Just Put Sand And...

[toxik]

I have extremely fine gravel, next to beach sand. It's been cloudy since around 4pm today and i just shut the filter off an hour or so ago as two filters and double dose of that coagulating liguid crap hasn't done anything. I rinsed the gravel for a good 20-30 minutes until the water was crystal clear.

 

[Sheridanp]

I have:

2 Black Ruby Barbs
2 Lemon Tetras
2 albino Gymnocorymbus tetras or something
2 Cory's
1 algae eater

Also, should I even bother taking out the sand again, or just re-filling the water?

 

[Sheridanp]

Also, do you think it will work better if I turn off my filter and I just let the sand calm down itself? Right now it is just all over the place crazy.

Ok, it improved slightly over night. I took a pale of water out and it was just brown, I think I will do that later, and then put new water in with the plate.

Do you think it's ok to have my fish in a 2 gallon bucket for much longer with a loud air pump and heater? It must be very stressing.

 

[toxik]

Try putting some panty hose, maybe 4 layers, over the filter bag or whatever the filter material is doubled with a fine particle coagulant and it'll clear up in a day. Only been a few hours and it's noticably clearer for me. It needs to be cleaned every hour or so as it builds up and slows the water down. Turn the filter off before cleaning, it'll just dump all the sediment back into the tank. As i'm speaking the tank is ALMOST clear.


one more thing, remember to put the filter in the same way you took it out each time....or you be sending anything you took and and didn't wash off back into the tank.

 

[Sheridanp]

Is the filter bag like the three things, like the sponge and the other two packages?

 

[BigIan]

I filled my tank with sand the other day and it went exactly like yours it took 24 hrs to clear completely....

i just left my filter running and then washed it out after the tank was clear

 

[SteveB]

I filled my tank with sand the other day and it went exactly like yours it took 24 hrs to clear completely....

i just left my filter running and then washed it out after the tank was clear

Ditto with me when I set my 190l up first time (took a couple of days). I have to go through the whole process again soon as I'm restarting my tank after half of it flooding our living room (resulting in a nice new wooden floor!, out goes the old stinky carpet! all on the Insurance!) still managed to loose nearly all my fish though! still got some baby mollies in my emergency tank now!.

If you can best to find a temporary tank to put your fish in. If you want to plant it then put the plants in next and check the water levels (nitrates, ph, etc) prior to putting the fish back in, I read somewhere that it's recommended the tank cycle for about a week before the fish go in. (sorry I'm probably preaching to the converted).

 

[Sheridanp]

Well, I can't really do that. I have 12 inches of fish in a 3 gallon pale.

No one answered my question, is the filter bag the sponge and the two other things?

 

[toxik]

Is the filter bag like the three things, like the sponge and the other two packages?

if it's a typical hang on filter just slip the baggy mesh thing into some panty hose and pop it back in...if it's something fancier like an external under the tank thing, just attach it inline some how or on the intake tube, or better yet, the return tube this way it'll blow into the panty hose 'trap' and you can just grab it closed and pop it off with minimal mess.

 

[Sheridanp]

Ok, I will do.

Also, I'm using the plate technique and already the water looks 10x better than yesterday, and the tank is only half full. The fish should only have to live 1 more night in the bucket.

 

[toxik]

Why let that dust sit in the rocks? Get it couldy and filter it out. It'll do more harm than good sitting on the bottom. It'll just stir up whenever you add more plants, rocks, decorations, and when the filter is on high.

Another quick but tedious way is to make a pantyhose net and just skim the water...rinsing after each skim. Doubled with the filter method, it'll get most of the dust out.

Right now my tank is suitable for dropping my real fish in...but i'm letting my cycling fish do their job.

 

[Torrean]

going through this thread makes me soooo happy I rinsed my sand the way I did. If you want to remove the dust like chris suggests then I would just rerinse the sand. Another option is to start a syphon going out your window and run a hose into the tank. Stir the sand really well and let the syphon suck out the dust...when the water gets a bit low just fill it up and stir the sand some more. Much more tedious than rinsing well in the first place but it should get rid of the dust. If you look at the link I posted earlier the original poster confirms that the silt (foggyness) will NOT harm the fish. A quicker method would probably be to remove the sand rinse it well and put it back...then fill the tank with the plate method.

EDIT: don't know if this will suck up too much good sand...I don't think it will...but you could just vaccum the sand like you would gravel...this will probably remove the silt.

 

[Sheridanp]

Well, this way is working. I will try that pantyhouse way also. I'll just see how it turns out. The water is not at all orange or yellow, just white cloudy, much better.

Although it is not a successs yet, thanks alot to all the people who have helped me, especially Torrean.

 

[Sheridanp]

Do you think it's safe to put my fish in this? I really want to get them out of the bucket.

Thanks so much to everyone. It was really a huge sucess, and I can rub this in my brother's face!

 

[Torrean]

I'm really a newb with sand myself so I was kinda nervous giving you advice. I'm glad it worked out for you. Once again I refer you to that link. The guy said that cleaning said was a good idea but unneccessary. The fish deal with cloudy water in the wild from time to time and some live in constantly murky water. I think you could have added them initially. Going by the information in the pinned topic I would say your fish should be fine. Best of luck and I'm glad I could help you out.

Out of curiousity do you know about the nitrogen cycle?