Sick as a chip

it did clear for a few days and I thought I had beaten it, then as soon as I started to clean the dust/sand off the rocks, it goes cloudy and takes another day or 2 to clear, and the dust/sand is back on the rocks and glass again ?
I was so happy to see it clear, I called my mates up and invited them to come and see the glass box with water in it, I was that pleased with myself.
(I know sad)

 

i took the pumps out completley to avaoid "temptation" i will get the filter sorted tomorrow, I am also running a coralife 6X in line, will this affect the sand at all ?

 

You will want more water movement IME Scuba Ken

once we have the tank crystal clear, it may be worth trying one of them again but pointed upwards directing flow across the water surface

the coralife UV will not be effecting the sand

it could be a bacterial cloud as mentioned by Elweshomayor
its often difficult to tell from images (one source of cloudy water looks pretty much the same as any other source of cloudy water)



Steve

 

Definitely.

 

His powerheads are too big for the tank. I have a 90 and it was all I could do to keep my evo750s from blowing the sand around.As for the cloudiness I am pretty sure if you stop blowing the sand around it will go away.

 

agreed Vinny

1st priority get the tank clear
2nd priority - get the water moving



Scuba Ken once the tank has cleared if you direct one of the existing fans across surface and yet still get depressions in the sand bed as the water circulates around the tank then your fans are probably to powerful

they may be correct size for a standard long tank of the gallonage you have, because the flow would gradually reduce as it travels across tank and thus have limited force when it meets the opposite tank wall and therefore not move the sand
in a cube tank the opposite wall comes sooner and the wave created may still have plenty of power and cause the sand to move underneath the area the flow makes contact with that opposite tank wall

if this occurs down grading to less powerfull wavemakers that create a wave that runs out of much of its force before it hits the opposite tank wall, would be a good move IMO

Ignore the numbers below, they are just there for example sake
2 pumps of 750 gph are often a better proposition than 1 pump of 1500 gph IME

 

ok tank clear as glass, 2nd photo turned 1 fan on, 3rd photo, shows sand whisping around rocks
there is quite a lot of fine sand moving on the ground, is this normal ? it appears to be making shapes at the base of the rocks ?

 

Scuba Ken

looks to me like the fan you have on is oversized for that tank
suggest you replace it with 2 smaller ones about half the size
the water is being bounced off the walls and the undertow is what is causing the sand to shift

Steve

 

fair enough, so what about when i am not running the fans ? this is the 2nd time i have ever ran any fans.
without the fans running i cant keep the sand off the rocks or the glass, how do i make it harder and stay on the floor ?

 

Did you get the sand from petsmart or petco?I bought some sand one time from petsmart[I believe the same kind as you] and it was crap.After a year it still looked cloudy.I just removed it and got some better stuff.It cost more but looked a whole lot better.Also I don't think that is to much flow for good sand.I had 4 evo 1400s on my 75 gallon that switched on and off 2 at one time every 30 seconds or so.