cloudy sand!

[reefmagnet]

hi anyone use oldcastle sand (aka southdown)? I have it in my 10 gallon and it was clear for a while until i had to move the LR and it clouds easily. I have a 150gal cycling and I already put the sand it and its cloudy, I hope that everytime a fish or I decide to move the sand around, it'll cloud. I rather pay more money for sand that doesnt cloud than go through this mess. I heard about the bacteria sticking to the sand etc., but my 10gal is cycled with 2 clown,1 watchman goby, 2 shrimp and a turbo snail. I figure it wouldnt cloud anymore. I wanted to rinse the sand but after 75lbs of it, I was too tired so i dumped the rest of it in the tank. I heard this was ok before doing such things from previous posts.

Thanks!

 

[Mihai]

I use it. Don't worry, the clouding will go away (in my tank it lasted for 5 days). It will cloud less and less (as the small particles either disolve or settle at the bottom of the sandbed).

M.

 

[tangir1]

I am not totally convinced about the bacterial coating hypothesis, but no matter what, you just can't break the law of physics, and that mean you going to get cloudy sand whenever you stir it up.

Since it won't hurt the critter, I would say just let it settle, and don't worrry too much about it.

 

[Anonymous]

I have southdown sand in my 54 gallon corner bow

I had milky colored water for a couple days, but I kept filtering it and got it clear. It has been clear ever since.

However, some people say that if you have really turbulent flow the sand blows all over the place. I notice this when I am cleaning the glass, the sand blows all over the rocks. I then blow it back off with a turkey baster.

The sand sure beats the Crushed shells I had before though

HTH

 

[Anonymous]

Southdown will continue to cloud the tank if you keep moving the rocks around. Once you have the rocks all in place and you gete water flow so it's aimed correctly, shouldn't be a problem.

 

[reefmagnet]

ok, i am going to remove the southdown bedding. what other alternatives are there taht doesnt cloud when the sand is shifted? I want to be able to move rocks around etc., without clouding the tank. it's crazy when my fishes would dig in it or i want to move stuff around and it clouds it. Im willing to pay more for the good stuff

 

[ChrisRD]

A product that comes to mind - CaribSea makes something called "Seaflor Special Grade Reef Sand". It's an oolitic aragonite sand without the super fine particles that cause the clouding issues...

 

[reefmagnet]

hey chris, do you think if i rinse the southdown, it would stop clouding it?

 

[ChrisRD]

Rinsing it will definitely help, but I've never tried rinsing Southdown. By the looks of it (lots of super fine particles) it would take a LOT of effort. Not sure how much sand you'd have left after you get done rinsing...

 

[Anonymous]

Oh, I guess I wasn't clear

My southdown, while it does move around when you move rocks and it does blow around when you use a turkey baster on it, but it does not cloud the water in the least.

However, while I was cycling it I stirred it up a ton before pumping out all the water to do a water change, so that may have a bit to do with it.

HTH

Bryan