yourself.
Just give it time to settle and you will be fine. It may take a few days, but it is nothing to worry about.

 

[goldie]

Originally Posted by sepulatian
Don't feel ashamed of yourself! The sand will have to settle. Have you turned on your filter yet? What does the water look like now? It can take a few days to completely settle.
Ok well some one else told me it would only be a couple hours to a day to settle. Its litterally like a white cloud in there i dont understand. It doesnt seem to have gotten any better from last night. The freaking pump broke this morning i have to run out and get a new one. It fell off and boom it went!

 

[lion_crazz]

I have seen tanks that cloudy. Nothing to worry about. Get a replacement pump, get the water moving, and you will be fine.

 

[bigarn]

yeah it looks bad now, but it will settle ... give it time.

 

[goldie]

Ok thanks guys i was about to lose all the faith i had in starting a tanK!
All the pictures i have seen they werent that bad so i just got really scared!

 

[azfishgal]

Again, was it dry sand you put in your tank or was it live sand? If it was dry sand you needed to rinse it out. When I rinsed my dry sand it was gross and a lot of foamy stuff came out. I didn't rinse it until the water was perfectly clear, but just enough to get all the foamy stuff off and until a lot of the murkyness went away. Once it was in my tank it only took a couple of hours to clear up. However, if it was live sand you do not rinse it, but it shouldn't have given you that much of a cloud for so long (at least when I put my live sand in it didn't do that). Looks to me you had dry sand and didn't rinse it before putting it in.

 

[gwh57]

Again, was it dry sand you put in your tank or was it live sand?
I think that is the most important question. Then you know if it will settle or if it is trash and needs to be removed.

 

[goldie]

It was dry sand and i rinsed it for about 5 min.

 

[gwh57]

I think that is the problem. It may or may not go away on it's own. Do you have salt or anything esle in the tank?

 

[goldie]

Originally Posted by gwh57
I think that is the problem. It may or may not go away on it's own. Do you have salt or anything esle in the tank?

Yes

 

[renogaw]

are you running a filter with the floss media in it? or like a hang over filter with a media bag? they will help, but the easiest way to get your dust cloud down is to get your water moving again.

 

[gwh57]

You can give it more time as the others suggest, or remove it and add new water. I think even if it clears the trash may be a problem later. IMO I would start with clear water.

 

[azfishgal]

Originally Posted by Goldie
It was dry sand and i rinsed it for about 5 min.
Can I ask how you rinsed it? The best way I have found is to have about 20 lbs in a 5 gallon bucket, run the hose full blast and stick the hose at the bottom of the bucket and allow your bucket to overflow for several minutes. All the trash will run over the sides and away from the sand. I then rinsed the sand two more times with RO water, dumping the RO water in the bucket (once I emptied the tap water) and then swirled the sand around, dumped water, added more RO water and swirled the sand around once more. I then placed it in my tank.