Please help with my dirty... dirty tank

[Mike&Pam]

I added some more special grade aragonite about two weeks ago. Now, the water is full of grains of sand floating everywhere! The water is hideous looking! I did about a 30% water change (the tank has no fish or coral right now, just some live rock in a 90 gal) thinking that some of this stuff would be sucked out. Millions of grains of sand are everywhere, not just on the surface. It refuses to settle. What else can be done to clear up the water?

Mike

 

[toptank]

Mike do you have a sump, if so you can put in some sponges or a filter bag. If no sump then maybe adjust powerheads if you have them.

Barry

 

[Mike&Pam]

I have a sump, 2 sponges and floss. It will not clear up no matter what I do.

 

[Jeff Hood]

I went to Walmart and bought a whole house sediment filter and plumed it inline with my protein skimmer to remove all the suspended solids. Worked great. Tank was crystal clear the next day.

Jeff

 

[Ben1]

I just added 50 lbs of southdown sand to my system and had it cleared all up the nest morning. I dont see how in your tank it would still be cloudy. What size tank, how much did you add? Maybe your pump output from the sump is blowing down into the sand or something else keeps it stirred. Try running carbon. I personnally would not use a diatom or sediment filter to clear clouding from adding sand. I think the fine sediments in the water settle and mix with your bed making for a better makeup. I also would only use 10%-20% Carb Sea Sp. Seafloor grade and the rest oolite or sand like southdown playsand from the carribean, 3$ at most Home Depots on the east coast. I made a 6" bed of 50%/50% ratio. It didnt work out well and never established the proper fauna IMO. I replaced part of it 1 1/2 years later with oolite and now it finally is teeming with the proper life, anouther 2 years later.

Anyway HTH Ben

 

[NaH2Ofreak]

put a washcloth in the sump under the return hose. Wash it out about every 10 to 15 minutes. Works everytime!

Dennis

 

[percula]

Yeah, Id do some of the same, but do look for powerheads or pumps running at a high GPH, hopefully you will have this under control soon!

 

[jdeets]

Ben is right that if you can wait it out, it's better. I had a similar experience when I set up my new tank and used unwashed SD sand. It was cloudy for a week. I finally gave up and used a diatom filter. (I used the Magnum HOT with the micro-filter, charged with DE). The DE filter cleared it up in about 6 hours. And it is 180 gallons. Amazing.

 

[GMH320]

If you didn't pre-wash the sand to remove the dust it will take a while for it to clear. I would check your powerheads to make sure there not blowing directly into the sand bed.