When will my water clear?

[unwired]

Hi,

I've started setting up my nano reef by adding some live sand and plain aragonite sand to my Nano tank and sump.

The directions say that it could take a day or two for the siltation to subside.
The water still looks murky after two days and is perhaps even worse today than yesterday.

On the flip side, I have a 6Gall tank I was going to use as a backup and the sand in there (started at the same time is clear already).
Is it just that I have less water in there or could a slower powerhead be a difference too?

There is a lot of flow going thru my main nano tank and I wonder if that isn't making things worse. Should I turn the pump off or is it better for bacteria growth if I leave it on? Does the siltation on top of the sand itself stifle the bacteria at all? I'd run some sort of mechanical filtration but I don't want to remove anything that could be helpful just to rid myself of the cloudiness.

I'm picking up the live rock today and and still concerned about the murkiness and if it will adversely affect what I put in.

Suggestions welcome.

 

[KidNano]

What size is the tank that isn't settling? I've never had this problem, so I can't be too much help, but I would probably turn my pump off for an hour and see if that changes anything. do you have a filter or anything hooked up to it that might be able to remove it. Usually I see people reccomend activated carbon to clear up water.

Let's see what others say. :???:

how about a picture of the tank?

 

[davenia7]

What about a bacterial bloom?
I know FW does this all the time. I think if you got a significant die-off from the live rock, you could get a really strong beneficial bacterial bloom that clouds the water. Thing is, if it's sand in the water... it'll carve your impellers and possible make them not work and/or very noisy.
If bacterial blooms happen in SW like FW, I'd put $$ on that.

 

[unwired]

I'm going to guess that it's not a bacterial bloom or it would be much more common. If anything I think theere is agenerally a bacteria die off during the time the sand is in the bag but that they pack in so much that enough lives to start things going.

I think the heavy dust is perhaps b/c of the fine grain of both the live and and aragonite sand I used (that and my inability to rinse everything first).


My tank is oly 9G but the sump is another 10G. I've added a 10-20G hang on filter with carbon pack forthe time being just till I get things cleared up a bit. I figure it's prob a good thing to just hae around the house anyhow.

I'm going to push off getting the live rock until sunday. Hopefully everything will be clear and clean by then. IT IS strange though how my 6G glass tank has the same water and sand but with less filtration and it's almost 100% clear already.

Thanks.

 

[KidNano]

It's probably because of the flow. what is the turn over rate on each tank? Is your pump blowing accross the sand? I've got about 14x -16x on both of my tanks and stuff like that settles with in an hour or two.

I'll admit I'm inexperienced, but I doubt it's a bacterial bloom with the tank only being up 2 days.

 

[unwired]

MY 9G is using a Rio 1100 in the sump with a 4ft lift. I'm guessing that I'm still over 100gph. The nozzle intake is not pointed too low so I'm not sure if much is lifting off the sand bed or not. (The 6G has a Mini-jet 606 inside and it just runs to a tickle pad at the top of the tank so I'm prob. over 100 gph there, but not much to disturb the sand below.)

I suppose time will tell.

 

[Trogdor]

can you post some photos of your setup? I'm curious as to how your pumps are setup. Did you rinse your sand before adding it to the tank? If not then you probably have some super fine particles that are going to take awhile to settle. I wouldn't turn your pumps off. The worse thing is to have stagnant water.

 

[The Kapenta Kid]

IMO it is just fine particles because you did not wash the sand, and rightly so in the case of the live sand. Why wash away bugs that you have bought. It will settle.

 

[Trogdor]

i was referring to rinsing the aragonite sand that he used. I rinsed mine and it was amazing how much junk I found in it. Hell I even found a LPS skeleton, several large shells and a piece about the size of my fist. I don't think that was 0.1mm...lol

 

[dancefish]

when you added the carbon pack did you first rinse it :?:
if not this too could also add to your cloudiness most likely though it is just a lot of fine particles in the water creating your problem :cry:
so as they say go slow in time it will dissipate & all will be fine I'm sure but do check to see if your filter is picking up any debris that can be rinsed out :gcool

 

[dancefish]

also this my sound out of place but try doing a water change of 50% this will help and as you have not been using this water( that you removed) you can set it off to the side let it settle then skim off the clear water & later reuse it
hope this helps & best of luck on your tank

 

[The Kapenta Kid]

i was referring to rinsing the aragonite sand that he used. I rinsed mine and it was amazing how much junk I found in it. Hell I even found a LPS skeleton, several large shells and a piece about the size of my fist. I don't think that was 0.1mm...lol

Yep, but they would have all been good for your substrate even if you had dumped them in. I even found a couple of knuckle-bone sized lumps of something in live sand (Ocan Direct). It's just the fines that can be a nuisance, and in my case I was prepared to put up with them for a few days.

 

[unwired]

Some good news. The small Hang on Fiter seems to do the job pretty well. I woke up this morning and things looked pretty clear. I've dumped what's in the filter and rinsed it a few times to keep it from getting too filthy.

Since I now know the drill I decided to churn up the sand a little bit and let the filter do a bit more work before I start throwing stuff in. I figure many fish likely kick up the sand anyhow so the more work I do now the better things will be. I do intend on removing the h.o.t. filter completely once things have calmed down. If someone every fixed the attchment upload capability I'll be sure to do some posting.

I'm hoping to get the live rock in this week and start testing my water levels. I also bought a bottle of 'cycle' so I'll see if that stuff helps at all. I'm impartial so far but some people seem to really love the stuff.

 

[The Kapenta Kid]

Good to hear it.
You are not restricted to sending pics as attachments. If you host them somewhere like Photobucket you can just link to them and have them any size you want.

 

[Wolfgang]

I had the same problem when I put some live sand into my latest setup. I use a sponge filter dedicated to saltwater, aswell as a magnum hott 250 with a micron filter cartridge in it. I put 40#'s of sand into a 30L and put the 2 filters on it, and it cleared it up in about 1/2hr.

I use them for every tank I set up, just rinse and repeat.

Jamie :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:

 

[unwired]

Attempt at some images of my 9G custom Nano

As suggested, I opened a photoucket account so I could start sharing my latest work.

The first image is of the Pukani live rock I added in today.

Close-up. I used 1/4" Plexi wirth a blacket back. Did the overflow comb myself with a dremel tool and router bit attachment.

Side View. Tests will be moved to the sump.

Super cheap Durso. Home Depot 1/2" sprinkler pipe and 90deg PVC joints.

Large check valve prevents backflow in case of power failure.

Super Secret Sump - Under desk.

Close-up of the Macro

View of tank with 2x 32W PC light

 

[Trogdor]

Looks good. Can I give you one piece of advice? Ditch the cheap hydrometer and get a good refractometer. Those float arm hydrometers are very touchy and can trap tiny air bubbles, causing your readings to be off.

 

[unwired]

Actually I have two hydrometers (and they never measure the same).

I have to hunt for the refractometer somewhere in the house. Apparently they are cheaper than they used to be so it might pay to just buy one.

Thanks.

 

[reefman23]

Nice setup!

One thing though... is that the standard placement of the 2x 32W PC lighting? I would just suggest moving it down to just a couple inches above the water level when you begin adding corals.

Keep us updated... feel free to start a thread for your tank in the "Nano - 20 and under" section!

Jesse

 

[unwired]

Thanks.

I suppose that's the benefit of having hung the fixture on the shelf tracks.
I needed the extra space while setting everything up and getting into the overflow behind the tank to watch for leaks. Is there some sort of wattage/distance calculation? I see many folks using 9W lights on nanos and thought that 32w would be plenty.

Thanks.