my first sw tank

[pjacobs]

hi, i am making my 16gl bow fw tank into a sw tank. i just cleaned it out, then made up my sw and added live sand and live rock. the sand clouded up a lot. should i have my filter running while sand is settling, or leave it off until sand settles on bottom. also, how long is it supposed to cloud for? thx for you help.

 

[Grins]

It will last anywhere from a few hours to a few days. You can run the filter if you want to help with the dust.

 

[pjacobs]

ok, i was just thinking that the suction from the filter would keep stirring it up, also i just wanted to make sure it wouldn't hurt the filter.

 

[Dustin83]

What kind of filter do you use? I don't know if it will necessarily hurt the filter, but I think the filter media MAY get very dirty. I ran my overflow through sock filters when I cycled the tank just so I can collect all the small debris from the live rock. When I ran it while the water was cloudy because of sand, it turned the filter BLACK in less than a day.

And don't worry about the flow stirring it up. SW tanks require a lot of water movement and eventually you'll want to keep up that movement even when your water clears up.

 

[ricsreef]

Did you pre-clean the sand/rock before you added it?