Quick Reply Please!..

[The Taffy Apple]

You shoudnt use play sand tbh unless you can garuntee its free from salt? Do you have a tropical tank or marine? Pets at home do a really good gravel. You can get 8kg for a tenner. It took 12 kg to fill up my 260 litre tank. No matter how much you clean your substrate. I.e sand or gravel. It will always be cloudy. You should google the term new tank syndrome and cloudy tank water. You need to treat your tank with the appropriate chemicals. I.e chlorine remover ect. So just to cap off. Its normal for tanks to go cloudy to begin with. You can not add fish for atleast 2 weeks. And afyer that you will need to test the water using tetra ph 5 in 1 test strips to make sure youbate free from nitrates anf you have a good ph level. If you need more help just ask.

It takes alot longer than 2 weeks before you can add fish i'm afraid, the build up of ammonia (and then NitrIte) will slowly poison your fish, unless you do a complete fishless cycle or very regular (upto 2/3 times daily) water changes with your fish in. The 5 in 1 test strips are notoriously unreliable and the API Master Test Kit is usually recommended on here.A good, healthy tank will never be free from NitrAtes, only regular water changes (as part of our tank maintenance) and/or a well planted tank will dispose of them. If you need more help just ask.

Terry.

 

[fluttermoth]

Play sand doesn't have salt in it; it's not beach sand; many of us use it with no problems.

It's nigh on impossible to have a tank (or tap water for that matter) with zero nitrate. It's only harmful to fish at high levels anyway.

 

[Nettley]

I've used half of the same water that come out of he tank that had my fish in it in the first place, so I've pretty much done a 50% water change