Cloudy tank

[Joshua L.]

I just filled my 28 gallon tank with water for the first time. I added the sand before I put the water in. I did not wash the sand first (will not make the same mistake again).

The tank became very cloudy. I then ran my protein skimmer and powerheads for a few hours. It did not help at all. I then let things settle for about 24 hours with all the equipment off. I noticed great improvement in water clarity. However, I had foam and bubbles everywhere. I decided to run all the equipment again and it immediately became cloudy again.

Now I have a very cloudy tank with foam all over. What should I do? Should I just turn everything off until the water is clear? If i do, I feel like once I turn everything back on again it will immediatley become cloudy. Any suggestions or answers would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Kodiak]

Its probally a "sand storm." all ur sand is mixed with the water. It will appear to be cloudy, but its really sand, thats what happened to me. turn off equitment and let it sit for 72 hours.

Or it could be dirty water from the sand.

 

[Squawkbert]

Rinse sand thoroughly, start over.

 

[Sploke]

Is it live sand, or was it just dry sand? Is there anything else in the tank like liverock? If not, I would do a few large water changes, effectively rinsing the sand in the tank. draw off about 50% of the cloudy water, fill it up and stir teh sand like crazy, let it settle for about 5 min, then do another water change...repeat until it doesn't get so cloudy when you stir it. If there's nothing in the tank besides sand you can just do it with fresh water. If not, I would draw off some sw and put lr in a bucket then do it, and refill with fresh sw.

 

[david123]

I had exactly the same - i turned everything off apart from my filter - within about 40 hours it was crystal clear - dont worry. if you still have foam on top afterwards just catch it with a net - there will be foam around the top for about 3 days but this goes - this was my experience anyway - i also had a load of live rock and turbo snails as this was happening so i was very worried but everything is fine now.

 

[Riverserver]

Just let it settle for awhile. If your sand came in a bag with water in it, you don't rinse it. You can speed it up if you turn your heater up.

I think mine took 3 or 4 days to be completely clear.