Cloudiness after adding substrate.

[gary1]

I'm pretty new to the hobby, I was repurposing a previously used 20 gallon tank which hadn't had fish in it for several months. (filter was running the entire time though) I wanted to change the substrate to go for a different look, I removed the old substrate, added the new substrate, a coarse, not super fine sand, and the tank became very cloudy. I did rinse it beforehand, but all of my strainers had holes large enough for the sand to fall through, so I dumped the substrate into a clean bucket, and filled it with water and emptied it several times. Thinking about it now, this probably didn't rinse all the dust out of it, is there any way to get rid of this cloudiness without draining the tank and cleaning the substrate again? I don't really want to do this because of any beneficial bacteria that is still in the water from the tanks previous fish. Will the substrate settle down on its own within a few days, or is this my only option?

 

[Colin_T]

Hi and welcome to the forum

Most of the beneficial filter bacteria lives on hard surfaces and very little is in the water. So draining the tank and refilling it with dechlorinated water will not affect the filter bacteria.

The cloudiness should clear after 24 hours or so. If it doesn't, wipe the inside of the glass down and see if that fixes the problem. If it doesn't fix the problem, then drain the tank and refill it with dechlorinated water.

 

[gary1]

Hi and welcome to the forum

Most of the beneficial filter bacteria lives on hard surfaces and very little is in the water. So draining the tank and refilling it with dechlorinated water will not affect the filter bacteria.

The cloudiness should clear after 24 hours or so. If it doesn't, wipe the inside of the glass down and see if that fixes the problem. If it doesn't fix the problem, then drain the tank and refill it with dechlorinated water.

Appreciate the help! My tap water doesn't have any chlorine in it so that shouldn't have been a problem either way, I made this post out of a little bit of panic, its already cleared up a good amount, I can see through the back of the tank, which I couldn't before.

 

[Colin_T]

My tap water doesn't have any chlorine in it so that shouldn't have been a problem either way,

What about chloramine?
Most places in the US have either chlorine or chloramine in the drinking water supply. If you use well water, that won't have any chlorine or chloramine in, but if you use mains water from a water company, it usually contains something.

Chloramine does not show up on chlorine test kits.

You can contact your water supply company and ask if they add anything, or check their website.

 

[gary1]

What about chloramine?
Most places in the US have either chlorine or chloramine in the drinking water supply. If you use well water, that won't have any chlorine or chloramine in, but if you use mains water from a water company, it usually contains something.

Chloramine does not show up on chlorine test kits.

You can contact your water supply company and ask if they add anything, or check their website.

Woke up this morning, issue seems to have resolved itself, water is pretty clear now.