sandy tank...help

[Winterangel]

yup i did it. i switched from gravel to sand..
i used play sand.
and now the tank is god awful cloudy. so cloudy i had to move the fish to another tank. Im sure the cloudness wouldnt hurt them but still.

I was dumb. the bags said pre-washed and the people at the pet store said it should be good to go. welp lessoned learned.

now the tricky part.. how to get rid of the cloudiness... I dont have time to empty the tank, and remove and clean the sand. (i got a 6 month old on my hands too )

I have a fluval 250 filter, with biomax, charcoal, and some other water clearing media. Its a 55 gallon bow front tank.

any suggestions... OH not to mention i did a 10% water change yesterday.. the tank was clear this AM until i switched..lol..

sooo im ready for it.. give me your options..

 

[jlbfish]

Take it out. Put it in a bucket and rinse the snot out of it. That should help. We rinsed our pool filter sand and still had to take it back out and rinse it more because the water was cloudy for a while.

Good luck!

 

[Andrew McFadden]

We would have said wash it lol lesson learned if you have Polly floss stick it in your filters it will help clear it up other wise just a couple water changes and wait it out it will clear up.

 

[Winterangel]

Thanks.
yea I might do the water changes... and get some floss media to put in the filter.

thank you again.

 

[Andrew McFadden]

No problem

 

[Winterangel]

i did about a 20% water change just now.. its still cloudy ofcourse, but i suppose i will let the filter do its thing and ill get some floss tomrrow

 

[Andrew McFadden]

i did about a 20% water change just now.. its still cloudy ofcourse, but i suppose i will let the filter do its thing and ill get some floss tomrrow

It will take time even if you washed it, just not as bad. It will clear up just be patient. Floss will help big time and will need changed or rinsed in old tank water probably everyday

 

[greenwater]

I agree with Mr.McFadden. I did the black sand from LPS two months ago. Put the sand in the tank with the water already in, leveled it out some and turned the filter on. I have the Ocean Clear filter with a large micron cartridge in it and it still took about three days to clear up. Also, I'd forget about doing anymore water changes.

 

[Winterangel]

well i ran it all over night and this am around 5 am, it was 80% clearer
---i messed it up by moving my bubbler to its spot, but non the less, my hope is there that will be clear again.

 

[Winterangel]

--oh i should say.. i cleaned out the filter (just a bit) and there was maybe a 1/4 inch of sand at the bottom.. which was FAR less then what i expected

 

[Andrew McFadden]

That's great! Now it may break the propeller if it is sucking up sand. I forgot to tell you that part oops

 

[Winterangel]

hahah i used my head there!!! i checked the propeller when i cleaned it and it seemed good. trust me that was the one thing i was worried the most about!!! lol

 

[Winterangel]

you can see which came first..lol

 

[Andrew McFadden]

Well you can at least see enough to do your other decor now. That looks really good and cleared up fast normally it takes a few days.

 

[Winterangel]

thanks! thanks for all the help too!

 

[Andrew McFadden]

No problem that's what we are here for