the long awaited sand tank is up and running with the new live plants and old fish. Tricks I used were the play sand from Home Depot $3.00 a bag, to rinse I used the bucket trick and filled it half way with sand and the rest water and let the bucket overflow pushing the sediment out. Next made the sand bed in the tank and mixed a few stones in, the trick to keeping a fairly clear tank is running the water in as slow as possible. We used a cup and let the water trickle on the side glass of the tank (this minimized the cloudy water) Next we bit the bullet and set the statues and the live plants started with a clean fresh filter and cycled this for about 12 hours or so adding what chemicals were needed along the way. After everything was regulated we set in the bubble bar and hooked up the aireator this moved some of the silt from the sand around after this cleared up we added the fish back into the tank with a stable environment for them. Patience is a virtue for sure with sand and you have to be willing to go slow for each move to minimize the milky cloud effect from the sand
