Hey people,

I'm hoping someone can help me out here, i've had my tank for a few months now and decided yesterday to put sand in there and take my gravel out.
i gave my sand a good wash and put it in, it was a quite cloudy so i thought i should leave it over night and let it settle down. i came home from work today and it's no better, i've taken most of the water out and replaced it, it looks a little better but still really cloudy.

What can i do?....please help!

Sarah

Hi there,

I changed my tank over from gravel to sand last bank holiday Monday, and it took a good couple of days to clear up.

Can i ask what size tank you have, and also what filtration you have?And what type of sand have you used?

From what i have read it can take upto a week or so to settle completely and for the cloudiness to go.

Also when you were refilling your tank did you pour the sand directly onto the sand?I placed an old plate on the sand when i refilled it to minimise the disturbance of the sand.

Hope this helps

Hi, my tank is 180L, hmmm dunno about the filter, can you tell i'm new to this?lol i haven't got it switched on, should i? the sand it building sand, my brother used it in his tank and it looks really good so i used it.

i washed the sand in a bucket and then poured it in, i've got quite a few fish and two very large plecs so fish are still in there!

i wish i had stayed with gravel now lol

Haven't got the filter switched on?!?!

You really need to have it switched on all of the time!!

How often do you have it switched on??Also when you first set up your tank did you have it on, and how often??
When you first set up a tank you have to 'cycle' your tank to build up all of the good bacteria and enable it to establish itself. When a tropical aquarium is first set up high levels of ammonia and nitrite will be present which is devastating to fish. It usually takes around a month to cycle. All information about cycling your tank can be found here:

Fishless Cycling

Also building sand, from what i believe contains chemicals, which again can be harmful to aquatic life. Some information about sand in tropical aquariums can be found here:

Sand as Substrate

i normally have my filter on all the time but because i just put the sand in i switched it off. my brother said it can clog the filter!

i've turned it back on and it's working the water is clearing now!

Ah right, sorry for all of the info i posted above, but you should still keep you filter running all of the time, or only have it turned off for as short a time as possible, or the bacteria that has built up in your filter will die.

Is it an internal or external filter you have?

Mine's an external and as long as the intake is about 1 inch above the sand it won't cause a problem.

Also the cloudiness is caused partially by the very small and light particals of sand, which shouldn't clog up your filter!!

Rutters is giving you very good advice.

by the way, Welcome!

hi there, you've said your new to this so I'm gonna assume your a beginner and don't know anything, apologies if this sounds patronising but I'd rather give you information you already know rather than have you sat there not knowing at all.

so turning the filter off for a couple of days is a very bad idea, it may have knock on effects on the water quality, you need to be monitoring things carefully over the next few days in case you have a mini cycle. the link in my sig 'whats cycling' explains the process. It's basically what a filter goes through to get itself up and running to provide a safe environment for the fish, if it's been turned off it'll need to go through a smaller version of this process to get itself fixed. Can take anything from a few hours to several weeks.

I was just talking with some other yesturday about this same problem. Have a look here. Click Here