Will My Sand Settle?

[Perocore]

Hello!
 
So we've been cycling our 55 gallon cool-water tank for a little over a month. It finally seemed good- every thing settled, water was clear, we had some healthy bacteria going on and 6 very happy little zebra danios. They would stir up sand and it would immediately settle...so I figured it was time to introduce the main tank members to it- our fancy goldfish, and my one little koi (who can't live with other koi because he's...unique? And they gang up on him). All was well at first, we had some very happy little fishies! Gabriel, my koi, was being his usual affectionate, friendly self and helping the two fancy goldfish around the tank and meeting our new fish, my mom's fantail Ivan. 
 
They seemed very happy, so I let them be for a bit. A little bit later I went down to see them and found that they, while playing in the sand (which they've never been on before) have managed to cloud up the entire tank. It's been 48 hours and the sand hasn't yet settled- I assume because they keep stirring it back up. I am very, very angry about this! I can't even see the fish unless they come right up to  glass to greet me, and I'm worried about them somehow hurting their gills or something on the sand. We have a floss filter in, so I hoped that it would be alright.
 
Do you guys have any ideas? Will it settle eventually? Should I just wait a week and see how it goes? The fish are still doing great, they're insanely happy and have been eating very well and are having a great time playing. Every time the danios come over to the fancy goldfish Gabriel chases them away (he's super protective of the goldfish), and they're all acting themselves, even the bubble eye, who at first was not acting so well. 

 

[Ryan10]

The fist question I have to ask is what type of sand and how well was it rinsed before being placed in the tank?  

 

[Perocore]

I'm probably going to be "yelled" at by you all over this, but we went with play-sand, my sister is an impatient monster and the local stores had no reasonably priced aquarium sand. Rinsed, put it in the tank, vacuumed the tank, refilled and it was fine. 
 
If it doesn't settle within a week then my mom is going to try to see if she can get the money to buy enough actual aquarium sand for it, but since it's already cycled I really want to avoid having to do this, if possible.

 

[Ryan10]

I use play sand myself.  You really have to rinse it way more than you think.  it's really dusty.  I always like to say that when you think you are done rinsing play sand...rinse it 4 more times. lol   I have 8-11in piranha with my play sand and they still stir it up but it settles fast.  Your best bet it to take it out and rinse it more or it will start ruining your filters and making them loud.

 

[Perocore]

Augh, it's already fully planted and everything. Okay, I'll see if we can do this without damaging anything (plant or fish wise). And Piranha? Wow, haha, I guess I can't talk since I own tarantulas myself. 
 
Thanks for the help! Hopefully we can get this fixed so we can actually see our fish.

 

[sawickib]

Yea +1 its very dusty, i rinsed 50lbs and it took about a week to decloud, but when my little flash pleco kicks it up it goes right back down.

 

[BerryAttack]

if the water is brownish colour then it wont clean up. you'll have to drain the tank, take the sand out and rinse it in a bucket until the water is only slickly white cloudy. i had playsand and had to rinse 40lbs and it took be around 4-5 hours now i have a dirt substrate xD

 

[RRaquariums]

A cheaper and far less messy alternative to play sand is pool filter sand it's slightly bigger and has way less dust pretty much any pool or spa place usually carries it and it's like $13-$14 for a 50 lb bag.
As for cleaning take a 5 gallon bucket and place it outside then fill it half full with the sand after that stick a hose in the bucket and turn it on so it is flowing good and just let the bucket overflow all the dust will flow over the edge and you will be left with clean sand it may take a while so just keep at it