Caribsea Ocean Direct Cloudyness

[SC017]

Recently filled my tank with RODI + Tropic Marin Salt, Ocean Direct Sand and now just waiting before planning how to cycle it.

My question is, how is the best way to clean out this dust cloud from the tank?
I don't have any kind of mechanical filtration but I could easily Cable-tie some filter media to my powerheads if that'd solve it?
I've also seen suggestions "just to leave it to settle", but my question there is won't it just re-cloud the moment I switch my powerheads on?

Spoiler: Images:

Also interested in any suggestions on how to cycle the tank. Bottled Bacteria would be preferable as I don't know anywhere to source live rock here.

 

[Timfish]

Initially you might have some of the dust or fines could the water agian when the sand is stirred but biofilms will grow and cause it to settle out really fast or bind it togehter with sand so it's not an issue. Keep in mind it is going to be an excellent source of alkalinity, calcium and magnesium as biofilms and endoliths get to work on it either helping to dissolve it or break it down with localized low pH gradients.

As far as establishing healthy microbiomes maricultured or wild live rock is the best for that. I guess you'd have to contact the companys here in the US to see if they can ship to England. The bottled stuff is fine for introducing some of the nitryfing bugs but only a tiny fraction of the microbial stuff on reefs can be cultured and stuck in a bottle. If you read PaulB's stuff he frequently adds new microbial stuff with sand and mud he collects from tide pools along the north Atlantic coast and I guess that might be an option for you. If you can get imported maricultured corals (mushrooms would be an ideal first coral IMO) there will be sponges and bugs on the rocks their attached to and that will help.

These links have more information on healthy reef ecosystems:

Establishing a Healthy Microbiome in a New Aquarium Using Live Rock

Studying the effects of live rock in a newly established aquarium shows that high-quality live rock promotes the rapid establishment of an effective biological filter and a microbial community similar to those found in mature reef tanks.

www.reef2reef.com

"Coral Reefs in the Microbial Seas" This video compliments Rohwer's book of the same title. While there is overlap bewteen his book and the video both have information not covered by the other and together give a broader view of the complex relationships found in reef ecosystems


Changing Seas - Mysterious Microbes


Nitrogen cycling in hte coral holobiont


BActeria and Sponges


Maintenance of Coral Reef Health (refferences at the end)


Optical Feedback Loop in Colorful Coral Bleaching


Richard Ross What's up with phosphate"

 

[SashimiTurtle]

I've used the same sand in 2 tanks now and it's great sand but it is cloudy at first. Give it a few days, maybe add some mechanical filtration and it should settle right out.

 

[SC017]

I've used the same sand in 2 tanks now and it's great sand but it is cloudy at first. Give it a few days, maybe add some mechanical filtration and it should settle right out.

What sort of mechanical filtration would you suggest?

I was hoping that cable tieing some filter floss or carbon to the front of my powerhead would do the trick, lol.

 

[SC017]

Would some bags of activated carbon infront of my powerheads work for the cloudiness?

I'm hesitant to start cycling or adding fish while the water column has these particulates in it.

 

[Timfish]

Would some bags of activated carbon infront of my powerheads work for the cloudiness?

I'm hesitant to start cycling or adding fish while the water column has these particulates in it.

Placing bags of carbon in front of pumps isn't very effective as most of the water will not be forced through it. I wouldn't worry about the cloudyness myself but if it really bothers you a filter sock tie warapped to a pump like you mentioned woould be the most pragmatic thing to do. As far as cycling it started the moment you put saltwater in the system, it's one of the biological things you can't stop. You can do things though to help establish healthy microbiomes though as mentioned in my fist post.

 

[brandon429]

SC017​

we have a fifty page thread where all sand above is rinsed in tap water for an hour or so to total cloudless perfection, final rinse in RO, then its used like snowglobe grains in tightly cycled reefs and you're legit ready by next Friday

the classic concern is: but the bacteria




but can we have fifty pages of happy outcomes if rinsing is harming bacteria in that bag?

if you had a chance to start over and have zero cloud on day one, would you do it, or would you keep the bacteria at all costs and just wait for the cloud to floc out which it will in a week or less usually. I realize its too big of a tank to re prep, asking for readers how you might change any starts if any based on open ended waits vs complete readiness the minute its set up as a cloudless pre rinse. we then begin all those maturation steps above on the clean sand, that's the only difference. we didn't value the bacteria so much we kept the unneeded silt, bc those bacteria were coming in the maturation phase.

 

[SC017]

if you had a chance to start over and have zero cloud on day one, would you do it

Not even a question in my case. I don't know how Ocean direct is meant to arrive, but mine was in a sealed bag and did not feel damp, so I doubt any bacteria was even there in the first. I ordered it for the fine-grain and wasnt concerned about live-bacteria, I think the Turbostart 900 will be far more beneficial.

 

[SC017]

Placing bags of carbon in front of pumps isn't very effective as most of the water will not be forced through it. I wouldn't worry about the cloudyness myself but if it really bothers you a filter sock tie warapped to a pump like you mentioned woould be the most pragmatic thing to do.

Alright, that's my plan then.

I don't know how much the cloudyness affects it, but I have bad memories of almost killing my 4 pearl gouramis (my first fish in a tank above 5gallons) by adding sand after them and the resultant dust clouds. So just trying to err on the side of caution here.

 

[brandon429]

luckily this is merely chalk dust. we think its from different bags having different holding and shipping conditions, grains degrade moreso than for others. yours isn't bad we have examples of total gray cloud outs

I guarantee this will floc out of suspension in max ten days I can't recall one that took longer really. that fritz is fine cycling bac. if you input fritz, two pinches of finely ground up fish food, wait five days, you're 100% cycled and ready for fish.
no testing needed, no tinkering, no redosing, ready. simple as that, bottle bac is this good. fritz costs that much for a reason.

choose a disease protocol wisely, inputting marine fish from a pet store isn't like freshwater ones, marine ones require pre assessment and pre treatment or they bring in permanent disease cycles into the newly cycled reef.

 

[SC017]

luckily this is merely chalk dust. we think its from different bags having different holding and shipping conditions, grains degrade moreso than for others. yours isn't bad we have examples of total gray cloud outs

I guarantee this will floc out of suspension in max ten days I can't recall one that took longer really. that fritz is fine cycling bac. if you input fritz, two pinches of finely ground up fish food, wait five days, you're 100% cycled and ready for fish.
no testing needed, no tinkering, no redosing, ready. simple as that, bottle bac is this good. fritz costs that much for a reason.

choose a disease protocol wisely, inputting marine fish from a pet store isn't like freshwater ones, marine ones require pre assessment and pre treatment or they bring in permanent disease cycles into the newly cycled reef.

Gotta realise this is about 3-4 days after adding it, originally you could'nt see an inch into the tank! Lol.

I did a decent amount of research and came across this thread (https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/bacteria-in-a-bottle-myth-or-fact.403226/) and was like "thats the one, look at it go its amazing!", Mine is coming refrigerated too so I'm very confident in it.

I did order 120ml of Dr. tims ammonia as I'm not sure when I'll be adding fish, so I can keep the bacteria easily going til then. it was pretty cheap so happy to grab it.

Unfortunately I don't have room for a quarantine tank, nor equipment to run it. So I'm a bit out of luck in that regard, and I'm sure with my track record of fish interest I'll end up with all the bad "likely to carry" diseases ones, lol.

 

[brandon429]

that thread is a cycling gem I reference it routinely. nice find Dr. Reef made a good one there. the fish food trick comes from there specifically.

 

[Aqua Man]

Unfortunately I don't have room for a quarantine tank, nor equipment to run it. So I'm a bit out of luck in that regard, and I'm sure with my track record of fish interest I'll end up with all the bad "likely to carry" diseases ones, lol.

If your looking to buy fish online, there are places that sell quarantined fish. I think Dr. Reef does now. Have heard great things about his QT fish.

 

[SC017]

If your looking to buy fish online, there are places that sell quarantined fish. I think Dr. Reef does now. Have heard great things about his QT fish.

I'm assuming they don't ship to the UK though.

 

[SC017]

This has completely failed.

While it certainly settles, the instant I turn my wavemakers on it clouds up again.
The 50micron filter sock over one of my powerheads has done nothing to prevent anything.

 

[brandon429]

Idea: drain off your top water and catch it for re use. re prepare your sand our way, put it all back, re use the water it’ll be perfect.

 

[brandon429]

The right way to prepare sand won’t undo your cycle

when all the sand is out of the tank, rinse the tank out to clean glass like this from Shadow_k


then rinse all your sand in tap water in a bucket for two hours, it takes that long to rinse cloud free


final rinse in ro, to evacuate the tap

now it’s golden and instantly fixed. Lol they wrote on the bag label that no rinsing is needed


these rinse pics are from JD Inshore I think it was

 

[brandon429]

I would like to wholeheartedly thank the peers who run groupthink on the web and staunchly advise all reefers to never ever rinse their sand as they never needed to, it cleared overnite


notice how that didn’t work in all cases? Stop recommending bad practices


Rev we need a pre rinse yes or no focus thread with votes, the outcome due to groupthink power will still be 99% don’t rinse, you’ll kill the bacteria lol

I want to show how groupthink never modifies its stance around core patterns available, it just digs in heels

just about all reef tank cycling works this same way.

 

[SC017]

If I had to drain my tank I'd lose all the water and essentially have no salt left.

 

[brandon429]

Not if you held the water in an empty trash can, a common reef brute can

they rinsed above without a problem