i added a bunch of bags to my new aquarium, a lot of the sand stayed at the top floating for the past 2 days, also my 2 fluval c4 filters keep sucking it up and getting clogged, any recommendations would be appreciated
Take a damp paper towel and wipe it across the water and glass. It will pick up the floating grains of sand.
im new to sand, havent had an aquarium since the early 90s and back then i used gravel only, should i be turning off the filters every time i disturb the sand?
I do not, but I do not use the sand you are using. I use BDBS and pool filter sand. If the sand you are using is very find and prone to dusting up then yes I would shut down the filtration. Sand can do mean things to the impellers in filters.
Even though aquarium sand is cleaned and dried before packaging, it usually contains a lot of dust and shoud be rinced several times before being poured into an empty tank. And the company that processes the sand could have left in small pieces of wood or sticks that will never sink. My best suggestion would be to use something rigid that won't scratch the bottom glass like a fish net handle and stir the heck out of all the sand with filtration off to remove all trapped air bubbles from the sand so there will be no air pockets in the bottom. Wait one minute only and then use the same net to remove anytking and everything that is still suspended in the water and discard it and rince the net. Then turn the filter back on and remove anything else that the filter current cause to float around. If you have any problems with sand getting into the filter in the future. I recommend that you buy a small black sponge prefilter to slip over the filters intake tube.
Next time look into BDBS (Black Diamond Blasting Sand) I have it in all but one aquarium. I use the Med-corse grit. It does not dust up at all, is very easy to rinse, and is $8.00 or less for a 50 Lb. bag. I get mine here. There is one 4 miles from where I live.
wish i had purchased that to begin with, just order prefilter sponges made for fluval edge, maybe theyll work on my c4
There are black foam filters at your local pet shop that you hook up to air pumps to use as stand alone filters. But the same black sponges are available as frefilters that keep newborn fry from getting sucked up. Fluval makes a prefilter that you can get online for $2.99 at chewy.com I don't know the shipping cost.
I know that chewy.com ships within 1 to 2 days. If you need something before the prefilter arrives...rubber band a knee high ladies stocking over it. I think you can still get the for about a buck or less at a dollar store or pharmacy.
i havent checked the tank since friday, when i add plants or move things around in the tank is this always going to be a problem? should i wrap the suction side of fx6 with a prefilter?
Sliding a sponge prefilter over the intake tube would be the safer than sorry route. It would give you a little extra biological filtration because bacteria will grow in it, but it's going to catch all the gunk in the tank and need cleaning at least every 3 days. It's not hard to do. Just turn the filter off, put a plastic bag in the water allowing it to get about half full of aquarium water and carefully slide it over the prefilter and tighten the bad around the prefilter and slide the prefilter of the intake tube. Then take the bag out of the water and use your hand to squish the prefilter through the bag a few times. The water will get very dirty. After you've squished the debris out of the sponge, reach in the bag and squish it one more time and use your hand to slide it back over the intake tube, plug your filter back in and dispose of the dirty water in the bag. It should all take you less than 5 minutes.
If it's anything like the nat geo sand, the floating bits are just because of air and surface tension. They will sink eventually. It looks the same as the nat geo I bought. I tried rinsing it and realized the floating sand sinks once it gets water all the way around the grain, and it would float again if air from the hose got to the bottom of my bucket. Next time use the bottle trick. Fill a 2 liter bottle 3/4 full of sand and then add water. Tumble it a bunch of times until no sand floats. Let it settle a bit, squirt out the dark water, and refill with fresh water. Then put the bottle under water and take the cap back off. Turn the bottle upside down near the bottom and squeeze sand out. Mess free way of adding sand to an established tank. The nat geo sand is heavy, I'd think the imaginarium is the same. I cant even get the sand sucked out with my python on purpose. It goes halfway up the cylinder and then falls again. Hopefully yours is the same. If that's the case you wont have to worry about anything other than accidentally rescaping the sand when cleaning.
