grr?

[littleboyblue16]

ok i bought a bag of agronite from A.I.
and the guy told me to wash it out, which i did, like 10 times maybe more, and i put it in my tank and filled it up, and its super cloudy and i thought i washed it good, so is there anyway for me to make it not so cloudy, everytime i move it, my tank goes white

[Invigor]

run some filterfloss for a bit, should clear up overnight

[littleboyblue16]

i have done that, but then u move the sand a bit and it goes white again, like its the sand, its just not that clean, hmmm who knows lol

[TSUNAMI]

This is a common occurrence with sugar aragonite.
It doesn't matter how much you wash it, there will always be some degree of cloudiness involved. One way to resolve this without starting over again, is to use a flocculating agent that makes the dust stick together into larger clumps. These clumps are then easily removed by your filter. Seachem offers a wonderful (reef safe) product called Clarity that works better than anything I've seen before. It should clear your tank in a couple of hours! Note: using a strong powerhead to keep everything in suspension so it can be filtered out, gives a better result.


The other method takes some time and will require a good deal of patience on your part. Just continue setting everything up according to plan and add your live rock. When the bacteria in your tank begins to multiply and coat all available surfaces ( sometimes referred to as biofilm ) the problem will solve itself! A good example of this is when people add a product called Aragamilk to their established reef tanks. Aragamilk is basically powdered aragonite ( more or less identical to the dust suspended in your tank) and is added to boost alkalinity,calcium and trace minerals. In an established reef tank the cloudiness caused by adding this product always clears within an hour or two and often as fast as thirty minutes. So if you have patience (note- you will need this to succeed in the reef hobby!! ) add your rock and mabey a good bacteria supplement like Marc Weiss Bacter Vital and sit back and wait.
If you don't, get your butt down to the fish store and grab some Clairity.

Cheers and best of luck with your tank!!
T

[Quinn]

Yup, just give it time. My 150 gal took a week or two to clear up... I didn't rinse the sand at all.

[Jason McK]

I did the same as Teevee, Didn't rinse my sand at all. It freaked me out (because It forgot to rinse) but in about a week it was clear and I could dig in the sand and no dust would cloud the water.

Jason

[littleboyblue16]

yeah i have tride taking it out and recleaning it and its still clouds my water, but i can just wait, like i was thinking, i can let it go all clear put my liverock in, but if i wanted a goby or something that digs, all the cloudyness will come back....


matt

[Aquattro]

You aren't supposed to wash sugar sand. And you are supposed to wait for bacteria to colonize the sand. This will stop any clouding. Right now, other than you washed away a lot of the finer grains you bought the sugar sand for, the tank is behaving normally.

[PrairieReefer]

Even with fish that dig if you have patience you won't have a problem. Once the sand is coated with bacteria it settles to the bottom quickly. It took my tank about 10 days to clear when first set up. I didn't wash my sand at all. For about 2 months, if the sand got stirred, the tank would cloud up for a while (3 or four hours). Since then however, if the sand is stired the water clears in under a minute. I had a couple of Yellow-headed Sleeper Gobies in my 75g and they dug around all day long. I had no noticeable cloudiness in my water.

Just put some live rock in, sit back and relax. You have to have loads of patience in this hobby and things will go good for you. Rush it and you will have nothing but trouble and headaches.

[littleboyblue16]

grrr now i feel stupid!, but really it wasnt my fault! the guy at A.I. told me to wash it, i knew with chrushed coral you arnt supose to wash it too, grr -bangs head on keyboard-

thanks for the help everyone :P