cloudy tank

[pelochas]

I have added my live sand and live rock to my 75 gal on Sunday. The sand or fine silt or “powder” makes the tank all cloudy when I adjust or move the live rocks around. After the tank clears up, the rock and sand has a thin film layer of “dust or powder” sand over everything. The deep sand bed also has a couple of layers of the “fine black” sand. I made 3 dumps of live sand. I guess when the first layer settled it created a layer and when I poured the other bucket, it made a couple of layers.

Will this powder or silt sand/mud eventually settle under the coarse sand? Or should I vacuum it?

 

[DragonForce]

I actually just had the SAME problem with my 37 gallon about 2 days ago. It actually just worked itself out, your mechanical filter should help a little bit. As much as you want to adjust your new live rock to where you want it, just leave it for a few days and let the filter and powerheads run, they will move all the dust from the LR and put it into the sand, in the filter etc. I finally was able to adjust my LR to how i wanted it yesterday. The first time it clearned up a bit to where I thought i could rearange the rocks, but then when i moved them all the dust sheeted off the rock and I was right back where i started. It tends to clear up quicker the 2nd time you mess up. If you have anymore questions I would be glad to help.

 

[pelochas]

my tank tends to clear up within a few hours, actually about 6 to 8 hours.

what mechanical filtration do you have? i have only a Fluval 404. No sponges. I have a sump so maybe i can stick some more filters in there. What can you recommend? I do the large sponge filter that came with the wet/dry filter. The wet/dry is now a sump where i will add more live rock. how and where can i use that big sponge?