Water really cloudy after adding OldCastle sand...

[fishboy19]

I didn't rinse the bags out before I added it because most people on the marine forums told me that I was likely to throw out much of the good stuff, now I'm worried about 3 things:
1. My live rock. I have a power head blowing on them so that the dust doesn't land on the rocks and smother them? Am I just over-worried, or is that a valid question?
2. There seems to be a thin film or oil or something on the water. How can I get that off? Should I be worried?
3. Alot of the silt has settled on the glass, should I just wipe if off, or eventually buy some snails and let them do their thing?

Any other help would be great!

Thanks,
Matt

 

[seaham358]

wip off the glass so the film will settle out also. The film you can either syphon it off, use a cup and collect. If you have overflow adjust them to collect it. Nothing to worry about. This is normal with that sand. You will be cleaning off the LR for a week or 2 till the tank settles out. I used this sand in my 55 fowlr and 20 and 15 fuge this is normal. I know you already added the sand but IMO its best to add this type sand before you add the water, less of a sand storm that way. Give it time it will settle.....

 

[fishboy19]

thanks alot for answering so quickly! But will the silt that settles on the live rock hurt it? I'm doing my best to keep it clean, but I'm just worried

Thanks,
Matt

 

[Nate C]

I did the *exact* same thing last month. Dropped 100lbs unrinsed Old Castle Sand into my 90gal tank on top of my live rock and had alot of the same concerns. The cloud took just over a week to die down the first time, but now even when I stir it up moving things it calms down pretty quickly. I'm told this is due to bacteria colonizing the grains of sand and making them heavier (?).

The foam also went away in a week or so. I would not personally worry about it harming your live rock. In the wild, figure that the rock gets swamped occasionally by sandstorms now and then. Once the initial cloud clears you can go in with a (new, unused) turkey baster and blast the small bits of sand off your rock.

I will say that after all is said and done I am very happy with my old castle sand. It turned from that original drab brown color to a nice white, and gives my tank a very natural look.

Keep the powerheads going, and maybe towards the end run some GAC if you like.

Hang in there.

Nate C

 

[fishboy19]

Thanks guys, I ended up taking my Magnum 350 off my 90 gal freshwater and used the micron filter. I'm not kidding, within minutes the water was clearing up, and now about 2 hours later its almost crystal clear.

Thanks for all the help,

Matt