Agnate80700
Aquarium Advice Freak
So the 150 im setting up... I got to drain it. again. This time $55 worth of reef crystals along with it, sigh.
I am (obviously) at the sand phase of setting up and if you read the other thread on sand, you'd know I decided to go with kolorscape. I had my tank full and salt mixed for a few days. I got about 7 bags of kolorscape white sand, the kind that bubbles /w vinegar, and prewashed each one (i dumped the bag into a 30 gallon rubbermaid thing and swished it around about 10 fillups (fill up, swish, dump cloudy water, repeat) until I could see through to the bottom, as I figured this would get rid of the silt but not the fine sand that would settle within an hour or so.
Oh, how I was wroooooong.
After deciding my sand was ready I put it in the tank, a nice 4-inch and change deep bed. Adding the sand made the water totally fog up, but no biggie i figured, same thing happened to my 29gal and its water is so clear my cats have tried jumping through the glass to attack the fish (which I might add is HILARIOUS to see in the act, they just crash right into the side) Sorry Im not evil or anything but serves em right for trying to get my fishies
they know better now heh.
The next day i come back... water is barely clearer. Silt silt silt silt silt SILT arrg!! There is a layer of it all accross the bottom. After trying to syhpon it off the bottom and only making it worse, I decided I had to drain the tank, get the sand out and clean it again. So I did.
I was THOROUGH this time. I dredged about 1/2 the sand out, cleaned it, and placed the super clean sand on top of the (now dry) other less clean sand.
I then began filling the tank again, and the ro/di unit got about an inch or 2 in some spots before I left today... but the water was still looking pretty foggy. I dont know what to do now!! My tank is a total MESS and my water still looks terrible. im hoping whats left in the water is just a little silt and will be dispersed when the tank is full, but I fear this is not the case.
My question is this:
The tank's ph will be 8.3, and since this is acidic, that will break down the sand. Will the superfine particles floating in the water (the demon silt) be broken down quickly by the water and the whole natural process soon enough to not worry about the water quality as it stands now? Or would that take months to even break down silt particles? (I would have to add more salt and add the marine buffer to get that started) If the salt+buffer didnt clear the water up, is there anything I can do?
ps. I did try 2 canister filters but to no avail. The silt particles are far too fine to get caught in the media. Its almost like ink or paint... theres still silt dust in the crevices of my fingernails as I type this. Its so fine it feels like lubricant.
I am (obviously) at the sand phase of setting up and if you read the other thread on sand, you'd know I decided to go with kolorscape. I had my tank full and salt mixed for a few days. I got about 7 bags of kolorscape white sand, the kind that bubbles /w vinegar, and prewashed each one (i dumped the bag into a 30 gallon rubbermaid thing and swished it around about 10 fillups (fill up, swish, dump cloudy water, repeat) until I could see through to the bottom, as I figured this would get rid of the silt but not the fine sand that would settle within an hour or so.
Oh, how I was wroooooong.
After deciding my sand was ready I put it in the tank, a nice 4-inch and change deep bed. Adding the sand made the water totally fog up, but no biggie i figured, same thing happened to my 29gal and its water is so clear my cats have tried jumping through the glass to attack the fish (which I might add is HILARIOUS to see in the act, they just crash right into the side) Sorry Im not evil or anything but serves em right for trying to get my fishies
they know better now heh.The next day i come back... water is barely clearer. Silt silt silt silt silt SILT arrg!! There is a layer of it all accross the bottom. After trying to syhpon it off the bottom and only making it worse, I decided I had to drain the tank, get the sand out and clean it again. So I did.
I was THOROUGH this time. I dredged about 1/2 the sand out, cleaned it, and placed the super clean sand on top of the (now dry) other less clean sand.
I then began filling the tank again, and the ro/di unit got about an inch or 2 in some spots before I left today... but the water was still looking pretty foggy. I dont know what to do now!! My tank is a total MESS and my water still looks terrible. im hoping whats left in the water is just a little silt and will be dispersed when the tank is full, but I fear this is not the case.
My question is this:
The tank's ph will be 8.3, and since this is acidic, that will break down the sand. Will the superfine particles floating in the water (the demon silt) be broken down quickly by the water and the whole natural process soon enough to not worry about the water quality as it stands now? Or would that take months to even break down silt particles? (I would have to add more salt and add the marine buffer to get that started) If the salt+buffer didnt clear the water up, is there anything I can do?
ps. I did try 2 canister filters but to no avail. The silt particles are far too fine to get caught in the media. Its almost like ink or paint... theres still silt dust in the crevices of my fingernails as I type this. Its so fine it feels like lubricant.
