set up 150 gallon

i just set up 150 gallon last night,added the heaters,i just have plain water in it now,going to put the sand in today,how long will it take to clear up once i put the sand in,going to put 3 bags of 40 pounds of sand.thanks

 

it really depends on the type of sand you got, the finer it is the long it will tank. if its very fine it could take a couple days. a skimmer will help remove the sand(it needs saltwater to work right though).

 

If you were planning on adding live sand, I would suggest you mix salt in your H20 first--the critters will appreciate it (putting live sand in fresh water will only kill all of the bugs in it...)

Also, you said "plain" water... Is this RO/DI or tap? If you aren't using RO/DI, now is the time to do it! Trust me, it is easier to put it in now and save yourself ALOT of headaches down the road. Even treating tap H20 with something like Prime will NOT remove silicates, phosphates, and other ions that algae love and corals hate...

 

ok thanks,if adding the salt,how long will it take to add the sand,by the way the sand is fine.thanks again

 

everyone is right - NOW is the time to use ro/di water--add the salt and fire off the pumps--let this run for a few hours until salt is dissolved then re-test (add less salt than needed, it is easier to bring it up then to dilute) when adding the sand, cut off the top of the bag and try to sink the bag to the bottom, holding the bag shut. then face the opening to the bottom of the tank and release sand slowly. This will cut down on the cloud a little-I have a 150gal and added the sand when I got home from work, by the next morning it was clear.

 

The 1 time I added sand after the water, it took way too long to filter out the cloudiness. Like a week.

 

ok thanks guys, going use aralive sand

 

I have a 150G as well, and I used oolitic aragonite. I used part dry sand and mostly live sand. The 40 lbs of live sand helped seed the 80lbs of dry sand, and doing it that way is much cheaper than 120lbs of live sand. It took about a week for the cloudiness to clear up. I probably could have dropped the sand in the tank in a cleaner way, but it all works out in the end. I used a canister filter to help sift out the floating particulate and sediment as well. The skimmer didn't seem to do too much, though I had filter floss in my sump so it really didn't make it to the skimmer anyway. The amount of time it will take to properly cycle the 150G system will be far longer than how long it will take to see the cloudiness go away. Just to give you an idea, I let my tank cycle for close to 5 months before I transferred my fish in it. Good luck with this, you will love your tank.

 

ok thanks