Cloudy cloudy cloudy

[madhatter208]

Ok,

I've set up my 65 gal system.
2 PH's
skimmer
heater

I added 40lbs of sand on friday. of course this got the water cloudy but I didnt worry as I have read this would happen and would seatle down over the next day or so. Sat it was a little cloudy but looking good. After chating w/ the LFS on a question i had bout the skimmer we got onto the subject of the live sand. which i had not added just yet. I was going to wait untill I had stable salinity.
When i 1st checked hy pos hydrometer said i was at about a 1.025. after i added the sand it droped and i had added more salt to slowly bring it back up to a 1.022 1.023. I was told that it would be ok so i added 20lbs of Live sand < link - http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Produc...&N=2004+113554 ) ( note i didnt get it from fosters this is just so you know what i'm useing).
So I added the live sand and ... of course the water got even more cloudy. This was expected. The bag said no rinse was needed. It also had some little packet of stuff that was to be added. I didnt add it yet as i wanted to wait till the live rock was added and i was holding off on adding that till the water cleared up so i could see wth i was doing. well this was done sat around 11am.. sat came n went.. sunday came n went and now its monday and the water isnt any less cloudy then when i 1st added the live sand.
all my ph's n skimmer are running
the water temp is around 76. (im bring in a calabrated thermometer to make sure the one i have is correct, nice to work in a lab hehe)
I am getting what looks like a white film on the ph's and side of glass. it doesnt feel slimy or anything.

WTH did I do wrong?
should I turn everything off for a day n see if that helps?
I dont know if it helps but i do have a bare spot on the front right corner of the tank. the ph's got the water moveing around quite a bit. I wasnt concerned as i fig once the rock gets in it would divert more of the water n help prevent this.

I have been chating with melosu58 and hes been a great help. Thanks mike.

At 1st I wasnt concerned bout the cloudyness. I've read it would clear up over time. Melosu58 confirmed this. but now after 2days the water isnt looking any better im a little concerned that i frelled something up.

cant wait to get past this inital stage n get everything up n running right so i can do my cycle cuz then i know im on the home stretch.


Note:
no hob or canister filter < didnt think i was needed>
ordered a Turbo twist uv sterilizer
ordered a portable refractometer from Dr. Fosters cuz the plastic one i dont trust.

Thank you
Mike

[tecwzrd]

Sorry to tell you but bagged "live sand" is pretty much worthless since it's oxygen deprived. LS from an established tank is better. Neither is really necessary if adding lr down the road IMO. 2 days still isn't long enough for the clouding to stop, could take as long as 4 days but it will settle down eventually. Nothing to worry about at this point.

[madhatter208]

ok cool.

I was just thinking that it would "start" to seatle down is all

[tecwzrd]

Mostly it depends on the quality of the sand and if you rinse or not. IMO it's a good idea to rinse regardless to keep the fine dust down but the dust won't hurt your tank/equipment and will just take longer to settle. You may not want to run your skimmer till it does though.

[roka64]

I agree, two or three days might not be enough time for it to settle down. This will also depend on if you just dumped the sand in the tank with the phs and skimmer running. My 125 didn't take more than two days to clear up, but I rinsed each 30Lbs bag about 6 times to get the majority of silt out.

[artoledo]

I didnt rinse and my tank took about 4 days to clear up. next time im definately going to rinse.

[madhatter208]

thanks for all the feed back.. deffinetly makeing a mental note on this little adventure.
Hopefully i wont have to do this again anytime soon.

[Phyl]

Also, if your tank has a cycle started then there's a chance that the cloudiness is from the Ammonia/bacteria bloom in progress. If the cycle hasn't started then getting it started will help the sandstorm settle down some.

[melosu58]

I agree. Give it some time. Mine took several days. It sounds like you are off to a good start. Once your LR gets in there then post some pics of the aquascaping. No problem on the help. Thank you for asking questions.

[flip_lx]

Not sure if the above people missed it or just let it slide but try turning off your powerheads and it should speed it up a little bit, since there is nothing in the tank you are not hurting anything