sand substrate questions

[Statman]

i just bought 2 bags of i believe it was called arconite sand for my tank. I live in Iowa so going outside to wash it off is not an option right now, and I figured it was too big of a mess to do indoors. So i just dumped it in and figured I'd just give it time to filter through all the dust.

Well I awoke today to see its pretty much cleared up. I reached in to pull a suction cup thingy that had fallen off the wall, and in the process stirred the sand a little. POOOF! Dust everywhere again. I now realized that the entire bottom is covered in a layer of dust.

Questions:
(1) If I continue to stir it up daily, will it eventually filter out?
(2) Is it harmful to the fish if there is dust either swirling around, or settled at the bottom?
(3) And just to clarify what ive read elsewhere... The best way to clean sand is to use a gravel vac and hold it several inches above the sand, right?

Thanks!

[tre8160]

Really it's not a good idea to let the filter take care of it, sand will get caught in the impeller and the result, a noisey filter. Whenever I've rinsed sand I always just fill a 5g bucket half full of sand then full of water and stir it around by hand, dump the dust refill the bucket and repeat untill clear. The best method I've found for vacuuming sand is to swirl the gravel vac just above the substrate, the swirling moves the sand around and kicks up the junk to be vaccumed out.

[Statman]

will this eventually filter out though? or is it just going to continue to settle on the bottom?

[Leopardess]

It should eventually filter it out, yes. If you have a power head, you could attach a sponge filter to it and run that, allowing it to clean the gunk out for you. Running your filter to filter out heavily particled water can mean a lot of sediment running through the system which can damage it.

In the future, get a 5g bucket and go into the bathtub to rinse it.

Do you have fish in there now, with it all messed up? It can harm the fish (imagine all the dusty particles going through the gills) if it's really bad. Consider doing several large water changes to help clear it out.

If the sediment has settled onto the sand, the best route would be to do as you say and use a gravel vac over the sandbed.

[Statman]

no there arent gonna be any fish in it for awhile. when i woke up this morning and saw that it had all settled, as opposed to being filtered out, i figured i was gonna have to empty the tank and start over or somthing. as long as i know that it will eventually filter, im fine waiting it out. just wanted some reassurance on that.

[Leopardess]

Well if it has all settled, your best option would be to siphon it off and NOT let it filter out. It would likely take weeks to get it all out anyway.

[pbrack]

I always thought aragonite wasn't the best option for FW setups. I may be wrong though. It contains a lot of Ca and can raise the KH significantly. I use it in my SW setup. IMO you could change to a more inert sand which will have the same visual effect, without any water chemistry effects.

Hope this helps.

[Statman]

at 20 bucks a bag, im gonna make it work.

[Statman]

i think i might just drain the tank, pull out as much sand as i can get, and wash it all out.

[Leopardess]

Yah, I missed that part about it being argonite. That stuff will likely shoot your pH,gH, kH way up.

You wouldn't happen to be keeping cichlids, would you???

[Statman]

Yah, I missed that part about it being argonite. That stuff will likely shoot your pH,gH, kH way up.

You wouldn't happen to be keeping cichlids, would you???

that is gonna be the plan once i get this dust cleaned up.

[pbrack]

In that case, I wouldn't worry too much about it then. It still clouds up my tank after big water changes. The first few days are the worst. Also, if you can add lots of rocks, caves, decorations, etc. to break up the flow from the filters or fish, which will prevent the constant "dusty" look.

[tre8160]

That'll be perfect as long as your keeping lake cichlids, agronite substrates are very common in a lake cichlid tank. I use crushed coral in my malawi set up,the bag says little rinsing required, HA, I beg to differ :D

[Statman]

i figured it would be a little dusty if i didnt wash it out first, but man. that was just plain nuts how much dust is on that crap! guess i learned my lesson, cutting corners is not allowed.

[pbrack]

Don't forget that most of the dust comes from the fact that when packaged, the crushed coral grinds off other little pieces of crushed coral. When rinsing it, that's what happens too. So it's not really worth rinsing it IMO. IT'll just clear itself off after a while.

[Statman]

well i just dont know what to do. yesterday i scooped out as much of the sand as i could, put it in buckets in my bath rub an rinsed it out. i rinsed each load 7 or so times, and the water never ran clear. but it got a lot less cloudy. is it supposed to run clear?

anyway i figured i had cleaned it all enough so i put it back in, and filled the tank with water. instantly it was a dust cloud again, and yet again, overnight it has just all settled instead of filtering out.

if i hadnt paid 40 bucks for this stuff i would just give up on it at this point. any ideas?

[pbrack]

Since it's mostly heavy dust from corals, every time the crushed coral gets disturbed it will make more dust. But I wouldn't worry about it. As long as it settles, you'll be fine. Like I said, I have some in my SW tank, and everytime something moves, a little cloud comes, but it won't be a lot. And when you do a water change, it'll cloud up, but it should clear within a few hours.

In other words, you could start your cycle now.

[Sploke]

In order to rinse it enough to get it clear, you're probably going to lose 25-30% of the volume. I know people who have used play sand for turtles and fish, and this is usually the case. Play sand is also way cheaper than that stuff you bought. But, you'll probably have to rinse each load out 12-15 times to get the water clear. Put like 8" of sand in the bucket, fill it up with water and stir like mad. Wait about 5 seconds and pour out everything that is still swirling around, since thats the stuff that causes the clouds. Do this enough times so that when you stir the sand, its all settled within 4-5 seconds. Like it said, you're going to end up washing a lot of it down the drain. Letting the filter take care if it is probably not a real good idea, if tiny bits of sand get into the impeller they'll wear it down, significantly shortening the life of the filter.

[Statman]

so i AM supposed to rinse it long enough for it too be clear? i didnt know if it would actually run clear being sand and all. man this is turning into a huge project.