Murky water after filling tank

[ManannanMacLir]

Today I put forty pounds of black sand as a substrate into my 45 gallon tank. After filling the tank with water, I noticed that now the water is somewhat murky. (Maybe I should have rinsed the sand beforehand, but it didn't seem practical at the time.)

Will this condition fade with time? I'm currently filtering it with an Emperor 400 system.

 

[rich311k]

It will settle in a day or two.

 

[dmac]

I can't speak for sand per say, but when I started up my tank with gravel it was cloudy and murky for about 2 days and then it settled and turned crystal clear over night.

 

[ManannanMacLir]

Thanks for the advice. I ran my filter all last night, and this morning it looks significantly clearer than it was yesterday. At first, when I looked at the tank I could not see through the water at one end to the other. Now I can.

 

[Burks]

Sand will do that, even when well rinsed like mine was. About three days later and the water was crystal clear.

If you stir the sand up does it become really cloudy again? If so, you may want to remove the sand and give it a good rinse. If the fish like to move sand around you'll have a cloudy tank.