New Sand Tank Cloudy

[Albaba]

Hi ive just done a total refit of my tank (a jewel rekord 120) due to it being destroyed by the dreaded black brush algae. Did the tear down on Tuesday, it took 8 hours of real hard work, me and a friend totally cleaned the whole caboodle. Dont EVER want to have to do that again. Luckily all the occupants survived in their temporary home (a bucket) until the refit was done and they could be put back in.


Now i have used a nice beige silver sand this time with some fertiliser sticks for the plants. It looks awesome. The only problem is i dont think i rinsed the sand properly at all as it is pretty cloudy The filter has been running for a good 40 hours now and its not getting any better. I had some stuff called Accu clear which i added last night which is supposed to clump small particles together but that has done no good. Basically i am a bit worried the plants are not getting enough light and i dont wanna have to replant or anything cos its a right nightmare.....

So whats the best thing to do?
Am i being a bit premature and should i give it more time to clear? Normally with the gravel in if i did anything big that clouded the water the filter would clear it in a matter of hours....
Should i do a fairly large water change? Or will this just disturb more stuff?
Should i do like 10 litres change a day till its clear?

Please help as i have been through a terrible trauma with the BBA and just want things to be right this time

Many many thanks for any advice

Ali

 

[DazedNCoNfUsEd]

You can try some filter floss. If you don't know what it is its basically like these big balls of cotton material that usually comes in randomly sized clear bags. That stuff works pretty good. When I set up my new tank with sand I actually used pantyhose... yes pantyhose, and wrapped them around my filter cartridges (triple-quadruple layered around them). That along with this stuff called "Crystal Clear" and partial water changes everyday and it worked really well. Anyhow, good luck!

 

[Albaba]

Im using the regular juwel poly pads, they are pretty fine. I cant get to the LFS till saturday, so i guess it might be worth doing a few bucket water change. I see this is a very common problem

Thanks for your reply

Ali

 

[Katchan]

I dont know what filter type you have, we dont jewels downunder, in my experience the best way to clear up new substrated tank is brand new kitchen sink sponge medium fine sponge grain on one side pot scourer on the other, my methods are
1- for over head trickle filter, use a few aligned under the pump outlet/spray bar sponge side up
2- for internal filters cut a chunk to fit, fitting spong part to bottom, scourer to top

basically the sponge filters most debris and the scourer acts as a fine sieve(sp?) works to get my water clear as a bell overnight, with the fish usually being added back in just a few hours (i figure a very lightly clouded tank is better than a bucket for them)

you could also do a water change or two to speed up the process, if you have a way to replace the water without stiring up the substrate too much

 

[Albaba]

Well i did a 30% water change and it has not made much differance, maybe a tiny bit..

The kitchen sponge idea is good as those sponges are very fine, i will have a go at that tomorrow.

Many thanks

Ali

 

[Albaba]

Well its been over 3 days now and there is still no improvement! I doubled up the filter floss and that hasnt helped either

Is it possible that the stuff has dissolved into the water rather then being held in suspension?

Please help this is driving me mad, i cant possibly face another refit

Ali

 

[archamfr]

hmm is your filter working properly? when i changed from gravel to a sand substrate, my water was very sandy, however in about 2-3 hours it was pretty much clear maybe try more water changes, like 40-50%.


oh and i dont think it has dissolved. by what i know, dissolved means its dissappeared into the water, as its still visible i dotn think its dissolved.

 

[Albaba]

Did a 50% change this afternoon and its still not clear Maybe slighty clearer but still not right!
I guess im gonna have to do a 30-50% daily until it sorts itself out. I just hope that so many water changes dont cause any other problems.
The filter is working fine, i added a new carbon and a new nitrate filter and a new poly pad ( its a juwel btw) i left the blue sponges as they have all the good Bac on them, although i did rinse them in tank water to keep them clear.

Im just gonna have to keep my fingers crossed it clears up in time, i just thought that it would be quicker than 3 days......

Many thanks for your replies help, any advice is great

Ali

Oh also ive used "Accu clear" twice to no effect. Just in case anyone was gonna buy some....