Sand, what am I doing wrong?

[cjldad]

I'm using the play sand from home depot.. I cleaned the heck out of it.. But my tank it just white looking all the way through.. It's been two days and none of it seems to have settled at all.. There are no fish in the tank, should I do a water change to see if I can get a lot of the floating debris out, or should I just wait longer?
Thanks!

 

[mfdrookie516]

play sand did the same thing when i tried it... its just so fine, youre probably seeing it floating around the tank, unless its a new tank and youre seeing a bacteria bloom... if its close to the same color as the sand, id say its just the sand causing it... if its really white, it may be a bacteria bloom, either from being a new tank or from a mini cycle when you swapped substrates...do you have any powerheads? are your filter intakes at least 3" from the sand?

 

[cjldad]

I have the intake above 3"... I guess it is the super fine particles in the sand.. I just drained the tank, and there was a film on the glass.. I wiped it with a paper towel and it was pretty black.. I'm guessing the sand wasn't that clean after all.. Ugh.. This thing is never going to have fish in it....

BTW, this is a new setup.. No bacterial bloom as I hadn't put anything in it yet and was like that as soon as I put new water in..

 

[mfdrookie516]

yeah, thats why i tried it, the next day i replaced it with pfs... once you get it clean and it all settles down, its not that bad.. most people really like it. id say if you have already drained the tank, pull it back out and rinse it 5 or 6 more times... that stuff may say its washed, but they dont do a good job of it lol

 

[cjldad]

I really like the look of the play sand.. Has a few little rocks and what not to make it look a little more natural I guess.. I like the idea of PFS but have read so much about how maybe it is an issue for cory's and what not.. And I plan on a small school of them, so was trying to do my best to make them happy.. Guess I'll drag the buckets out again.. Time to do some more cleaning.. UGH!!

 

[mgamer20o0]

put a sponge on the intake. it takes time to settle down. nothing to worry about.

 

[cjldad]

How about wrapping 4 or 5 layers of filter floss around the intake? No stores around me have any type of prefilters..

 

[BigJim]

That should work. It'll clear up in a couple of days. I went through the same thing when I switched over to play sand.

 

[cjldad]

It looks horrid... I guess my biggest concern is will it go away and stay away, or is it going to be a pain every time I clean and rake through my sand? I guess each time it will get a little better.. But lord, I've cleaned the sand twice now.. I think I ran my county water supply dry last night..

 

[BigJim]

It'll get better. My raphael throws up tons of sand when he digs and my tank stays clear. Run the filter for a few days and you'll pull a lot of those little particles out.

Here's a tip: You can't clean sand like you do gravel. Try keeping the vacuum a couple inches above the sand and stir the water a little to get what you're trying to vacuum up off the sand.

Trumpet snails do a good job of keeping the tank clean. I never have to vacuum my 29g. The snails keep the sand spotless.

 

[cjldad]

Thanks for the tip on cleaning the sand.. However, I thought I needed to turn the sand over every now and then to keep any type of anerobic pockets from forming.. Or will the snails keep the sand mixed up enough as it is? My plan is a school of cory's, a couple dwarf neon rainbows or dwarf gouramis, and a large school of tetras or something similar..(would also really like to find a freshwater goby/blenny.. This is in a 75g by the way.. Any problem with snails and the cory's/blenny?

 

[mfdrookie516]

no, mts (malaysian trumpet snails) are awesome for digging through the sand... it would be a good idea to turn it manually every once in a while, but the snails will do a good job... as for gobys, i dont know of any freshwater, i know there are several brackish gobys, but none that ive ever seen of freshwater (though that doesnt mean there arent any)

 

[mgamer20o0]

for now that will work. i am sure you can find a sponge somewhere local though. i use the aquaclear 110 sponges and cut them down.

 

[cjldad]

Got home last night and the tank looked good.. Not 100%, but I was pleasantly surprised!! When I rewashed the sand, I just filled the tank to the top of the intake for my canister (XP4) and let it filter all day.. Probably had 35-40 gallons, so it turned it over pretty quick.. Went ahead and filled up last night, and moved the sand around a bit to see.. So far it looks like a winner..

Been reading all about the trumpet snails.. I have added that to my stocking list.. Thanks again everyone!!