Substrate question

[Mmsetta]

First specifics: new 38g bowfront fowlr (for now, intend to add reef once comfortable). Using carabsea aragonite sea floor special grade reef live sand.

Problem:

I mixed my water right in the tank and then added a couple pieces of live rock. Then I added the sand. Now, my water has been milky with sand for about a day.

Running my hot magnum is helping and the water is clearing up.

But, it's obvious that the fine sand is setting on the top. Any movement I make with the rock or the substrate causes a huge murky bloom that takes forever to clear up. Then , the sand just settles back on the rock!

Question:

Sand is about 2" on bottom. Once settled, how the heck am I supposed to do water changes without everything getting covered in sand? No to mention doing the rest of my aquascaping!

Also, is 1 1/2 to 2" appropriate? The bag said to use about 1 lb per gallon. It wAs a 40lbs bag so I just dumped the whole bag in to my 38g.


Early issues! Thanks for any feedback

 

[Reefing Madness]

:bump2:

 

[Mmsetta]

Not sure what you mean, can you explain?

 

[Reefing Madness]

Im bumping your thread to the top of the list, so its fresh and the morning crew will read it.

 

[Mmsetta]

Thanks!

 

[Mmsetta]

I solved the problem. Pulled sand out, rinsed it thoroughly, drained the tank the put the sand and rock down and refilled. I am super excited that my tanks is finally complete and beginning to cycle.

 

[Reefing Madness]

 

[coreybroja]

The anticipation of setting up a new tank.:roll:I felt the same way when I first set up my bow front, I almost wanted to check on it every second of the day lol. Patience is key though..:xd:

 

[Ward9320]

Glad you got everything squared away. :wink:

I mixed my water right in the tank

When you say that you mixed your water right in the tank do you mean you mixed the RO water and the salt right in the tank? If so I would discourage from doing that anymore. You should always mix your salt with water in a bucket before adding it to the tank. For my nano I fill up a 5 gallon bucket with RO water, add my salt and put a power head and a heater in there over night to mix up the salt.