New 150g setup, sand cloudiness question

Hello all, I am new to this forum. I have found some great info on it...

Here is my problem. I am not exactly new to the hobby. I still feel I learn something new every single day though. I have a 150 drilled setup I just started. I got the water in it and ran it for about a week then added about 120lbs of caribsea sugar fine sand. I probably didn't rinse it as well as I should have. It has been about a week now and is still very cloudy. My only filtration right now is a sump with a foam block and I added about 15lbs of live rock from my other tank. I plan on seeding tghe live sand too. I have a protein skimmer and fuge on standby. So is there anything I can do to clear up the water a bit? I also have about 50lbs more live rock coming. Should I add this immediately? It is cured....


Thanks
Kenny

 

To clear it up, stop the water movement and let it settle. I'd go ahead and setup the skimmer and let that run, pull the foam block and rinse it I'm sure it's probably really nasty by now. As far as adding more cured rock keep it wet no matter what or it'll start to die and stink like mad

 

I would have to disagree with stopping the water movement, but agree with adding the skimmer at once. The skimmer wil do wonders. I also would temp. install some kind of filter pad to help "catch" the debris. That happened to me two weekends ago when I changed out my sump/refugium. The tank was so black, that I couldnt see ANYTHING!!! The skimmer never stopped working and I had to change out the felt filter pad every 30 mins or so. Your water should have cleared up in 2-3 days max. Luna

 

+1 on what Luna said, especially on the filter pad. They also sell a product that will remove the cloudiness, it is the same stuff that comes in the small package in caribsea's live sand. All it does is coagulate all the super fine particles and into bigger particles and it falls to the bottom. The brand I use it called Kent Pro Clear stuff works great and is completely safe and inert after a short amount of time.

 

sorry I kind of said that wrong in my sleepy haze earlier

when I had this issue I slowed down the flow, i.e. I turned off the powerheads, ran the return pump and skimmer and set the skimmer to wet skim and emptied it around twice a day for a few days, water has been crystal clear since then

 

Thanks for the input guys. I'll definitely do the filter pad and get the skimmer going. I have run into another problem. The tank is cycling. I measured today for amm and nitrite. Amm was like .5 to .8 and nitrite was about .3. Problem is now that I can see through some of the cloudiness. I see some browning on sand and back glass which I assume is diatoms. What are your suggestions on this? The rock I used is from my other tank which the paramaters are good on. It is the only thing I have added so far..

Thanks again!

 

patience, diotems are normal in cycles are you running lights? some say not to run any at all during the first few weeks of the tanks life it keeps algae down

 

Thanks again, I figured it was natural. I was running lights and decided to just run actinic for now from reading other posts. This is the first tank I've actually cycled. My other two which I have had for over 6 years were purchsed off friends and already established. It is funny. I have been doing this for that long and built and bought and tinkered with every piece of equipment or lighting or theory out there. Countless hours of reading, and ofcourse carng for my systems. And I just now am actually cycling my first tank lol. Feels weird....

 

I personaly would cycle a tank without lights, you dont need any type of lighting while cycling, but thats just me. Maybe towards the end. Luna

 

Good one+1