Sand Subtrate in New Tank Makes Water Cloudy!

[Razor7Music]

Hello--

I am setting up my new 56 gallon tank and went with white sand for my substrate. I did a good rinse, and yet the water looks milky.

I have a new canister filter and I didn't want to clog it up with the sand that's discoloring the water, so I let the aquarium sit for a few hours--I didn't see the water clear up, so I started the filter.

I ran the filter all night (approx 7 hours) and I really can't see a lot of difference.

I still have to decorate my tank and I'm figuring that if every time I move the sand it's going to cloud the water, I may have made a poor choice in choosing sand.

Can anyone tell me their experience with sand and if it ever settles down after the initial tank setup?

Are there any water clarifiers that I should use?

Thanks all,

 

[theanimalman]

What kind of sand did you use?

Play sand from Lowes or Home Depot? If so, you never can really rinse play sand enough. Its seems to always kick up and make you water cloudy. Even with play sand your water will clear up in a couple of days.

If you don't have any bottom belly dwellers in your tank you can also use industrial quartz. Sandblasting media from Lowes or Home Depot. I rarely ever rinsed it before I put in in my tanks. Slightly cloudy but clears up fast.

Hands down the best sand I've found and use exclusively now is Estes Medium Broadcast. Find it in any paint supply warehouse or wholesaler. No need to rinse. The sand is heavy and can be cleaned with a gravel syphon cleaner. The grain is very smooth and round. Comes in 16 or so colors.

 

[siebertn]

your cloudy water should clear up in a day or 2 sand is very hard to clean completely. I take the sand that im gone use in my tank and pour it in a big container if you do it outside and you and pour it into th container try to get the sand to travel as far as possible thru the air(if you understand what i mean) as possible and you should get rid of allot of dust. Then i stick a garden hose in the bottom of the container and let the water run for as long as it takes untill the water that comes out of the container is clean when you start the water will be very dirty and in a couple of minutes it should start to clear up. I only do this coz I hate a cloudy tank

 

[JakeH]

It will clear. Just give it a day or so.

 

[Razor7Music]

What kind of sand did you use?

Play sand from Lowes or Home Depot? If so, you never can really rinse play sand enough. Its seems to always kick up and make you water cloudy. Even with play sand your water will clear up in a couple of days.

If you don't have any bottom belly dwellers in your tank you can also use industrial quartz. Sandblasting media from Lowes or Home Depot. I rarely ever rinsed it before I put in in my tanks. Slightly cloudy but clears up fast.

Hands down the best sand I've found and use exclusively now is Estes Medium Broadcast. Find it in any paint supply warehouse or wholesaler. No need to rinse. The sand is heavy and can be cleaned with a gravel syphon cleaner. The grain is very smooth and round. Comes in 16 or so colors.

lol--yea I just went down to the beach with my shovel and grabbed some with the least amount of tar I could find!

JK- I bought the expensive stuff: CaribSea Aquarium Sand, white.

I have a couple of bottom dwellers--but I can deal with a little sand storm.

Looks like waiting a couple days is the consensus. Do you know if the sand in the water will clog my filter media?

Thanks,

 

[JakeH]

I used the Black CaribSea sand. I loaded my HOB with double mechanical sponges to catch as much of it as possible, but it just takes time. You can throw in a dose of API "Stress Coat" if you want, too. I think it sticks to the sand & keeps them from forming air bubbles (makes them sink faster). Just my opinion, though. If you are worried about sucking up sand in your filter, just put a block of foam over your filter intakes. AquaClear foam blocks are cheap, so thats what I use...

EDIT: This sand stays down very well around bottom dwellers, so once it has settled you wont have to worry about it at all.

 

[Toby_H]

Most "Aquarium Sand" is very fine grained sand... which is easily stirred up and therefore gets pulled into filters... I haven't used any of it in a long time so I do not remember brand names...

I use pool filter sand exclusively in all of my tanks. It's cheap ($8 per 50 lb) is consistently large grained and comes very clean. I still wash it though...

I highly suggest thoroughly washing sand before putting it in any tank. It's not that hard to do and if you simply "let the dust settle" then it settles on top of your sand and is easily stirred up again. This will likely cause you to have cloudy water frequently giving you a bad experience with sand and/or forcing your filter to suck it up causing unnecessary wear/clogging of your media.

If it's already in your tank and is causing cloudiness, I highly suggest you filter it (cloudiness/dust) out of the water as opposed to letting it settle. I suggest adding some form of fine mesh media around your intakes with a rubber band. This way you do not clog up your filters media with the dust.

 

[sostoudt]

Sandblasting media from Lowes or Home Depot.

doesnt that sandblasting stuff cause cancer?

the bags my dad uses during sandblasting says they do.

 

[Razor7Music]

Most "Aquarium Sand" is very fine grained sand... which is easily stirred up and therefore gets pulled into filters... I haven't used any of it in a long time so I do not remember brand names...

I use pool filter sand exclusively in all of my tanks. It's cheap ($8 per 50 lb) is consistently large grained and comes very clean. I still wash it though...

I highly suggest thoroughly washing sand before putting it in any tank. It's not that hard to do and if you simply "let the dust settle" then it settles on top of your sand and is easily stirred up again. This will likely cause you to have cloudy water frequently giving you a bad experience with sand and/or forcing your filter to suck it up causing unnecessary wear/clogging of your media.

If it's already in your tank and is causing cloudiness, I highly suggest you filter it (cloudiness/dust) out of the water as opposed to letting it settle. I suggest adding some form of fine mesh media around your intakes with a rubber band. This way you do not clog up your filters media with the dust.

Good idea. I'll just rubber band some tight mesh fabric around the intake.

Thanks all!