new sand in tank

[rica5tully]

I just pulled all my rocks out of my tank, put in 60 lbs. of new sand (to increase what I had) and put the rocks back in. (I don't have deco rock, just base rock so far.)

Problem: when I put the sand in, there was (and still is) a nasty foam all over the surface. I tried to skim it out, but the whole tank is cloudy and the foam is thick and gross.

I turned off my skimmer to protect it.

What should I do? Is anything wrong? Will the foam be dangerous for future fish?

Thanks!

[dward254]

I added sand to my tank about 4 months ago. I got some foam accumulated on the surface. I'm not sure if you have an overflow but, my overflow took care of the problem. How many powerheads do you have an where are they pointed. If you keep them pointed away from the surface, you'll get less debri in the water column.

Question: How long has your tank been up and, did you see any spike in nitrates when you added the new sand on top of your old?

[rica5tully]

I haven't checked the nitrites. When I can see into the tank, I'll adjust the rocks and test the water.

I let the tank sit overnight with just the powerheads (not the skimmer) running and this morning it's not much better. I can probably only see an inch into the tank. It's a 55-gal. I have two powerheads at each back, upper corner poing toward the front middle. Right now they're both pointing in a downward direction.

I got Aragonite sand from Carib-Sea. It is a VERY fine grain. Was this a mistake?

[Kurt]

Well I used aragonite also but not the very fine stuff. Not sure exactly what I used. But I did rinse the aragonite before putting into the tank. That is recommended. But one could rinse time and time again and the water will always become cloudy. My tank was cloudy for a couple days. With your fine aragonite likely will be cloudy longer. Maybe do not point the power heads down as much to let it settle. The fine stuff I think will eventually dissolve into the water. I also do not have an overflow in my tank so over time I get a oily surface on my water. So I am in the habbit of using a jug about 1 liter and hold it bottom down deep into the water and let the surface water flow slowly into the jug. This way lots of the surface oil will end up in the jug and discarded. This is the way I do my water changes. I believe your surface scum will eventually go away but good to skim the surface. Good luck to ya.