# cichlid sand and cloudy water please advise



## junior670 (Jun 28, 2013)

new to the cichlid world and forum.. just got my new 75 gal tank and put in 70lbs of cichlid sand and added water, the bag instructed not to rinse or clean prior.. it made the water very cloudy and milky which i knew would happen or thought.. it cleared up a bit over night but as soon as i mixed the sand around to level it out it all kicked up again and was cloudy and milky all over again.. will this always happen or will it all eventually filter out.. there are no fish in the tank and is running with eheim 2217 canister filter.. i dont want ever the fish dig in sand it to kick up and get all cloudy and effect my fish.. will it eventually be okay or should i do something different?

thank you for your help.


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## nodima (Oct 3, 2002)

i've always rinsed sand, but have never bought special sand for my tanks. I'd expect that it will continue to cloud your water when it is disturbed, or until the filter is able to remove the small particles.


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## notchback65 (Apr 3, 2013)

I have 60# 's of Eco Complete Cichlid sand in my 90...if it gets stirred up,mine always settles back really quick.I have an FX5 and my water is always crystal clear,their are always going to be some particles floating,since it is a fine sand but my fish love it! :thumb:


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## triscuit (May 6, 2005)

It'll clear up in a while. Any substrate will give off some cloudiness when disturbed...


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## Yasir saeed (Jan 28, 2013)

with the passage of time this problem will reduce to a great extent. it is nothing to worry about.


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## Bowfront (Jun 3, 2013)

I'd love to see a picture of the bag where it says not to rinse the sand. You rinse and rinse any sand or substrate no matter what anyone tells you. There is no negative effects to rinsing.


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## notchback65 (Apr 3, 2013)

Bowfront said:


> I'd love to see a picture of the bag where it says not to rinse the sand. You rinse and rinse any sand or substrate no matter what anyone tells you. There is no negative effects to rinsing.


I have extra bags...
Here you go :thumb:


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## Bowfront (Jun 3, 2013)

Wow, slap to my face.....

Still should rinse the sand. The only sand I've seen come packed in water is live sand for marine. Learn something new everyday.

.


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## triscuit (May 6, 2005)

Bowfront said:


> Wow, slap to my face.....
> 
> Still should rinse the sand. The only sand I've seen come packed in water is live sand for marine. Learn something new everyday.
> 
> .


This is live sand for freshwater. I'm not sure how stable/viable the biota in the Caribsea eco-complete is, but rinsing it in tap water is sure to make it worse.


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## Gecko1739 (Apr 19, 2013)

Do you have pic of how sand looks in your tank? 
I have wanted to switch to cichlid sand but can't picture how the color will look. and the internet pics don't really help.


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## notchback65 (Apr 3, 2013)

Gecko1739 said:


> Do you have pic of how sand looks in your tank?
> I have wanted to switch to cichlid sand but can't picture how the color will look. and the internet pics don't really help.


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## Gecko1739 (Apr 19, 2013)

Tank looks great!! Well done!
I like it. It is more white than i had hoped, thought about trying to mix in a bag of the zach black sand to bring the reflective white down a bit. Not sure how that would turn out though. It could be a disastrous mistake. I was thinking 40lbs of the sand color and mixing 20lbs of the zach black color.


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## joehorse20 (Mar 11, 2013)

i had/have a similiar problem with my 125. I used 6 or 7 bags. The tank was beyond cloudy and evertime I move anything and vacuum it get's pretty cloudy. I'm hoping after a few more water changes with vacuum over time this will get better. It does look great but i would not use it again or I would rinse the **** out of it
your tank looks good


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## christy_lee (Jun 25, 2013)

I've used this brand of sand before, I got all black. It made my tank cloudy for the first day or so, but I never really had an issue after that. It'll work itself out!


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## Randifer (Nov 4, 2012)

tank1 by randifer, on Flickr

I used the exact same sand. Did not rinse because I wanted to preserve the bacteria in the bag. Not sure if the bacteria helped any or not (I think not)... but i really like the sand. Was cloudy for a few days... but did clear up and then no problems.

I am setting up a larger tank this weekend. Using the same brand sand... but this time using the Super Naturals solid black.

Randy


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## Randifer (Nov 4, 2012)

Ok... almost finished filling my 165 gallon. Used CaribSea Super Naturals black. I was really worried about this sand becuase it is really fine... much finer than the echo-complete that I used on my last tank. So, after reading the warnings on here about cleaning sand before using, I washed this stuff... a lot. I spent a good 4 or 5 hours washing around 100 pounds of sand (maybe a little more). I rinsed and poured until I was pretty sure that I was wasting good sand that I needed in the tank.

Well, I have to say... it was worth it! Above is a short video just to show you that the water is not cloudy at all... Not even a little bit. About half way through filling the tank, i even shot the water stream straight at the bottom of the tank. Everything settled back down almost immediately. I'm hoping to get the filters up and running tonight and some final prep done tomorrow. I'll shoot a better video once that is done.

Randy

**As always... thanks to all of you who post advice on here for newbies like me. It really has saved me a lot of trouble that I would have otherwise had.


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## Randifer (Nov 4, 2012)

Ok... took me all day... but tank is up and running.
Fish seem happy enough... busy trying to argue over who gets which space in the new tank.
I think they are just happy to be out of the 55 gallon and into the 165.

Anyway... water did not cloud up at all. The detailed rinse really did the trick. I can't stress enough how glad I am that I took the advice here and spent the time cleaning the sand. Otherwise there is no way I would have gotten the fish in the tank today.

Here is a video of what it all looks like so far.

Randy


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