silt problem?

[chris stevens]

i am using yardright tropical play sand in my tank, and every time i disturb it a little bit, it completely clouds the water. i let it settle, but then when i start up the powerhead/skimmer again, sure enough, cloudy again. even the slightest agitation stirs it up. how should i deal with this? vacuum it off the rocks? does anybody make a tool like this with a built in filter, so i don't have to suck all my water out? should i run some type of mechanical filtration device for a while in it to catch all the silt? also, will this silt settling on my live rocks (brand new from lr.com, excellent btw) pose a problem to the rock? it looks like a winter wonderland in there right now. any help GREATLY appreciated.

 

[Hara]

after the sand gets thoroughly saturated, it will settle. This usually takes a few days. take a turkey baster and gently blow the rocks off. keep your powerheads off until it all settles.

 

[chris stevens]

the sand has been wet for over a week now - the stuff that is the issue is more of an extremely fine silt.

 

[seaham358]

how old is the tank? If its new then give it some time. When the bacteria grows on the sand it will settle out.
Running a filter with a pad or filter floss to clean the water is fine till it settles out..

 

[chris stevens]

excellent - good to hear. the tank is about a week old now - the silt is very very fine - the tank is white while the powerheads run. do you think it will settle even with the powerheads running? any detriment to the live rocks?