Forgot to wash sand and now its in the fish tank

[blackwater]

I bought some seachem flourite sand for the 15 gallon but didnt wash it and now the tank is extremely murky with silt on the top of the sand. Would it be possible to drain the water out and wash the sand in the tank?

 

[Azedenkae]

I bought some seachem flourite sand for the 15 gallon but didnt wash it and now the tank is extremely murky with silt on the top of the sand. Would it be possible to drain the water out and wash the sand in the tank?

Yes. You can definitely do that. Just keep on pouring water in, stir through the sand, take out as much of the water somehow, and repeat.

 

[BradleyH2O]

15 gallons seems like a manageable amount of sand to be able to take it out, rinse and put back in. If it were me, I'd drain it and scoop out as much sand as I could into a clean bucket.

 

[SparkyJones]

yeah would be 2/3rd easier and 2/3rd less water used washing the sand in a 5 gallon bucket instead of draining and filling the 15 gallon tank over and over again to clean the sand.

if it were me, I get in there, stir it up really good and drain it down to the sand, scoop it out into a 5g bucket and wash it all out really good, then put it back, then start over. there still will be some silt/ cloudiness to it, but less than what you are seeing now.

I found with sand after washing and then scooping it into the tank slowly with cups a scoop at a time, lowering it in to fill the cup with water, getting close to the bottom and then dumping it out avoids a lot fo the scatter of the fine particles.

if you put it in and fill with a hose it blows it all over the place, if you drop it in from the top, as it spread and sinks more fine particles get into the water and it takes a while for it to settle. filling the tank, then lowering the sand in in cupfuls at a time, at least to me, avoid most of that fine particulate getting kicked up into the water and a faster settling.

 

[blackwater]

I just cleaned my seachem black sand and have been waiting 1 day but the water has not cleared. When I'm doing water changes, the water looks green so its not silt. I got the tank today and washed the substrate. I added water from the sink and from a water change I did on another fish tank. Is this the bacteria cycling?

 

[skar]

I just cleaned my seachem black sand and have been waiting 1 day but the water has not cleared. When I'm doing water changes, the water looks green so its not silt. I got the tank today and washed the substrate. I added water from the sink and from a water change I did on another fish tank. Is this the bacteria cycling?

Either a bacterial bloom or dust from the new sand. Could be both, to clear up the water you can add/use purigen.

 

[blackwater]

Hope its a bacterial bloom
thank you for the advice

 

[adumsoza]

check your ammonia, high levels of it can make water cloudy

 

[blackwater]

I don't have an ammonia test kit because I mainly just use visuals for cycling and regular water changes for fish

 

[ProudPapa]

I just cleaned my seachem black sand and have been waiting 1 day but the water has not cleared. When I'm doing water changes, the water looks green so its not silt. I got the tank today and washed the substrate. I added water from the sink and from a water change I did on another fish tank. Is this the bacteria cycling?

That sounds like algae to me. Less light or more live plants will probably clear it up.

 

[blackwater]

My coyrdoras keep on making the water cloudy. Any tips on how to stop this?

 

[JuiceKong]

Put some filter floss in your filter media box and that will help suck up the particles. It may take a little while but the corys will eventually clean the sand of all loose particles. It is just something you have to deal with when owning corydoras, one of my botanical heavy tanks with corys constantly has mulm in the water column because of them.

 

[SparkyJones]

My coyrdoras keep on making the water cloudy. Any tips on how to stop this?

Get rid of the corydoras. It's what they do and how they eat. as long as you have them it's going to happen.
You could add a stronger filter, a finer micron filter to catch finer particulates, and more flow to try and capture all this fine sediment and remove it from the water column, as it gets kicked up or stirred and in the long run get it all out of there to just the heavier sand.

But yeah, it's what cories do with all of their time.

 

[blackwater]

Thank you! I will definetly look into that

 

[Flyfisha]

How long has the tank been running?
When did you add the sand?

 

[Coradee]

Hi, it seems corys may not be the main culprits here, rather the sand has not been washed thoroughly before putting in the tank, I think we've all made that mistake at some point.
I’ve had tanks with large groups of corys on sand, even on play sand which is very light & never had them make the water cloudy.
The only suggestion I’d make unless you want to drain the tank & start over is add another filter with extra floss & regularly disturb the sand along with frequent water changes & hope it settles down.

I’ve merged the op’s previous threads so all the information is in one place, it may help with suggestions.

 

[SparkyJones]

I've had great success with this product in my wet/dry, the 50 micron version.
Amazon.com

I would suppose you could cut a pad for your filter whether canister or HOB and get similar results, it catches the really fine stuff, even that fine brown stuff that's like a misty powder that builds up in the bottom rocks after years of vacuuming neglect. Stir it up and the entire tank goes brown, can't see a thing not a rock, not a fish, and tank is crystal clear in 12 hours for me, most of it in that filter pad, some settles back into the substrate, then change out the pad. and it's gone from the tank forever.

I have to think even though my tank water just cascades over and through it as wet/dry's do, it would perform the same in other filter types, for sure it will catch finer stuff than sponges do. I don't even ever get cloudy of any sort unless I stir up the bottom before I change the pad. cut to size, install and keep changing until it's were you want it. Can't really wash it out though, I've never tried but just seems like an impossible task and it would probably open up the tiny holes and stretch it out to a larger size losing effectiveness.

you can also start with 200 micron, then switch to 100 micron, then to 50 micron, so you don't instantly jam up the 50 micron with the bigger stuff. or stack 200/100/50 from large to smaller, and each pad catches it's particles. household dust is 0.5 to 100 Microns too small to see to the particles you'll see sometime drifting in a sunbeam.

There's also a clarifier for those smaller than 50 micron particles if those are the problem in an extreme case, it will clump them together into larger particles that makes them sink or be caught in the 50 micron pads.