Just put in play sand

I just put in play sand for my tank, the water is VERY VERY murky and cloudy. Will it remain like this or will it settle down? How long does it take to make the water clear again?

 

Did you rinse it until the water ran clear and the sand settled quickly?

-Chelle

 

Ive always wondered how do you rinse sand? i rinse gravel in a strainer but sand would go right through.

 

yes i rinsed it till it was clear. When i put it in my tank the water became murky

 

you didnt rinse it long enough

 

you prolly didn't rinse it long enough but it should eventully settle
but i would still do 15 20 % water changes untill it does

 

i cleaned it for around 30 minutes... when i was cleaning it it was pretty clear. So how long do you think it would take for it to settle?
:0024:

 

just do a water change and put some smart start.........you'll be set( btw u need some new fish)

 

You sure i dont have to wait? Its start right haha smart starts a cereal.

 

I don't like using play sand because i get the feeling it is very dirty and lots of germs.. anyway, regarding your problem, it could be either you didn't rinse long enough, or you should wait for it to settle down.. Best of luck.

 

its been 8 hours since i've put in the sand, and it still hasn't setlled. I'm probably going to do a water change rite now. Thanks for ur advice and info.

 

It might take a day to get mostly clear then another few days to get crystal clear. A least that's what it did with my 55.

When my parents set up the 75, they didn't even rinse the sand and it was murky for about 3 days and never got crystal clear. I eventually got tired of it and replaced it with rinsed sand.

-Chelle

 

thanks t_chelle. Your advice is very important to me bcuz i love your tank setups so much. Thanks for the advice! I am keeping my fishes in a small tank rite now with the airstone set up. Do i need to change their water also? Because i know the sand wont settle for about a few days. Thanks!

 

anther thing, this one guy told me that turning on the filter will help speed up the clearing up process... is that true or is my filter going to be messed up after?

 

Yes the filter will help. If you're really worried, you can get a sponge pre-filter to keep it from sucking up the free floating particles.

If you don't have a filter on the small tank with your fish, then you're going to have to do very frequent water changes (at least once a day). And if you can see the decorations in the tank fairly easily, it should be okay to put your fish back in. I know of people who have changed to sand w/o even removing the fish. When I switched my tanks to sand, I removed the fish, but I put them back in right after I was done.

-Chelle

 

When I switched to sand (aquarium sand from petsmart) I just put in an old filter cartritge and let it run till it cleared (about a day) then put my fishies back in.

 

would it be alright if i put my aquaclear in it, and be sure that it wont get really dirty or jacked up?

 

I'm not going to make any guarantees, but the only filter I've ever had any problems with involving sand is my piece of crap Whisper. But it's pretty temperment anyway. When I switched my tanks to sand, I turned the fitlers on as soon as I got the tank refilled and never had any problems.

-Chelle

 

well im going with ur advice. My water was a little bit more cleared up when i came home from work, but still very murky. I put on my filter, and hopefully by tomorow it should get rid of the cloudy water. I also saw that on top of some areas of sand, there was some weird cotton like stuff. I think its like crunched up sand because i used accu-clear which makes small particles come together. Iono tell me wuts happening.

 

I'm not sure what the cottony stuff is. It could be from the Accu-clear.

-Chelle