cloudy after adding sand

Hello All,

Setting up a new tank....
I have a problem with the cloudiness in my tank after I added the sand! As I did research online, I realized that it was not necessary to rinse the Carib-Sea Sugar sized sand, therefore, I just poured it into the tank! Now, my tank is still cloudy 72 hours later and I have a white foaminess gathering on the top of the water. Any suggestions so that I don't have to do a full water change and make the salt water all over again? I have my protein skimmer running, but thats it...its the hang-on type skimmer because I only have a 32 gallon tank!

Thanks,
Mike

 

I doubt that there is any (not live) sand or crushed coral that really doesn't need to be rinsed. I just set up my new tank and spend a whole morning rinsing 120 pounds of aragonite. And it still was a little cloudy. But after now about 6 hours with water it's almost perfectly clear...

But I can't help you with what you should do now, since it's too late to rinse it now. Unless you do it over again

 

Leave it for a little while longer but without the skimmer running. Either that or get some mechanical filtration to remove the fine particles that are causing the cloudiness

John

 

and another thing. Maybe I'm alone with that, but it's bothering me...

Do you really need to have that bush/cheney thing as your message? This is an aquarium forum and has nothing to do with politics.
I just don't think it belongs here and we're getting bombed with that election stuff whereever we go, so I don't need it in a completely non-political forum at all...

 

Well to start off with you need a mechanical filter. Filter floss will work great at polishing the water. You will probably have a problem for a long time. Every time the sand is stirred up your tank will become cloudy.

In my opinion it will probably be better to deal with the problem now then later. I would try to scoop the sand out and throughly rinse it. The best device I can think of is a specimen container because of the flat edge. Careful you don't scratch the glass.

 

Do we realy need to know your German? ;D

 

well, that's not political. That's more who I am. But I can take it out if it bothers anyone.
I just can't stand politics anymore. We get too much of it at the moment...

 

[quote author=somethingfishy link=board=Sand;num=1097448092;start=0#4 date=10/10/04 at 15:59:01]Well to start off with you need a mechanical filter.  Filter floss will work great at polishing the water.  You will probably have a problem for a long time.  Every time the sand is stirred up your tank will become cloudy.  

In my opinion it will probably be better to deal with the problem now then later.  I would try to scoop the sand out and throughly rinse it.  The best device I can think of is a specimen container because of the flat edge.  Careful you don't scratch the glass.[/quote]

Yep, mechanical filtration is really the only way to 'remove' the particles.

However it's not correct to say that the problem will be around for a long time. What happens, and happens quite quickly is that a biofilm covers the sand particles.
This happens to the extent that the very fine particles wil even 'clump' together.

There is no need to remove the sand in my opinion.

John

 

I'm a German boy

Jorn

 

Hoodoo, my point is that nobody really cares. I was just being a little smart azz. I am German and don't want to offend anyone. This is just a little space to express yourself. Are you a Democrat?