impatient about tank cloudiness :P

[mcordelia]

This isn't really a post to ask for advice so much as to complain in a good natured way about what happens when you put sand in your tank

I put the sand in yesterday, tossed in some water, didn't bother to run the filter since there's nothing in there, and lo and behold it's still cloudy this morning. I was just expecting magic to happen and the cloudiness to go away, alas.

The filter came with a carbon cartridge so I'm running that in there as of this morning, figured I might as well in case there's anything that needs to be "cleaned out" of the water for any reason. Hopefully it will still have some oomph to it tomorrow when the plants arrive in case they have chemicals on them.

In the larger scheme of things, I'm just feeling impatient and want my water to be crystal clear so I can see the contents of my (very empty) tank. Sure, I can do a water change but that's kind of a hassle for just a visual benefit, and I *technically* have real work to do today... like a 2pm meeting deadline that I'm not being so awesome about preparing for....

Maybe it's just the end-of-year lack of motivation that seems to be going around. Man has it been a year folks....

 

[AbbeysDad]

Did you rinse the sand well? I use pool filter sand but I've found that play sand is just loaded with dust like fines. If your cloudiness is fines, a large water change may be your ticket - just make sure not to stir things up when you refill (use a dish and a modest refill flow). And you didn't ask for advice, but here's an article that may be worth a look see: Cloudy Aquarium Water.

 

[mcordelia]

Thanks! yeah I used tube sand, and I am actually loving the look of it! it's everything from super fine particles all the way up to pebbles, so it looks very natural I have to test the pH in a couple of days to see that nothing crazy is going on there, but my guess based on my regional location is that it is some variation of red flint sand (certainly looks very similar to that) and maybe some quartz based sands mixed in, so hopefully it'll be ok.

I rinsed the crap out of it, I found the best way to do was to put about 1 quart into a 5gal bucket at once and then blast it with a garden hose until the bucket was full, pour out the water and repeat 4-5x. My vegetable garden has an interesting layer of fine sand particles in it now

I think where cloudiness came from was after I added the sand and a little bit of water, I then moved the sand around quite a bit to get it mostly level, and then I got impatient and just dumped a 5gal bucket of water into the tank on top of it (after adding 3 gal slowly using a plate), and then I had to flatten the sand out all over again haha. There's literally nothing in there except the sand and water at this point, so I knew I was going to get cloudiness but I figured, what the heck. I've only used gravel previously so I didn't know the cloudiness would last this long, sigh.

If it's still cloudy by tomorrow I will probably do a water change in the morning, though I'm not sure how cloudy it will be after I plant all my plants again?

 

[DAnCSF]

Yup with this hobby patience is a virtue....

 

[Essjay]

I have to test the pH in a couple of days to see that nothing crazy is going on there

Don't forget to compare the pH to that of a glass of tap water that's been allowed to stand 24 hours not to freshly run tap water

When I test the effect of something, I always leave a tub of plain water to stand alongside and test that as well as the water with the stuff I'm testing, whether it's pH, hardness etc.

 

[mcordelia]

Oh right!!! Going to pour that for myself right now! Thought about it earlier and then naturally proceeded to completely forget until just now