Aragonite Sand

[Ndmartin0120]

I really hate my sand bed. There is always little pieces of sand floating everywhere in my water column making the tank look cloudy. Does anyone else have this problem or am I doing something wrong. I have a 36 gal bow front..."small I know!!" But I am trying to learn about SW before going bigger. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[EriksFish315]

Do you have a Powerhead blowing towards the sand?

 

[Ndmartin0120]

No all I have right now is an AC 300 I was going to order PHs this weekend my tank is only a couple months old

 

[Ndmartin0120]

It does seem to have good circulation around tank though

 

[EriksFish315]

Hmm is the flow penetrating to the sand bed at all can you see even the slightest bit could be making a few grains here and there to kick up enough to see.

 

[EriksFish315]

Idk just trying to help you out from experience my fluval 405 was kicking up some substrate in my freshwater until I moved the return flow.

 

[Ndmartin0120]

No it doesn't seem to be....I am thinking that maybe the sand particles are just to small for any flow... and when I put two PHs in there I know it will get even worse don't u think?

 

[EriksFish315]

Hopefully someone else chimes in on this because I'm bit stumped as my sand is fine and not blowing about the tank with all the flow I have. How long has the tank been up and running was there a sand storm from day one ? Did you try shutting the pump off for awhile and see if it all settles?

 

[Ndmartin0120]

The tank is three months old and yea it had the typical sand storm when water was first added and cleared up in about two days...but...It has never seemed to completely become clear. I haven't turned all the filtration off before except for cleaning to keep from disturbing the sand bed when I do PWCs. I just can't see how I would be the only one with this issue unless I was doing something wrong or not enough filtration maybe who knows...

 

[EriksFish315]

What kind of filtration are you running?

 

[Ndmartin0120]

A aqua-clear 300 its an older model but is brand new...I bought it years ago for a fresh water tank and never used it. All it has is the filter block and a media bag of bio-max

 

[don_chuwish]

I had a sand storm when first setting up, which my Fluval 305 picked up a lot of, but most just settled back down. After the first day I cleaned out the canister and it was just full of the stuff.
If you still can, I'd suggest thoroughly rinsing the sand now. Agitate the heck out of it by hand, dump the cloudy water, repeat until the water doesn't get so cloudy anymore. Seems like a waste of salt mix, but now may be your only chance. Once you have fish, rock, etc., and the sand bed is established you won't be able to. You'll go through a lot more salt mix down the road anyway.
In my case, falling for the bagged 'live sand' from the LFS and thinking that rinsing would remove the 'live' benefit, I didn't rinse. Now everything is set up and I can't. Wish I had. Also wish I had a better mix of granule sizes, all fine looks a little boring now.

- D

 

[Yuma80]

I have a new saltwater I'm running and I'm using really fine line sand..I think it's number 0 size...my ? Is its always cloudy how can I get rid of it..