Aragonite Sand Driving Me Mad !

[adambrum]

I brought 2 bags of carib sea aragonite sand about 3 weeks ago and im still cleaning it !

No matter how many times i rinse it it leaves the water milky and it will not settle even after 3 days i can not see the back of a 18" deep tank.

I have used sand before so i know its not easy to clean but the pack even says it only need a few rinses so far its been in the tank twice and has been rinsed in buckets a bit at a time. Over 300 gallon of water has been rinsed through it so far and im on the verge of taking it back to the retailer in buckets !

Is this by chance that i have some bags with very fine sand as if it was the last of a batch or is this to be expected ?

 

[Druchii]

how are you adding it to the tank mate - just dropping it in or are you placing in the bottm with a cup or jug that you put down through the water then tip out at the floor??

 

[l337dave]

how are you adding it to the tank mate - just dropping it in or are you placing in the bottm with a cup or jug that you put down through the water then tip out at the floor??

if you got an external filter - fill it with lots of floss and run it on the tank for an hour or 2


dave.

 

[adambrum]

Im putting it in the tank then pouring water down the glass so there is minimum disturbance.

The second time i filled the tank and then slowly a hand full at a time lowered the sand in.

The filter is a xp3 filled with filter floss but it seems to be such a fine dust it goes straight through even after 3 days !

I have emailed caribsea to see what they say but it will be last time i use there stuff especially as its about the most expensive sand in the shop !

 

[jgray152]

I had the same issue when adding sand years ago to my first tank. After adding floss to the filter it started to clear up. BUT, I also tried rinsing the sand out which may have gotten a lot of the fine particals out but lefts larger floating ones.

When I added CaribSea Tahitian Moon Black sand to my 55 gallon few months ago, I didn't rinse the sand, I used my Diatom D1 sand filter and I just kept stiring up the sand to make the water as cloudy as possible while the filter was running. Cleared up within 2 hours. No more cloudyness.

It will NEVER settle and if some does, the slightest current will kick it up again. The Diatom D1 filter is cheap. About $60. I would pick it up. its very handy to have, a bit crapy to maintain.

I did happend to use CaribSee Moonlight white sand for about 2 days then I returned it. The sand its self was so fine, it felt like mud when it was in the water. You could see the sand stay suspended in the water for a long time. It wasn't just the dust.