Cloudy water

[jas1292]

Hi everyone,

I am starting a new reef tank. I have a 75 gal.
After adding salt I proceeded to add sand. I added about 150 lbs. of south down play sand.
My water has been cloudy for about four days
now wondering if anybody had any ideas. I have
used some carbon, micron filter to try to clear
it up. Nothing is working. Some one told me it
could be calcium but that did not sound right to
me. Any ideas would be very helpfull.

Thanks....

 

[Anonymous]

From my experience, the "2% milk effect" will clear up once you get some bacteria in there. Just gently toss some live rock in there or some live sand, the bacteria will "bind" to the silt.

 

[BROKER]

I used my skimmer and a sponge (not a kitchen one

). I also agree w/ tessary, the live rock caught alot of the sand.

[ March 03, 2002: Message edited by: BROKER ]</p>

 

[esmithiii]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote

From my experience, the "2% milk effect" will clear up once you get some bacteria in there. Just gently toss some live rock in there or some live sand, the bacteria will "bind" to the silt.

This is quite true. Place a small, dead shrimp in the tank if you do not have LR. It will start the cycle and get the bacteria moving. I would also do a series of small water changes using water from an existing tank (your post made it sound like you already have an existing tank. If not, DO NOT get water from your LFS's tanks.)

Part of your problem was adding the sand AFTER the water, which can make it look like vitamine D whole milk for a while.

Ernie

 

[jas1292]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I will go ahead and put some livesand and rock in the tank. Did not want to put it in not being sure once again thanks for the help.

 

[Jimmy G]

Get your skimmer going too, that'll really help clear it up.