Coudy water in new tank

[gengle1984]

Hello all,

I am new to the forum and somewhat new to the reef tank hobby...

I have an Innovative Marine 16 Gallon Nano tank. Everything is stock at this point. Have the two small overflows (each with a hanging filter with a sponge, carbon sponge, and a phosphate sponge) and one stock pump i think it is 211 gph or something like that..

I put cured live rock and sand in the tank 2 days ago. The water is cloudy and i cant figure out why. I figured it was from putting the sand in but it never settled. Just keeps pumping in through the filter and out through the pump.

PH is 7.6 (i know, horribly low), no nitrites, no nitrates and 0.2 ammonia. The water has only been in the tank for about 5 days.

I hope you guys are fimiliar with thee Innovative marine tanks...

I was thinking the filtration wasnt good enough but i have read lots of good forums about these tanks so i hope the filtration is enough.

Any ideas? Please help. Thanks!

Jorge..

[CoralReeForrest]

This may be a silly question, your water is salted correct? If so did you salt it in the tank? Initial saltings tend to take a few days to clear up.

[gengle1984]

Yes the water is salted. 1.022 SG.

I did add the salt to the tank but I didnt notice the cloudyness until i added the sand. I guess i will give it a few more days, then start getting concerned. lol

Although, i didnt have the lights set up until yesterday so it may have been cloudy the whole time.

I just added some more Carbon to the filters to help.

Any other ideas?

[PatW]

Getting cloudy water after adding sand is nearly universal. It should clear up in a few days. Running the water through a filter sock or something similar should speed up the process.

[gengle1984]

Any body know a better filtration method for these Innovative Marine 16 gallon nano tanks? There is no filter sock. The only filter media are the two filter baskets explained in the first post.

Anything helps. Thanks

Thanks for your help^^^

[Green Chromis]

Is the water a cloudy green or is it white, if white get some fine filter floss, take out the filter packs in your filters and insert the filter floss. This should fix the problem After the water clears reinstall your regular filter packs. If the water is a greenish tint than you probably have an algae bloom. Why are you running your SG at 1.022, if this was my system I would try to keep it as close to NSW as possible 1.026. You also need to bump up your Ph.

[Mg4life0331]

Your system is much larger than mine, however I was cloudy for a while when I first started. Its a common thing from what I've read over many many threads. I also dosed pure ammonia which also clouded my water pretty bad. It will subside over time and you can help it with filter socks, floss filter, etc. I had a left over HOB whisper carbon filter I ran for about 3 days and it was gone.

[Pife]

Give it time. Everything in this hobby takes time. If you are impatient things will go wrong. I also would raise the salinity.

[gengle1984]

Ok. Thanks for all the advise. The water is a white cloudy. Kind of milky. It has gone down a little in the past day. I will get some filter floss and replace the filter packs temporarily until the water clears. I need to get some custom hanging filter pack holders because the stock ones are horrible.

I read somewhere that keeping the SG low (1.021-1.023) will help prevent parisites. I purchased some dry pourus coral rock at my LFS and put the rock in the ocean for about a month and a half to establish some good growth on the rocks. I retrived them from the ocean. Cleaned off the rocks and put them in my new tank to cycle it. I don't want any unwanted parisites from the ocean so i keep the SG at 1.022. Is this bad?

I live in Guam and supplies are very very very limited. I pretty much have to have everything shipped which takes weeks. I would have rather bought live rock at the LFS but no one sells it.

I will raise the SG to 1.025-1.026 like NSW and raise my PH as well.

Any suggestions on how to raise the PH and keep it at a contant high?

Just a PH buffer solution from the LFS?

Anything helps. Thanks again!

[gengle1984]

Also, any suggestions on adding more salt to the tank to up the SG?

I dont want to just dump salt in the tank now that the live rock and sand is in.

[Terefel]

Originally Posted by gengle1984

Also, any suggestions on adding more salt to the tank to up the SG?

I dont want to just dump salt in the tank now that the live rock and sand is in.

Mix up some salt water in a different container. Slowly top off the water in the display tank with the newly mixed saltwater instead of freshwater. This will slowly increase the salinity as water evaporates. After topping off wait for a few minutes and then measure the new salinity; once you get to wear you want to be then start topping off with freshwater again.

[Fishyoga]

My first SW tank, a 20g, I put all the rock and sand in first. Mixed the saltwater separately, and as per the mfg instructions, poured the water over a board so as not to disturb the sand. I was very paranoid with my first tank, but it stayed pretty clear.
I just set up a 10g, put in the rock, mixed the water and poured it in. When I put the sand in, I just cut the top off the bag and dumped it in. Took at least a couple days to REALLY clear up.

[CoralReeForrest]

I cleaned 90 pounds of sand by hand, put it in the tank, cleaned the rocks I had at the time then put them in, put the outflow tube of my rodi in the tank and let er rip! At the massive rate of 3 gallons an hour lmao. Took 2 or 3 days to fill then through a power head in and let it start running properly, then put salt in over the course of a few hours and let it just go. Put a sock in after a few days to get the last remnants out of there. Been clear ever since.

[3S1K]

Never add salt to the tank. Always mix it in a bucket first.

[CoralReeForrest]

Originally Posted by 3S1K

Never add salt to the tank. Always mix it in a bucket first.

On water changes this is definite. On the initial fill its not a big deal it mixed perfect for me.