Help murky water!

[Raechal]

I just added the playsand which I rinsed over and over again until the water seemed clear. It already said it was rinsed too. So I filled my 120 gallon up and it is really murky. Will this settle down in a few days or will it stay like that forever?

 

[Joeyt66]

It will settle(give it a day) Probally just wasnt washed good enough. I rinsed mine for 3-4 hours before putting it in my 125 Gallon. Sand has to be washed extremly well.

 

[Polardbear]

Give it a day or two to settle. I washed mine over and over and over and it still clouded up quite a bit when I put it in the tank. When you put it in the tank, how did you add the water? I put my sand in the tnak, smoothed it, and then laid a black plastic garbage bag on it. I then put bags of gravel around the edges to hold the plastic down. Then I filled it slowly with the garden hose. When it was full I carefully lifted the garbage bag up and out. It still looked cloudy for a day but cleared up pretty quickly.

 

[Raechal]

It will settle(give it a day) Probally just wasnt washed good enough. I rinsed mine for 3-4 hours before putting it in my 125 Gallon. Sand has to be washed extremly well.

I bought 4 40 pound bags of sand and washed it all for about 3 hours. I had myself, my little sister and little brother outside rinsing bowls of sand. We rinsed each bowl 3-5 times.

I added the water my tank by placing a large plastic bowl in the center of the tank and sticking the garden hose in it. That way the water would trickle down the side of the bowl into the tank rather than stir up the sand everywhere.

Either way, I emptied the 120 gallon by hand with help of my younger sister because I didn't have the tank moved out from the wall enough to fit the filters. So now the water level is only an inch or two. I will fill it up maybe tomorrow when I can buy my new filters, or this weekend.

 

[littlefishie]

Why not fill it up now instead of waiting, and let the sand settle until you get your filters? That way the filter won't get clogged with sand.

 

[Galaxy]

How exactly do you wash sand?

 

[littlefishie]

Sand + Bucket.

Garden hose + bucket of sand.

Keep going until the water runs clear.

If you can't use a hose, then the faucet in the bathtub works well. I filled my bucket with sand, and ran the tap while swishing the sand about to make sure it was getting the sand at the bottom. My tank was barely cloudy.

 

[Raechal]

Sand + Bucket.

Garden hose + bucket of sand.

Keep going until the water runs clear.

If you can't use a hose, then the faucet in the bathtub works well. I filled my bucket with sand, and ran the tap while swishing the sand about to make sure it was getting the sand at the bottom. My tank was barely cloudy.

I did that. I ran my hand all through the sand until the water was clear. It is still kind of murky.

 

[Lexie3787]

Im adding sand to my 2 2.5 gallon tanks, but I forgot and added the water first, going to store later to get the sand then washing it, will my water be super cloudy since I added the water first?