Sand / Substrate Idiocy (on My Part) Need Advice

[pkillur]

Well, I just moved from my last state (California) back home to Colorado. I need help clearing up some water - I got some redrock sand from a sand company who had said "it is washed". I rinsed it out fairly thoroughly, but when I put it into the tank I noticed that almost all of the silt had settled to the bottom. Now, my aquarium looks like the surface of mars in a sand storm.

Other than taking the wet sand out, does anyone have any suggestions? I have a wet/dry and a fluval filter. I put "water scrubber" pads in each of the baskets of the flu-val (they look like overflow filter floss) but it seems to be doing a terrible job getting the silt out.

Anyone have ideas other than pulling the sand back out and rinsing it more?

-PK

 

[sharpshark]

Yep, a filter aid, which your LFS will stock with the medication, will clear that up no problem, you add it to the water and it binds the small particles together, allowing your filter to remove them.
Hope this helps.

 

[pkillur]

Yep, a filter aid, which your LFS will stock with the medication, will clear that up no problem, you add it to the water and it binds the small particles together, allowing your filter to remove them.
Hope this helps.

Do you happen to have a brand name or product name for this? I've called a few people and no one seems to know what I'm talking about!

-PK

 

[sharpshark]

Do you happen to have a brand name or product name for this? I've called a few people and no one seems to know what I'm talking about!

-PK

The one I used was a Interpet No.3 Filter Aid.