Help To Clean New Sand!

[Dazzler666]

Hello all. I've just bought 50kg of black sand for my 5ft tank. I pre-washed/rinsed in buckets before placing in tank however when I added water it's black ... Which I assume is the dye. Now I've added buckets & buckets of water whilst using a symphon to remove it (yes, no hose pipe!!! Doh) but it doesn't seem to be clearing much. Is there any other way to speed this up or is it just MORE water?!!!! Will using carbon & turning on the external filters help? (ive got old & new media to add once done so no issues there). Water company are going to love me, especially as I'm on a metre!!!! Lol.
Any tips greatly appreciated, especially as my back is agony carrying all the buckets of #40## water!!!
Cheers & hope you all keeping fine & dandy!!

 

[dbanner]

I had this problem when I added black sand to my 5 footer. Once I turned my filters back on it cleared in a couple of hours.

50kgs? You should have loads left over if it's only a 5 foot tank. I used 35kgs on my rio 400 which is 5 foot long and 2 foot wide

 

[Dazzler666]

Cheers for the reply DB. It's been a nightmare!! Do you think it's worthwhile putting some carbon & normal filter media padding then running the filters for a few hours? Will this help clean the water?
Anymore buckets of water & water board will send someone round suspecting I've got a major leak or a bust water main!!! Lol.
Oh, on a side note but I've got two 300watt heaters, any idea long it will take to get tank upto temp? Also, do I set the heaters each to the correct temp (26 degrees) or half the temp that is required?
Greatly appreciate your advice buddy! ☺

 

[dbanner]

When I put my sand in I put the filter on and all the media including carbon, sponges, and so on where in the filter as it came. It's still running exactly the same now, some people will say not to bother using the the carbon on a daily basis but I don't see any harm either way. My tank has been set up for a few months now and is cycled and doing fine.

As for the temp when I had my tank I too had 2 300 watt heaters both set to 26 degrees c. I was fillings the tank with a hose through the window whilst filling with buckets of warm water at the same time so it only took around 4 hours for the thermometer to read 26.

Set both of the heaters to 26 and put a heater on either side of the tank (alone the back). That way you get no cold spots in the tank and heat is spread evenly. Also that way if one day one of your heaters failed you've still got a 2nd heater in there set to 26 as a back up.

I don't use the internal heaters anymore as I didn't really trust them. Iv known them to fail so you either end up with dead fish because of the water going cold (if you only have one heater in the tank) or the heater can actually go higher leading to boiled fish... Not good either way. Not saying this will happen but I wanted to put my mind at rest. Plus I keep big cichlids which were always bumping into them lol

So instead of running 2 300 watt heaters I now use a single 300 watt external hydor heater which fits on to your external filter inlet pipe, the water then comes through your spray bar or what ever you have and is pumped around the tank. Iv set it to 26 and it's always a perfect reading on the thermometer iv put the thermometer on the opposite side of the tank to the elbow of my inlet pipe (iv taken the spray bars off for increased flow) just so i know the heat is getting all around my tank. I'd advise one to anyone that has an external filter. more efficient and less clutter in the tank

 

[Dazzler666]

Cheers for the reply DB.
Will try getting the filters running. Will run them with the previous media to try get the dye out before adding my actual mature media as don't want the dye to pollute the media or cause any problems.
I use carbon as/when needed as I've heard it can actually star leeching toxins back into the tank as activated carbon has a very short life span but hey, each to there own & it's obviously working for you.
Cheers for the heater advice. My tank came with two digital heaters so will set the temp correctly. Ive got one at each end of the tank. I put heater covers on them as one of my barbs passed away after burning himself quite badly on the heater in my 120l tank! .
I'm looking into the external heater as I was reviewing one the other day and I gave to say the write up was very positive, as is the feedback from some members in here so may well be something for the not to distant future!!! .
Thanks again.

 

[dbanner]

No problem. Il look into what you said and maybe remove the carbon and only use it when I need to.

Yeah those heaters are great, the members here are the reason I went for one. I know what you mean about fish burning themselves on internals, my Oscar used to keep thinking he could fit behind my heaters and got 1 or 2 burns from it. He soon learnt and stopped trying. He fully recovered from them though. Sorry about your barb

Funny you mentioned your barb though. Only last night I was thinking about selling my Senegal birchirs and getting a group of 5 or 6 redline torpedo barbs... Just not sure what to put with them. I had a group of 5 in my vision 260 before with a opaline gourami, a pair of kribensis and a bristlenose. What to try something different with them now but I think I'm limited as torpedoes prefer cooler temps than a lot of fish... Any suggestions?