switched to sand

[Paul_MTS]

I decided to make my old lobster tank a sand bottom today...so i did.

all filled back up and up to tempertaue with in 30 mins or so but as you might know it went nice and merky.

at the moment i have the fish floating in bags to keep there temp in the tank.

i'm just wondering if it's safe to release them well still merky....i don't want to keep them in a bag with unfiltered water for too long really.

the tank mates are in my sig (22gallong) minus the lobster!!

 

[WILDER]

It should be fine run alot of new filter floss in the filter, it will clear the water up faster.

 

[smithrc]

did you wash the sand?

I guess you did as you're bound to have seen the other threads about merky tanks due to not washing...

ours was slightly cloudy for a few hours... but not murky.

this is ours a few hours after setting up.

 

[Paul_MTS]

gave it a quick wash, nothing special though!!

before i haven't washed the sand before and had crystal clear straight away but i filled it up differently which stirred it up more.

I put my spare filter floss in my 3 plus after an hour or so!!

 

[smithrc]

ah, I spent about 1 hour washing 30kg (2 bags) of playsand in a dustbin

turned out well thouhg (even if i was cold and waterlogged!)

 

[teacherspet]

Um, going to ask a dumb question, but I am having the same cloudy water problem. What is filter floss? I washed the sand 5 times over the course of a couple hours then filled the tank this morning. It is still cloudy...

 

[shmax101]

It will settle down on it's own, assuming you at least rinsed it, it won't take long. Murky water will not adversly affect your fish, just imagine them being in a river bed after a nice rain.. muddy, mucky, nasty. That little bit of sediment in the water will be no problem for your fish.

 

[enchanted]

just imagine them being in a river bed after a nice rain.. muddy, mucky, nasty

Only nasty to us. They probably love it because of all the food that gets washed in with the rain.

 

[smithrc]

the thing is - the washing don't just need to be a rinse...

you need to let all the smaller 'floaty' grains of sand overflow and leave you with the heavier stuff...

it might feel like your loosing perfectly good sand, but it would only have cause heartache (well a headache at least)

 

[Ben]

i buy sand for pool filters from my local pool shop,
all the and is pre cleaned before it gets put into bags so i never have to clean it andi just put it in by cups so it doesnt cloud up(it takes aggess)

 

[andyM]

Sorry to jump in on the thread, but i'm thinking of changing to sand too. How should it be washed? Looking at the posts sound like just put it in a large bucket or bin then fill with water and let it overflow. It this the best way?

 

[smithrc]

i buy sand for pool filters from my local pool shop,
all the and is pre cleaned before it gets put into bags so i never have to clean it andi just put it in by cups so it doesnt cloud up(it takes aggess)

but its orange...

playsand is white

 

[Ben]

doesnt look orange to me :blinks:

look at my pics(link in sig) to see what colour it is

 

[smithrc]

doesnt look orange to me :blinks:

look at my pics(link in sig) to see what colour it is

I'll give you that!

this is what I thought was pool filter sand....

sorry )

 

[babyfish]

Um, going to ask a dumb question, but I am having the same cloudy water problem. What is filter floss? I washed the sand 5 times over the course of a couple hours then filled the tank this morning. It is still cloudy...

Filter floss is a polyester type of cotton wool for aquariums.... buy it from the pond section of your lfs.... much cheaper......it's great stuff for catching small particles out of the water.


QUOTE andyM

Sorry to jump in on the thread, but i'm thinking of changing to sand too. How should it be washed? Looking at the posts sound like just put it in a large bucket or bin then fill with water and let it overflow. It this the best way?

I put about three to four inches of sand in a bucket then fill with water, stirring it all the time. Let the sand settle to the bottom and then pour off the water....repeat until water is clean after vigorous stirring. A large wooden spoon is great for stirring and stops you getting freezing cold wet hands