Just added sand, everything is covered, now what?

[nim6us]

I finally got my RS Reefer 425 filled up this weekend!! It's been a long time coming and a lot of hard plumbing lessons learned. But I filled it with RO water, then mixed in the salt, salinity and temp are perfect. I added my aquascape and that looked great.

The only downside was the sand. I used CaribSea Arag-Alive, I put the bag in the water, cut the top and gently poured it in. It amazingly wasn't that couldy, but as I began spreading out the sand this milky white substance went everywhere. I added the clarifier that came with the sand and waited for it to clear this morning. I started spreading the sand more, and again a huge plum went up and clouded the tank.

My concern being, is this some sediment that needs to be filtered out? It's covered all the glass in my display and my sump, the heaters, the return pump all have a thin layer of silt on them. The only filtration on the tank is the two filter socks. But should I fire up my skimmer, or get some filter floss to put in the sump baffles? This is just my first time setting up a system like this so hopfully it's not a dumb question. Any help is welcome!

 

[Crabs McJones]

I finally got my RS Reefer 425 filled up this weekend!! It's been a long time coming and a lot of hard plumbing lessons learned. But I filled it with RO water, then mixed in the salt, salinity and temp are perfect. I added my aquascape and that looked great.

The only downside was the sand. I used CaribSea Arag-Alive, I put the bag in the water, cut the top and gently poured it in. It amazingly wasn't that couldy, but as I began spreading out the sand this milky white substance went everywhere. I added the clarifier that came with the sand and waited for it to clear this morning. I started spreading the sand more, and again a huge plum went up and clouded the tank.

My concern being, is this some sediment that needs to be filtered out? It's covered all the glass in my display and my sump, the heaters, the return pump all have a thin layer of silt on them. The only filtration on the tank is the two filter socks. But should I fire up my skimmer, or get some filter floss to put in the sump baffles? This is just my first time setting up a system like this so hopfully it's not a dumb question. Any help is welcome!

Pretty common, run the system with filter socks or some sort of felt filter to take the small particulates out of the water. Should clear up on its own over time.

 

[nim6us]

So as per usual, the reefer motto "just be patient" ;Bookworm

 

[Crabs McJones]

So as per usual, the reefer motto "just be patient" ;Bookworm

Lol, pretty much

 

[HOOPDEEZ]

This happened to me as well. Stir up the sand take a turkey baster to the rocks and clean the glass. Get the display as clean as you can, then after it has all settled, work on the sump. I wiped it and vacuumed mine out with a wet dry vac. Be very careful not to overfill vacuum it will fill up FAST! I also had to take everything out of the sump and clean it. Pita for sure!

 

[hwntunda]

Did you wash the sand first? If you have a sand vac you could try cleaning the sand after the sediment settles without removing too much of the water hopefully. ( might be a long process) how big is your tank?

 

[nim6us]

Tank is a 4x2x2 and funny enough I'm re-researching rinsing the sand. In my freshwater tanks I always did, but I thought the big sell with the Arag-Alive sand was that it was packed wet with all these good bacteria, and that risning it would nullify that.

 

[Mikedawg]

You can buy the flocculent (what comes in CaribSea bag) that will bind these small particles together: https://www.amazon.com/API-ACCU-CLE...TF8&qid=1526139908&sr=1-7&keywords=flocculent

 

[nim6us]

Oh wow! I never knew that's what it was doing. Thanks for the info!

I just presumed it was the "Vapoorize" of cloudy water. Where does it go? No one knows

 

[lapin]

You should always rinse new sand. You will not wash away the bacteria. What you will wash a way is any dead bacteria and the fine particles that you dont want in your tank. If you dont wash the sand, then every time you stir the sand (which you should do often) you will get a cloud. Now you need to rid yourself of this fine stuff. Turn on your skimmer, get new filter socks throw some polishing floss in the socks. Then stir and blow off the rocks and sand with a turkey baster or power head. It will make a cloudy mess. Keeping the stuff suspended in the water will allow the filters to rid your tank of it. Wipe down the sump and your glass often. It will go away in time.

 

[Flippers4pups]

It's best to deal with sand before water. In other words, dry tank, place your aquascape in and fill around it with your sand. Placing a bowl or plate on the sand bed and let your water pore into that to minimize disturbing the sand bed. Helps keep the cloudiness down. Just food for thought in the future.

"Live sand" isn't always "live" and rinsing it really doesn't matter. Buying "dry" sand is cheaper and it will colonize with bacteria as fast as live sand. Again, food for thought in the future.

 

[nim6us]

Now you need to rid yourself of this fine stuff. Turn on your skimmer, get new filter socks throw some polishing floss in the socks.

I'd thought running your skimmer is not a good idea when you're first cycling the tank. Are you suggesting running it just to clear the cloudy silt and then turning it off, or are you saying it's okay to run your skimmer during the tank's initial cycle?

 

[lapin]

In this case I personally would get all the fine particles out of my tank and using the skimmer will help. During the cycling its not the best idea to run the skimmer as it will slow the cycle time by removing some of the free floating bacteria. So run it now and turn it off when you have clear water.

 

[brandon429]

anything packed wet has to go through expensive sterilization not to contain bacteria, and then at times those measures w fail and bacteria will still get in

wet=bacteria nothing else required, this includes filtration and non filtration types mixed as contaminants, if there's water

since the wet pack sand was not sterilized it has bac, and they cannot be rinsed off rough microscopic surface area using any common household method including tap water rinse/just shy of spraying sterilizers on the grains, that'd do it

if you have water and substrate of any type and no medication, filtration bac just rode into town. re rinse the bed lose nothing, gain cloudlessness that allows aquascaping and tank cleaning in the future agreed. If the sand was high level live, worms n pods, pre rinsing could be bad but this is only bac+ sand + water, it would be a scientific challenge to make it not have filtration bacteria.