Should i put in my live rock?

[skywurz]

Hi All
Yesterday i brought my tank online Build Thread, however the water is so cloudy i can not see inside. I figured this was normal and was ready to wait it out. This morning things dont look much clearer. I was going to wait for the water to clear before i put in live rock so i could place it. I was just wondering if i should put in the rock now and arrange it later or just wait.

Thanks

 

[KrisReef]

Is it a salt mix issue?
or did you add unrinsed sand ?
Or is it something else causing the cloudy water?

I just mixed a bag of old salt and it was cloudy for days but finally settled. Now I know why the LFS guy gave me the "free" salt mix that he didn't like. LOL.

EDIT:
I just read your build thread. I would recommend you remove your sand and rinse it to avoid cloudiness forever in the tank. Heres A link:

I'm going to rinse my sand bed. Who else has done this?

Everytime I change my water, I try to stir parts of the sand bed to clean it some, but it's always a detritus trap. I don't think I'd ever want to go BB, but after reading THIS THREAD on sand rinsing, I'm going to try this. I'm going to pull my sand bed and rinse it completely till there's no...

www.reef2reef.com

And this one is classic:

Official Sand Rinse and Tank Transfer thread

If you are reading this thread to cure a tank invasion from a link I sent you, we do not need to identify your type of invasion here we do not need you to test anything at anytime regarding nitrate, phosphate etc Above all, we do not need to see a microscope slide picture of your invasion at...

www.reef2reef.com

A Vortex diatom filter, or HOT Magnum with filter pleat or carbon filter can remove the cloudiness, but if you don't rinse the sand the problem will continue.

It is safe to rinse live sand, it won't kill it if you use cold tap water to remove the fines.

 

[skywurz]

Is it a salt mix issue?
or did you add unrinsed sand ?
Or is it something else causing the cloudy water?

I just mixed a bag of old salt and it was cloudy for days but finally settled. Now I know why the LFS guy gave me the "free" salt mix that he didn't like. LOL.

I didn't rince the sand. The bags said that I didn't have to and half the posts I read said don't bother... And I mean it was 300lbs of sand.

 

[Gernader]

For 300 pounds of sand, I’m sure you have to wait for a couple more days to become clear, but you may put live rock if you can see anything. If not, then just add rock after it clears up and it might be cloudy again after you add the rocks.

 

[bjc451]

I rinsed mine and couldn’t be happier

 

[KrisReef]

I didn't rince the sand. The bags said that I didn't have to and half the posts I read said don't bother... And I mean it was 300lbs of sand.

If you had that much dust in your kitchen would you wipe down the kitchen before you made dinner? You can wait for the dust to settle but unless you remove it now it will always be there whenever you want to cook.

300 lbs is a lot of dust, and removing it and rinsing it with a garden hose on the drive way will be a pain but it needs to be done if you want to clean your coral kitchen.

When the sand was in the bag you could have dumped the bag on the driveway directly. Now you have an extra step of siphoning the sand into a bucket and lugging it to the drive way. One extra step and you are good to go and the kitchen is clean.

The "dirty Harry Question" is; "So where do you want to cook?"

 

[Terri Caton]

I suggest vacuuming the sand to get rid of some of the cloudiness. If you have a sump just put a polishing cloth in there and put the end of the tube into the cloth so the water goes directly into your sump after filtering. If not, do the same in a bucket then just add the water back to your tank.

 

[skywurz]

If you had that much dust in your kitchen would you wipe down the kitchen before you made dinner? You can wait for the dust to settle but unless you remove it now it will always be there whenever you want to cook.

300 lbs is a lot of dust, and removing it and rinsing it with a garden hose on the drive way will be a pain but it needs to be done if you want to clean your coral kitchen.

When the sand was in the bag you could have dumped the bag on the driveway directly. Now you have an extra step of siphoning the sand into a bucket and lugging it to the drive way. One extra step and you are good to go and the kitchen is clean.

The "dirty Harry Question" is; "So where do you want to cook?"

As far as I can tell this is probably the right way to solve this. However it's darn cold outside right now . I will put this as my nuke it from orbit plan, it's not yet been 24 hours so I think I should try to wait a little more.

I suggest vacuuming the sand to get rid of some of the cloudiness. If you have a sump just put a polishing cloth in there and put the end of the tube into the cloth so the water goes directly into your sump after filtering. If not, do the same in a bucket then just add the water back to your tank.

I think I like this. I can add some quilt bat to my sump to polish out the water as I have 0 mechanical filtration.


On a side note omg so much foam!

 

[tehmadreefer]

It’ll be fine, it’s new sand and that’s what it does, makes a new tank cloudy... it’ll be fine, no need to go and tear it all out, lol

put the rock in now or wait, up to you personally.

 

[tehmadreefer]

Also, did the sand come with those little packets to dump in to clear it up?

 

[Ashish Patel]

Thats alot of Sand. How deep is your sandbed?

 

[Ashish Patel]

I think you should still put the LR in the tank, Its not going to save you time by waiting for things to clear - probably juts prolong it

 

[Silent]

You can wait it out but a good option is to use a brs carbon/gfo style reactor like the ones on a ro/di unit with a cheap low micron sediment filter in it.

 

[skywurz]

Also, did the sand come with those little packets to dump in to clear it up?

It did I have not yet recovered all of them. But I did put in the ones I did recover. About 3/4 of them didn't help

 

[skywurz]

Thats alot of Sand. How deep is your sandbed?

I was going for 5" idk what it's at

 

[Ashish Patel]

Your tank will clear up in time but your the first person I've heard of that has a Deep sand bed a very long time. I would not recommend more than 1", maybe 2" max. This way you can easily stirred it up and even removed and rinsed it every 6 months. The deep the sandbed you can't really disturb much. Anyhow best of luck in your journey

 

[skywurz]

So I tried some quilt batting and it was overwhelmed quickly. After 10 min it was pretty full and I was pulling what looked like milk from it.

I also dropped my overflow tube and snapped off the breather. The piece immediately dropped into the plumbing somewhere.

I think it's time to let the tank sit and see what happens.

Can I run water tests still? Or is it poiness due to the amount of stuff in the water

 

[homer1475]

Its a new tank with cloudy water and no inhabitant. What would you be testing for?

AND FYI, no one does a deep sand bed nowadays. We have learned from previous mistakes and with that deep of a sandbed, your setting yourself up for a tank crash down the road. 1 to 3 inches is all anyone keep these days, or even bare bottom is the new norm.

Since you didn't rinse the sand, that coudyness will persist for days with that much sand. Just wait it out, your starting out with a hard lesson in reefing, nothing happens fast. Just wait it out and learn some patience.

 

[skywurz]

:Zen mode activating:

 

[lapin]

You can let it sit and it will settle. The minute you turn on your pumps or do anything to disturb the sand you will have a dust storm.
Before adding rock:
The easy way is to use something like a canister filter and keep stirring the sand and changing out the floss.
The other easy option is to remove sand and rinse. (not as easy)
Last option is to leave it and live with it.
The only test that you might do is ammonia. Wait a few days. Just to be sure you have something for bacteria to eat.