Earthling84

I purchased some live sand today for my saltwater tank. Actually it might not be sand but like crushed up coral/rock.

Anyways, I put it in my tank, and it has made my tank really cloudy(can't see more then about 2'' into the tank. It has been over 2 hours since I put it in and still the cloudy-ness hasn't gone down.

I have everything turned off on the tank(except the heater). What is floating doesn't look to be large particles, and I ran a fine net through the water and it came up clean. I would have thought to have caught some sand size particles.

How long does this take to clear? When can I turn on my filter?

Thanks!

sirdarksol

I know how I'd answer for a FW tank, but I'm afraid that my answer may screw up a SW tank, so I'm just posting to keep the thread alive (and therefore more likely to be seen by someone more knowledgeable) and to say Welcome to Fishlore, because I don't think I've seen you around yet.

Earthling84

I decided to hang on an old filter I have. This old filter is super loud(got sand in it a while back) so I use it when cleaning tanks as to not clog the main filter.

I figured I'd hang it on and let it clear the tank, then turn on my regular filter once clear.

I just turned it on about 5mins ago so we'll see how it works soon

sirdarksol

Pretty close to my answer.
When I have a sand (or more often, fluorite) cloud in my tank, I just let the filter run and clean the old media out after the first day.

Earthling84

wouldn't running the filter clog it or perhaps make it loud like the one I am using?

The main filter on the tank is a canister. The 'loud' filter is a power filter(hang on back). I am not sure if a canister can become sand clogged and get loud like a power filter.

sirdarksol

I've never had a problem with my HOBs getting clogged, though I suppose it's possible, and if they did, I suppose it could cause the kind of problem you're seeing/hearing.

sgould

Well, I've not used crushed coral in either of my salt tanks, but the cloudiness I got with live sand pretty much settled out within 24 hours.