freebyrd;4401411; said:
i got a new 75 gallon today to raise my festae fry in, and i decided to go with sand. play sand to be exact. from home depot. well i rinsed it as best as i could it wasnt exactly easy... and i got it all in the tank that i needed..so i filled it with water and OMG theres sand flying around everywhere the water is so cloudy with sand particles...what do i do? i called my LFS before using the play sand and they said it would be fine to use (they specialize in cichlids, and only sell fish) so what can i do? am i going to have to do water changes until its clear or will it settle? should i run the HOB filters or not?
The fish don't care that the water is cloudy.
Playsand is extremely dirty sand. It's not graded very well, so it's all various sizes. It certainly isn't the best choice, but it does work. It has to be washed a LOT.
You should run the filter. The fish need the filter to survive, and the filter will help remove the particulates that are making the water cloudy. You do run the risk of damaging the impeller or impeller housing if sand gets into the filter, but you can replace the impeller or filter if that happens.
For future reference, look for pool filter sand (I think it's #40 grit silica sand.) They clean it well when they package it, but it still needs to be washed because it gets very dusty just from the grains getting rubbed in the bag. It has larger grains, so it generally won't get in your filter, and if it does, it tends not to get between the impeller magnet and its housing. 30 grit sand is slightly smaller grain, you can get that if you prefer.
When you wash sand, you should put about 1-2 gallons of it in a 5 gallon bucket. Remove the sprayer from your hose, as the sand can destroy it. Fill the bucket with water, stirring it up as you go, then when the bucket is full, dump the water off and fill again. Just letting the bucket overflow takes a very long time and doesn't work very well.
nothing to worry... relax..this is a hobby, you're suppose to have fun... not worry!