Cloudy Tank Due To Sand?

[Redbled]

I just put sand in one of my tanks today. Really didn't research it much. Had a bag of play sand left over from my kids sandbox. I didn't think to rinse it, bet I should have. I put it in yesterday and its still very cloudy. Is this to be expected? I wonder if a couple of water changes might do the trick. Any advice?

 

[Jen]

Oh yeah. There will have been lots of dust in there. Water changes will help. Are there any fish in there?

 

[love_fish]

You definetely needed to rinse it, keep doing daily water changes to get it clear again.

 

[Luke_e]

I've just cleaned some sand ready to go into my tank tomorrow. If the tank does cloud up, does floating sand particles cause any damage/injury to fish, or are they fine with it?

 

[Jen]

They should be ok. So long as you rinsed the sand until it ran clear, you should be fine. The dust/particles wont harm the fish... it just looks unpleasant until it clears

 

[smithrc]

add fine filter floss to your filter and rinse it out regularly

I would avoid doing too many water changes as the gravel have just been removed and the bacteria levels will be low....

 

[Redbled]

I have no fish in it yet, so maybe it would be best to empty it out and rinse the sand away from the tank?

BTW, how the heck do you rinse sand? Gravel I just put in a strainer, sand I'd think would be tough.

 

[Dorkhedeos]

get a bucket and fill it with sand, then fill the bucket with water and get a stick and stir it up for a minute. pour out the water and repeat until it is clear

 

[Shuggie]

I dont really think there is a need to do all the rinsing, ive used sand for a number of years now and have encountered this problem many times. Just keep doing partial water changes until it clears up. I much prefer the look of a well planted aquarium with sand than a tank with gravel, plus i think its much easier to keep the tank cleaner.

Shuggie

 

[Dubby]

If you have the luxury of doing it, I would recommend that you take the sand out and rinse it. Otherwise it might clog the filter.

 

[NoRp]

when i first got my tank i put in un rinsed sand in also was cloudy for like 2 weeks. the next tank i setup i rinsed the sand alot i think i ended up with around 2/3s of the sand that i started with but i can pour it into tanks now and it settles almost instantly

 

[Redbled]

I took all the sand and water out of the tank and used the bucket method suggested with my hand to stir the sand around. It was pretty easy, and well worth not having the tank all cloudy. The crayfish seem to like it well enough. I put it in 2 more tanks when I was through Thanks for the help.