Help with Milky Fog from Sand

[TysFish]

I’m facing an issue in my Marineland 40 breeder. I have 40 lbs of dry aragonite and 10 lbs of live aragonite sand in the tank. I washed the dry aragonite several times before adding it, but whenever I touch the sand even lightly, it still kicks up a ton of milky fog.

I’m planning to keep a Peacock Mantis Shrimp, and I know they like to dig and move sand constantly. I’m worried that once he’s in there, it’ll cloud the whole tank every time he digs.

Right now, I have two live rocks in the tank and nothing else—it’s just started cycling.

If anyone has experience with this, I’d really appreciate advice on how to get the fine dust under control before adding the mantis.

My current plan is to stir the sand daily to bring up as much silt as possible, run my filter with Poly-Fil to catch it, then rinse the Poly-Fil and repeat until eventually I can stir the sand without it clouding up.

Does this sound reasonable? Has anyone tried this approach or have a better idea to stabilize the sand?

Thanks so much for any help!

 

[Fish Fan]

Typically, that cloudiness goes away in a few days or so. Normally I'd suggest removing mechanical filter media while the tank is cycling, but I think here you could add some to help with those fine particles. If your future spud does a lot of digging it may kick up the sand, but I'm guessing these dusty fines will be pulled out by your mechanical filter media in the time it takes you to cycle the tank.

The only thing that comes to mind is you may have an ongoing problem if you chose a very, very fine sand, like the CaribbSea Bahama Oolite sand. That kind of sand if so fine it can blow around easily, especially if disturbed.

 

[TysFish]

Typically, that cloudiness goes away in a few days or so. Normally I'd suggest removing mechanical filter media while the tank is cycling, but I think here you could add some to help with those fine particles. If your future spud does a lot of digging it may kick up the sand, but I'm guessing these dusty fines will be pulled out by your mechanical filter media in the time it takes you to cycle the tank.

The only thing that comes to mind is you may have an ongoing problem if you chose a very, very fine sand, like the CaribbSea Bahama Oolite sand. That kind of sand if so fine it can blow around easily, especially if disturbed.

The dry aragonite I have is quite coarse, however the 10lbs of live sand I added which is a small portion is fine. Do you think my plan would work good? I’ve seen people say siphon the sand out and rinse, then re add.

 

[Fish Fan]

The dry aragonite I have is quite coarse, however the 10lbs of live sand I added which is a small portion is fine. Do you think my plan would work good? I’ve seen people say siphon the sand out and rinse, then re add.

I would leave it alone Usually those dusty fine will get pulled out by the filter in a few days or so, I think you'll be fine.

Where did you get the live sand from?

 

[Fish Fan]

Just to be clear, I'm saying don't take it out, rinse it, and put it back in; that's a waste of time, effort and, importantly, bacteria on the live sand, which is what you want.

Your idea to stir it here and there isn't a bad idea, and may help the filter system clear it up sooner.

 

[fish_collector]

Shut pump off for a bit to let floating particulates settle, then use a gravel vac and siphon all of the fines out into a bucket. You may use 5 gallons or more to get it all. If you've never vacuumed gravel you'll figure it out quickly, use your finger on the end of the hose to control water flow into the bucket, don't let sand go into hose, when it gets to about the middle of the big end, put your finger on the hose to stop flow and pull big end out of sand and repeat in another spot. It's a necessary evil with sand. Eventually it will become free of fines.

 

[TysFish]

The dry aragonite I have is quite coarse, however the 10lbs of live sand I added which is a small portion is fine. Do you think my plan would work good? I’ve seen people say siphon the sand out and rinse, then re add.

I would leave it alone Usually those dusty fine will get pulled out by the filter in a few days or so, I think you'll be fine.

Where did you get the live sand from?

I got the sand off of chewy

 

[Hadla]

If your future spud does a lot of digging it may kick up the sand

Spud?! Reading that, my mind went immediately to miurus puffers cause some look like potatoes then I remembered this isn’t a puffer or freshwater forum lol

 

[Fish Fan]

Spud?! Reading that, my mind went immediately to mirius puffers cause some look like potatoes then I remembered this isn’t a puffer or freshwater forum lol

Lol! I call everything a "spud"