Sand Everywhere

I purchased white safe sand from the safe sand company for my FOWLR. The problem is a lot and I mean a lot of it is floating and going through the filtration system and then just shooting back out the return nozzles. Does anyone have any idea how to get the sand to stop floating or what to put in the filter system to remove it from the water? Seems that the sponge filters can't remove that fine of a particle. With all that sand flying around it really make things look crappy.

Is there a better substrate than sand that won't float? I like the sand bottom look over the bare bottom.

 

Lower your flow for a week or two. As you keep feeding your fish, bacterial biofilms will grow on your sandbed glueing your sand particles together. You can also put a bunch of filter floss normally used in canister filters and put a bunch of it into your sumps bubble-trap. You'll need to rinse this daily for a week or two.

 

Thanks inwall..........damn sand is all over. It's collecting in the bottom of the sump...in the bottom of the overflows.....EVERYWHERE!!!!!

 

Did you rinse the sand in a bucket before putting it in? That would have helped tremendously. At this point, I'd probably leave things off for a couple of hours or so to let some of it settle.

 

I just did a little searching into Feldspathic Sand (the kind that is sold by Safe Sand).
It is a by-product of industry. It is ultra fine which is why you have it blowing everywhere.

It is actually not recommended by many people to be used in a reef tank. While I did not see concrete evidence of why it cannot be used in a tank (there may be silica or other contaminants). The other problem with this kind of sand is that you do not know the composition of it as there are many different types of Feldspathic Sand with varying chemical components.

The only way to get rid of the floating sand is to "make it wet" if that makes any sense - but the sand that is blowing around in the water column will likely remain there for some time unless you decrease the flow in the tank so as to not disturb the sand which will likely bring on other, larger problems.


If it is not too late, I would recommend tearing down the tank and adding in proper aragonite-based sand.

With as much money as you are likely to invest into your salt tank it does not pay to save a few dollars on one of the most important filtration components of your system.

 

I looked at your sig - is this sand problem you are having in your 300 gallon tank?!

If so, you must have dropped a few grand on that tank already just to get it to this point.

Not need to try to skimp out on $200 extra for the proper sand IMO . . . .

 

gotta wash your sand man specially with the finer stuff but let it settle it will be alright

 

Rinsing sand is not needed and not necessary - the ultra fine particles will settle to the bottom of your sand bed and provide awesome microclimate for anoxic bacteria to colonize.

Also - if you shut your pumps off you will only delay the problem as when you turn them back on you are back to square one . . .

 

i agree, what i would do is try to scyphon as much as i could out and put some higher quality sand, and some "heavier" sand wouldnt blow around....no need in cutting corners on something this expensive

 

It's the finer sand particles that sink to the bottom of the sandbed setting it up for denitrification (if that's part of what you want a sandbed for). The sandbed kindof works with reverse gravity. The larger grains will always end up on top and the finer sands will always end up on bottom.