Cloudy Water

[Acipenser]

I went with 100 lbs of 35-60 silica as a substrate in my 75 gallon tank as it was super cheap ($10), I rinsed it what I thought was quite well. Now my water is quite cloudy. I did an immediate 90% water change, and can see the fishies again, but there is still some cloudieness . I am wondering if I should keep doing water changes untill the water is clear or just remove the silica and buy some proper substrate ?

 

[minxfishy]

Silica sand is fine to my knowledge, the cloudyness will clear, to help, get some filter floss and put it in your filter, you may need to change this quite often for a while, but it usually works with collecting the fine particles. Also make sure you filter intake isnt too close to the sand, or it will be picking it up and chucking it back out which wont help, will also clog the filter after a while too.

 

[tyyrlym]

It's one of the joys of a sand substrate, no matter how much you rinse it the water is going to cloud initially. Stuff your filter with filter floss to help capture the stuff, do water changes if you really need to but just be patient, it'll clear up eventually.

 

[Acipenser]

well 24 hours of filtration has done wonders for the tank, I will try the filter floss thanks.

 

[tyyrlym]

Yeah, it looks like milk but even 24 hours will do wonders for it. Just be sure to take out your filter foam or media and give it a good rinse in tank water every day or two to keep it from caking up.