New tank milky cloudy

Jon Snell · Jun 19, 2019

Hi folks, well after the tank crash my tank is now up and running although without a lot of the equipment which I still need to sort out but the basics are done. My question is after 11 years of my tank running I can't remember how long the cloudiness from the sand and salt takes to become clear?

I also can't remember if I should put my skimmer on. Please see attached photo

KrisReef · Jun 19, 2019

I’m a little cloudy myself.
The cloudiness is from either your salt or the sand.
Is it new sand, and did you rinse the fines out of it?
If you did, then it could be just the clay in the salt mix, which will take a few hours to days to settle out.

The skimmer could help, and a sock and a carbon filter could also be employed to speed up the water clearing.

Turn the lights off unless you want to start growing algae. Hope the new start goes well.

Auto-pilot · Jun 19, 2019

You might need filter socks and or filter floss to clear the particles out of the water

road_runner · Jun 19, 2019

Bit more information would be helpful to understand of this is bacterial bloom or just salt and sand settling.
How did you end up with this cloudiness?

Jon Snell · Jun 19, 2019

Ohashimz said:
Bit more information would be helpful to understand of this is bacterial bloom or just salt and sand settling.
How did you end up with this cloudiness?

It's just salt and sand settling. I can't remember how long it takes. Lol. It's been 11 years since I had to do this.

I was unable to rinse the sand as it was live sand.

I will just turn the skimmer on to speed up the process. I thought it took about 3 days.

road_runner · Jun 19, 2019

Jon Snell said:
It's just salt and sand settling. I can't remember how long it takes. Lol. It's been 11 years since I had to do this.

I was unable to rinse the sand as it was live sand.

I will just turn the skimmer on to speed up the process. I thought it took about 3 days.

Oh then it should settle 48 hours or so depend on the sand.