When will the water clear up (added sand)

[foresteronw]

I am currently setting up a 125Gal Salt tank and just added my substrate and the water has been cloudy for 2 days. I have 100lbs of Southdown sand, 40lbs of Aragonite sand and 40lbs of Crushed coral (liked the way it looked mixed up). I read some on here about not rinsing the sand so I avoided that. I did rinse the Crushed coral, but I didn't make a Science project out of it...meaning I could have rinsed it more than I did. So the water is still really cloudy and I was just wondering how long until it settles? Should I have any current in the water or let it sit still? The only source of current hooked up at this time are two external power filters.

[jiggly75]

Hello,
When we set up our 90 gallon we used Southdown and it took 3 or 4 days for the water to clear up. We made the mistake of running our sump with skimmer during this time. We had to clean our whole sump and all the equipment in it. It was a mess.

[foresteronw]

Hello,
When we set up our 90 gallon we used Southdown and it took 3 or 4 days for the water to clear up. We made the mistake of running our sump with skimmer during this time. We had to clean our whole sump and all the equipment in it. It was a mess.

So I guess I should just let it sit with with no current for a while then huh...lol. I was sitting there wondering that today.

[lori]

it could take a good 5 to 7 days.just be patient.

[Ninong]

I hope it has cleared up by now.

[Parrothead]

Hell it should be it's only been 4.5 years

[usctrack]

So is the best advise to turn off all pumps and let it settle? What happens later when you turn current back on (ie wavemaker and pumps). Will the sand stir back up?

I am new to this and trying to figure it out. Thanks for the help.

[Ninong]

Hi usctrack,

So is the best advise to turn off all pumps and let it settle?

If you're adding sand to a brand new tank. You would add the sand first and then gradually add the water, trying not to stir up the sand bed any more than necessary. After that, when you choose to start up the pumps is pretty much up to you.

If you want to wait a couple of hours first, fine. Or you can simply start them up right away, as soon as the water is in the tank. You're going to get a certain amount of cloudiness no matter what you do.

Depending on the type of sand you use and the amount of water current you have, it could take 24 hours or several days for the cloudiness to go away. It's not a problem. It will eventually go away. The finer the sand particle size, the longer it will take for the cloudiness to go away. In my case, it took several days because I used fine particle sand.

Good luck!

[usctrack]

I too used fine sand and will let it run for a few days to see what happens. I accidently stirred it up really bad when I first added water. I drained all the water and started over and it is still cloudy. Cranking back up the filter and skimmer and will let them do their work.

Thanks for the help

[modernmagic]

Can you add fish into a cloudy tank? I have a clown, blue tang, yellow tang, and 6 line wrasse.

[leebca]

NOT a good idea. If you are sure the cloudiness source, then you can make a more informed decision on this question. Certainly I would not add that many fish at one time even if it was 'okay.'

If the cloudiness is due only to solid 'normal' (i.e. substrate dust) particulates in the water column, then why add fish? Just filter them out then add fish (assuming the rest of the system is geared/ready for fish). Still, most fish won't be harmed by small particulates in the water column, but it's something not to keep them in -- not very good looking aquarium.

[modernmagic]

unfortunately, I didn't have a choice and after 2 days the fish are doing fine and the new sand clouiness has finally settled today.

[wstadnick]

I was unfortunate .. i got the advice from my local fish seller who told me to add the subtrate after i had mixed the water with the salt in my 55 gal tank.. want to talk about cloudy. It took almost a week before everything settled down.. and im still getting the sand off the filters/heater.

Luckily i found this site and lean towards the info off here rather then the fish man.