Pool Filter Sand & Shell Grit - WILL THE WHITE WATER STOP!!

4

4D3

Gambusia
MFK Member
Jan 21, 2013
911
14
18
Australia
Hi,

Recently I added 40Kg of PFS and 20Kg of Medium Shell grit to my tank, I washed them both thoroughly, but no matter what i do i cannot get the rid of the white coloration to the water!

It has been in about 2-3 weeks now, my fish do dig it up alot, and i have been going 30-40% WC every 3 days, and before the WC i give the sand a really good stir up to try and get rid of it but it never seems to subside.

Is there anything i can do other than hope that eventually all the really fine dust goes?

Any help would be great!

Thanks
 
duanes

duanes

MFK Moderators
Staff member
Moderator
MFK Member
Jun 7, 2007
21,046
26,402
2,910
Isla Taboga Panama via Milwaukee
Shell grit (AKA aragonite) tends to give the water a white tint for a very long time, perhaps 2 months or more.
As the grit (basically calcium carbonate) is broken down by acids (from fish urine, normal biological metabolism, etc) the white tint will persist, and if your tap water is more acidic than the pH of the water in the tank, it also will aid in the chemical breakdown of aragonite.
In this old pic I was using aragonite in a fluidized bed reactor, you can see the tint in the small tank behind it, it lasted about 6 months, and then every time I added a bit of new aragonite to the reactor the white tint would return for a short time.
Your tank will have a white tint until the breakdown of calcium reaches an equilibrium in the tank, it will be when there is no excess calcium carbonate in the shell grit to breakdown.
The pool filter sand is not the issue, because it is inert.



The breakdown of calcium carbonate is the process of buffering, although unaesthetic to look at, in reality, not a bad thing if you keep non acidic water loving fish.
 
4

4D3

Gambusia
MFK Member
Jan 21, 2013
911
14
18
Australia
duanes said:
Shell grit (AKA aragonite) tends to give the water a white tint for a very long time, perhaps 2 months or more.
As the grit (basically calcium carbonate) is broken down by acids (from fish urine, normal biological metabolism, etc) the white tint will persist, and if your tap water is more acidic than the pH of the water in the tank, it also will aid in the chemical breakdown of aragonite.
In this old pic I was using aragonite in a fluidized bed reactor, you can see the tint in the small tank behind it, it lasted about 6 months, and then every time I added a bit of new aragonite to the reactor the white tint would return for a short time.
Your tank will have a white tint until the breakdown of calcium reaches an equilibrium in the tank, it will be when there is no excess calcium carbonate in the shell grit to breakdown.
The pool filter sand is not the issue, because it is inert.



The breakdown of calcium carbonate is the process of buffering, although unaesthetic to look at, in reality, not a bad thing if you keep non acidic water loving fish.
Click to expand...
It looks terrible! I can't look at this for 6 months!

If I suck all the sand/grit out my tank and replace the pfs with no shell grit, what can I use to buffer the pH? I have a bag of coral bodies, about 20kg....

Would 35kg pfs and the coral bodies be better than using shell grit?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
zoomed.com
hikariusa.com
aqaimports.com
Store
Top Bottom