Sand - Cloudy Water

Hey all,

So I got my tank set up.. I added 70 litres of water first as I was going to get live sand but actually got 30lbs of normal arognite oolite sand instead.

I added the sand (without rinsing, read lots of posts about rinsing vs not rinsing.... well I wish I rinsed but nevermind!!!)

I had both Maxijet 900 powerheads off (920l/hour each).. both of these will turn my 70 litres over about x 25.. thats good right?

Anyway, after adding sand on Tuesday evening tank looked like this...



Great! Couldn't see an Inch in, but I read about leaving all flow off and letting it settle.. next evening (Wednesday) it was like this...



A bit better, but 24 hours and not a lot of change, still couldn't see an inch in!

I decided to do a big water change as suggested by some posts (bascially rinsing the sand in the tank).. I did an 80% water change and was left with this.



Eeek.. I left it overnight to settle and Thursday morning it was like this:



An improvement.. When I got back from work Thursday evening it was exactly the same. I figured seeing as I have no filter (mechanical or live rock ) in there at the moment, its going to take weeks to settle)

So I do another big 80% water change/rinse..



Oooh I can see the back!! I did this last night.. this morning when I came down the tank was pretty much crystal clear!

I thought it didnt make much difference if I turn the powerheads on now or in a weeks time, so I decided to put them both on.. (I placed the 2nd one in the bottom right after this pic was taken).

Now it looks like this:



As said before I have 2 x Maxijet 900's turning the tank over about 25X.

One at top left, one at bottom right.. top left's flow is directed directly right.. the bottom right one's flow is directed diagonally up to the top left powerhead (Hope that makes sense)

The powerheads have stirred up all the sand, I could see all the particles sliding accross the bottom of the sand.. you can see it has rearranged my sand slightly lol.. anyway this seemed to only last about 20 mins and the the powerheads seemed happy with the sand placement!! Tank looked like this after.. Should I leave the powerheads on? If I turn them off and let it settle, when I turn them back on its just going to cloud again right?

Should I do another big water change now that the powerheads are running?

Hoping when I get back from work in 8 hours its going to have settled again but I doubt it with all that flow bouncing around.. so all in all its been almost 3 days of cloudyness!!

Am I going about this ok? I think im just going to leave it to settle now.. Im getting my Live rock next Tuesday, will that help it settle/filter? Is it to to add live rock while the water is cloudy?

FYI: There is no salt in the water yet, didn't want to add it and keep doing big changes - wasting money I will add it and get salt levels right before the Live Rock is in.

Open to any advice, thanks guys.

Martin

Yep - Well I bought it like that so I presume so Its very stable - must just be the design

The powerheads aren't pointing towards the sand at all, but it seems the flow is hitting the other side, then going down and hitting the sand.. The initial effect it had on the sand at the bottom seems to have stopped now.. just lots of small particles floating I guess causing the cloudiness.

Thanks Niko,

Even with just the powerhead at the top on it was stirring the sand as the flow hit the right side of the tank and travelled down to the sand lol.

I will see what its like tonight Hopefully it will be a bit clearer.. Its ok to add the live rock when its this cloudy yeh?

I noticed in your blog, yours didn't seem cloudy at all

Well I didn't touch it but came home tonight to this:



Happy Days.

Gonna add the salt now and get ready for my Live Rock.

Thanks for the advice

Got my live rock today! Ordered it online, impressed with the service! Rock looks okay to me, but im no expert hehe. Quite a bit of purple and other colours.



Didnt really Aquascape, just wanted to get it in the water, but I did push it down through the sand on to the glass.... was gonna move it around, but i think I kind of like the chucked in look lol



Couldn't see any critters in the bottom of the bags, or on the rocks but I will be keeping my eye out - prob will spend hours staring at it now lol

Got the raw prawn in the top left, so the cycle begins

Once cycled gonna go for the clean up crew.. thinking around 5 red legged hermits (and spare shells), and 5 turbo/cerrith snails to start with. Seem ok? Would like a Cleaner Shrimp as well

For my fish stocking, 2 Clowns and a Yellow Tailed Damsel is what i would like - this ok for a 20 gallon? I guess 3 is my limit, 4 may be pushing it? Would those fish get on okay together?

No skimmer for now, no filter, just 2 powerheads (x25ish) and 10Kg of Live Rock.

Been looking for a while, cant see a lot.. I can see a couple of things that im not sure of:



Some sort of snail? its only about 3/4 of a cm. Looks like a shell with a red tip stuck sideways on to the rock.. hasn't moved yet so maybe just a shell but it is sideways floating.



This just looks weird, maybe something, or maybe just a root from an old coral or something? Not sure.

Are these anything living?

Sorry for pic quality - using phone.