Sand Storm, What to Do?

[grimreefer]

I am building a 120gal setup. There is no livestock in the tank as of yet, only water and sand. I added water two days ago and added the sand yesterday. It has created very murky water and hasn't changed in about 20 hours. What is the best way to allow this to settle? Should I continue to run power heads and the return pump or only the return pump or only the power heads or turn all pumps and circulation off.

 

[purplegorilla]

I have a extra brand micro filter sock that you can buy and put it under the overflow line to help clear it up.

 

[rbredding]

what type of sand do you have?

I used Seachem's Meridian and after thoroughly washing it, the sand actually didn't cloud up too badly... (I added water to sand, though, not the other way around..)

I think that filter socks on your drains has been the way other people have addressed the issue...

IMO, powerheads running full bore will only help filter out the silty clays that cause the dust storms.. (by getting them in the water column so they can in turn be filtered out)

 

[grimreefer]

Okay, Thanks. I'll continue running the power heads and return and add filter socks.

 

[brianjfinn]

I'd turn off the power heads and run a filter sock. The power heads are only making it more difficult for the suspended material to settle.

 

[jdabs]

Also, if you have any type of HOB filter that will help pull a lot of the stuff out. I ran one on the back of my tank for a day or 2 and it did a great job helping clear things up.

 

[brianjfinn]

Yeah, you want as much mechanical filtration as possible.

 

[rbredding]

brianjfinn;455575 wrote: I'd turn off the power heads and run a filter sock. The power heads are only making it more difficult for the suspended material to settle.

I thought the point was to get the stuff that "suspends easily" out of the system so that it won't be kicked up in the future..

(my advice was operating under the assumption that you were trying to BOTH end the current sandstorm AND prevent future events.. )

 

[brianjfinn]

Rbredding;455634 wrote: I thought the point was to get the stuff that "suspends easily" out of the system so that it won't be kicked up in the future..

(my advice was operating under the assumption that you were trying to BOTH end the current sandstorm AND prevent future events.. )

Unless you're using really dirty sand (or an extremely fine sand) or you're going for high flow at all points in the tank, it won't get kicked up again after it settles. You may have some, a small amount, on the live rock that gets kicked up again, but not enough to cause an issue or hang around for a long time. Most suspended particles will fall down to the bottom of the tank and mix in with the rest of the substrate.

Of course, you do have the option, if you choose, to remove all of the suspended particles with mechanical filtration. This does require more cleaning of the filter media, but may be quicker (depending of flow rate) than waiting for it to settle.