Just put new sand into my tank. Have the filters running and everything and it's pretty damn cloudy. is there something specific I should do to fix this or just it settle over time?
How long to clear up cloudy water?
- Thread starter mattstevens1
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Is the whole tank new or just the sand? what did you have in there before? Two things can cause your water to be cloudy in this situation. the first and most obvious is the substrate itself. in my experience, that should clear in a day or so. some sort of water clearing additive should speed the process a little. i have had good results with a product called acurelf. the second is due to removing your old substrate you also removed a good amount of your bb. this will cause a bloom and cloud the water. again, it should pass in a few days once the bacteria colonies have grown to proper size. during this process, be sure to monitor your water parameters to make sure that your ammonia and nitrites do not spike and harm your fish. if they do, complete a minimum of a 25% water change to bring them down. also watch your PH and hardness as well. changing your substrate can also affect this. if you use a silica sand you dont need to worry about it as much. but aggrigate can mess with it a bit at first.
It is an established tank up and running for over a year. It was bare bottom before it is just the substrate that is clouding up the water. And the sand is inert so it won't mess with the water parameters.
Ok you are good then. when i put mine in, it took about two days to be 100% clear again. the second time that i did it, the product that i mentioned in the first post deffinately reduced the time it took to clear. What you have in that tank? off topic but i like seeing what others have.
When I added sand to my tank it cleared overnight, but I had my filters off as there were no fish in there to avoid sucking up sand into the impellers of my aquaclear's.
Theres no way to completely avoid a cloud when messing with sand, but you can make it a little less severe by rinsing the sand in buckets before adding it, or by adding the sand before the water and not pouring the water directly onto the sand.
All you can really do is wait. If you want, you can turn off your filters and pumps, and allow the sand thats floating in the water to settle, and just leave a small airstone going in the tank to keep oxygen in the water.
It'll probably be between 24-72 hours before your water is completely clear again, depending on several factors.
All you can really do is wait. If you want, you can turn off your filters and pumps, and allow the sand thats floating in the water to settle, and just leave a small airstone going in the tank to keep oxygen in the water.
It'll probably be between 24-72 hours before your water is completely clear again, depending on several factors.
I cleared out all the fish in my 55g and I'm doing fire mouths now.
Should I keep the filter not running?
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Obviously you are aware that depending on what filters you are using, you need to block sand from any intakes or turn off the filters (otherwise there could be damage.) As you have determined, the cloudiness should be from settling not from the filters, but you probably don't want the filters to be inactive too long.
If you don't want to run the filters at all, you'll want to get some exchange of some tank water at least to avoid the water in the filter from becoming foul. However, blocking the intakes and running them for a couple minutes a few times a day should be a good compromise.
If you don't want to run the filters at all, you'll want to get some exchange of some tank water at least to avoid the water in the filter from becoming foul. However, blocking the intakes and running them for a couple minutes a few times a day should be a good compromise.