SANDY SITUATION!?

I rinsed my sand when I added some but not nearly enough...

I had horribly cloudy water for over a week...


... it is crystal clear now.




Air powered sponge filters (if you have any) do a great job at clearing up the floating debris... but what was a miracle worker for me was putting a paper towel as a pre-filter on my intake (I had a HOB) - changing the paper towel 2 or 3 times a day it cleaned up the water within a few days (after trying everything else for about a week).



I have crystal clear water now... give it time.
 
I never wash my sand....lower your water level to one inch above the sand....let it sit without filters until it settles....slow drip refill in a glass sitting on a saucer...
 
your girlfriend sounds pretty strong. i might not tell her she did it wrong either. ;) good call.
 
CWO4GUNNER said:
Oh and just so you know before placing sand inside an aquarium I now always use a 35 gallon Rubbermaid trash can and rinse about 50 pounds at a time with a garden sprayer outside works way faster then a bucket. Just agitate with about 5 gallons then tip out the gray water again and again about 20-30 times for crystal clear water-sand, you will lose about 10% of the sand lost from silt rinse out though.
Click to expand...

:iagree:This was my plan before the incident
 
dundadundun said:
your girlfriend sounds pretty strong. i might not tell her she did it wrong either. ;) good call.
Click to expand...

haha she dumped it all into a smaller 5gal pail and dumped that into the tank, that was my first thought... well after the initial shock of the substrate already being in the tank... but i did eventually find the sand on my floor from the transfers :jaw-dropping:.
 
*update*
sand is rinsed... painfully filled, siphoned, filled, siphoned till it barely stirred up anything at all then filled it all the way up and its just faintly cloudy now.
im going to try running the biowheel 350 but not the fluval yet.
 
P1030080.jpg


does this look clear enough to run my fluval yet?
 
I would say yes. Just kep an eye on the filters :)
 
Id fire up the filter but I would still place in some poly quilt pads to polish out the silt.

I really like the way the pea gravel looks on the left side in one surface clump, really gives some natural looking transitional texture, If only it wouldn't mix up or go to the bottom.

You may have given me an idea:idea:. I wonder if I could pour out a layer of clear silicone sealant on wax paper and then press a layer of pea size gravel on top and let it cure. then remove the wax paper and excess gravel and trim a shape of a ready made surface outcropping of gravel I could place on top of my sand, hmmm?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom