Sand Clouding the Aquarium

[praveen956]

Hi.. I added 20 pounds of CarribSea (Fiji Pink) sand to my new 29 gallon aquarium about 24 hours back and it cleared a bit but not completely yet.
I did not rinse the sand as it is a live sand.
From reading the other posts, I understand that it clears by itself in time.
My question is, will it cloud the the aquarium like this whenever I siphon the water during water change? Please share your experience & thoughts on this..

[JVan82]

Mine cleared in a day or 2 and have little to no clouding during water changes or sand bed vacuuming

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[gffpm1247]

I went through the exact same thing but I was advised to to keep stirring the sand which yes makes it more cloudy. However when sand is stirred it doesn't cloud up except in the area it's stirred just for a moment

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[mcgyvr]

Cloudy water is 100% normal when you just added sand.. It can be hours to days to a week or so to settle..

Just give it time to settle and all will be fine..

And no it should not cloud up again when you siphon water during a water change.. Well unless you disturb the sand again (so don't do that)..
Just suck out water.. Leave the sand bed alone..

[praveen956]

Originally Posted by mcgyvr

Cloudy water is 100% normal when you just added sand.. It can be hours to days to a week or so to settle..

Just give it time to settle and all will be fine..

And no it should not cloud up again when you siphon water during a water change.. Well unless you disturb the sand again (so don't do that)..
Just suck out water.. Leave the sand bed alone..

Thanks all for your comments.. So I should not disturb the sand bed while siphoning .. Im used to freshwater gravel aquariums and I stir up the gravel well to take out all the waste..


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[mcgyvr]

Originally Posted by praveen956

Thanks all for your comments.. So I should not disturb the sand bed while siphoning .. Im used to freshwater gravel aquariums and I stir up the gravel well to take out all the waste..

Correct..
Do not disturb it..

In a freshwater gravel application you should siphon up the gravel,etc.. to remove the waste.. Gravel is so coarse that poop,etc.. just falls right down in there and just rots and the gravel is coarse so anaerobic (low oxygen) areas do not develop,etc...

You should NOT do the same in a sand substrate of a saltwater setup..
Do not disturb a sand bed in a saltwater setup..
You disturb those low oxygen environments/potentially remove beneficial microfauna,etc...

[praveen956]

Originally Posted by mcgyvr

Correct..
Do not disturb it..

In a freshwater gravel application you should siphon up the gravel,etc.. to remove the waste.. Gravel is so coarse that poop,etc.. just falls right down in there and just rots and the gravel is coarse so anaerobic (low oxygen) areas do not develop,etc...

You should NOT do the same in a sand substrate of a saltwater setup..
Do not disturb a sand bed in a saltwater setup..
You disturb those low oxygen environments/potentially remove beneficial microfauna,etc...

Thanks mcgyvr.. this is a new learning for me. will do more research on how to properly siphon sand saltwater tank.. Thanks for your input..