Sand and Murkyness?

[Randall_Vee]

Hi all,

Just wanted to get some advice on this one - I setup a 40 breeder for my gf this past weekend and we are having issues with murkyness that we are assuming came from the sand substrate.

The sand substrate is Caribsea sand and was originally in her 29 gallon; I pulled out all the sand and washed it until the water was coming up clear. When we first put water in the tank, everything was fine and the water was relatively clear but over the last two days it seems like the water has gotten murkier.

Any suggestions on getting it to clear? As an FYI the tank has sand because she is housing a soft shell turtle in it.
The tank has an odyssea 500gph canister (FX5 clone) and we are looking at adding a aquaclear 70 just to help with getting a bit more filtration.

Thanks all!

 

[Aqualoon]

40B with an FX5 equivalent sounds like a sand storm to me. Meaning, with that much flow on a tank that size I would expect nothing less then what you're seeing.

 

[Randall_Vee]

Thanks Aqualoon - if I reduced the output flow would that assist in letting the finer particles settle?

 

[Drstrangelove]

Agree. Too much flow can stir up the sand. You could turn it off for a couple hours and see if that causes it to settle down, but the only other reasonable possibility for a newly set-up clear tank becoming cloudy is bacteria bloom.

 

[Randall_Vee]

Thanks all; if I turned down the flow on the output side would it have any detriment on filtration?

 

[Drstrangelove]

My answer is regarding biological filtration, since you can see the mechanical effect for yourself.

I think there are 2 probable answers to that:

1) Yes, it will reduce it some
2) Yes, but it will be so negligible that it won't really matter

My opinion is that it will be #2, unless you can reduce the flow by 50% or more. In that case, you'll just need to take water readings and see if it really matters. My guess is that it really won't unless the tank is over fed. This assumes you can safely reduce the flow that much, but I think it would be better to consider using a spray bar (if that's an option), and not adjusting the flow.

 

[knobhill]

I had cloudiness in my 140g when I added new sand. A member here recommended a sponge filter and it worked great. The water cleared up in a day or so.