used sand still clouding water

dsgilchris

dsgilchris

New Member
I bought a used 46 gallon bowfront last week. The guy had a tub of sand in the back yard that he had aquired from someone else. It had a little rainwater in it. I put the sand in the tank about 3 inches deep. I didn't rinse it because it had been in someones tank before. I put in buffer, R-O water and salt mix. I ran the penguin 300 filter he gave me 36 hours, rinsing out the blue carbon filters every 8 hours to get rid of the sand dust that is clouding up the water. That wasn't working so I turned off the filter to let it all settle to the bottom. It's been 3 days and it is finally 70% clear. I can see the filter intake and the heater on the back wall from the front anyway. I turned on my filter to see if it could finish the job of clearing the water now. I notice the overflow was stirring up sand dust from the bottom of the tank. I am getting Garf grunge in tomorrow and some base rock in the next day both by fedex. I'm concerned that I may need to take the sand out and rinse it before they get here. Will it clear up? Will the garf grunge and base rock hold the dust down? I had planned in only putting 5 lbs of grunge on half the tank so I still had sand on the surface on the other half.
Thanks
 
jds31788

jds31788

Member
that rain water that was trapped in the sand might give u a ph problem.. it may level out on its own but id keep and eye on it until it does. i used live sand when i set up my 30gal and it was cloudy for a good 3 or 4 days and i had the filter off most of the time. give it some time it should all clear out.. there might be some sand particles that are to buoyant to sink to the bottom and just keep getting stirred by the current.. they might be to small get get caught by the filter and u may have to do water changes or replace filters until it clears up... also find out if plants would help.
good luck.. show us pics ur ready
 
coachklm

coachklm

Active Member
well....you dont have to rinse the sand later .....your doing it now....just wait to see my tank was cloudy for 3 days also.
 
socal57che

socal57che

Active Member
I acquired sand with the used 100 gal I bought and threw out the bucket of fine stuff from the top of the sandbed. Every time I touched that bucket the water clouded, so I dumped it. After adding the remaining sand it took at least a week to clear up enough to see detail in the rock. Every day it got a little better. I think I'd leave the filter running....It's going to have to run eventually anyway so why not let it filter out the fine stuff rather than letting it settle only to be stirred up again.
 
jumpfrog

jumpfrog

Active Member
Once your sand becomes covered in bacteria it will be less likely to float. Even the fine stuff. Just give it some time. If it was me I'd turn off the filter during the settling process.
It's just slowing down the settling if it's constantly stirring the bed.
Just my $.02
 
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