oops, didn't rinse the sand

[Evaunitone]

Yeah, I just added about 2.5 - 3 inches of play sand to my tank and then filled it with water. Woopsie. It's super cloudy and has been for a couple hours. I have two aquaclears running now and they dont seem to be having much effect. When I first filled the tank I put my hands through the sand a bunch to release all the gas etc and it formed a thic foam on the surface which I removed. Now what do I do? Wait?

 

[fishboy444]

wait 24-48 hours for the dust to clear.

 

[WhiteDevil]

Turn the filters off and let it settle, once its settled, use a glass jar or cup to pack the sand down a wee bit, nothing heavy then let it sit and let the weight of the water naturally pack it further, then the next day, turn the filters back on and you should be fine.

I did this with my bowfront, since then I always rinse first before I do anything else.

 

[Evaunitone]

Ok I'll do that. The water is clearer now but there is a fine layer of silt or whatever covering everything. Do I need to remove that somehow? Or do I just leave it on the sand?

 

[Blueiz]

You can also do multiple water changes to "wash" the sand while it's in your tank. A lot of the dust particulates won't settle because they are fine enough to float. Getting sand into your filter isn't a good thing, it can score the impellor and leave you dealing with a grinding noise that is almost impossible to completely get rid of.

 

[cjldad]

When I used play sand, I noticed what was a horribly sticky film that came up.. I believe it is some clay that is trapped in with the play sand.. Good luck, I cleaned the heck out of my sand, filled the tank, and then ended up taking it all back out a few days later to wash again..

 

[blackomen]

I got my playsand from Lowe's by quickrete and I didn't have any problems with it. I just started filling a 5 gallon bucket with water and slowly poured the playsand into the bucket. I let the bucket overflow with water for about 5-10 minutes and the water was clear. Then put it into a half empty tank. Filled the tank up, diverting the water flow from splashing the sand around, and an hour later the tank is clear. Worked for me three times so far.

 

[Evaunitone]

Yesterday (more than a day after filling the tank originally) I stirred up the sand a bunch and then siphoned off all the water. Then I refilled it very slowly and it was mostly clear (mostly). Then I turned my filters on and this morning its cloudy again. What should I do?

 

[Evaunitone]

Ok, I removed the sand and water, rinsed the sand several times in a bucket with the hose and poured off the resulting cloud of silty particles about 10 times. Now I put the sand back in the tank and refilled it slowly again and its still very cloudy. Would putting polyfill in my filters and running them clear it up? I have plants coming in the mail and I'm worried that I'll never get this water clear.

 

[mfdrookie516]

i had the same problem with play sand. ive tried it twice with the same results. i got fed up with it when i set up my 150g after working for 3 days with it. I got pfs and after one rinse, it didnt cloud the tank up. tried it again last week when i set my 55g back up, rinsed it thoroughly, put it in the tank, clouded big time. Filled, emptied, filled, emptied (repeated 5 times) same thing. Went and got pfs, rinsed once, issue resolved

 

[Evaunitone]

I used pfs with my last tank and it worked perfectly. ****, I guess I shouldn't have switch to play sand