Should I use power heads while the sand is settling?

[jonleeroyix]

I just started my first saltwater tank, 125G, and from the videos I watched from BRS TV on YouTube they said put sand and then water, which I did and I expected some stir up of the sand but how long should I expect it to stay stirred up? And should I have any power heads on or nah

Here are some pictures of the tank and how cloudy it is. Currently waiting for more Rodi water to fill up

 

[Dolphins18]

You can use powerheads, use them right up at the top agitating the surface. It will be good practice and probably help clean up the cloudiness a bit quicker.
No need to use them until it is full though

 

[workhz]

My live sand package had a couple of packets to settle the sand out of the water column. Took about 3-4 days to settle.

 

[blaxsun]

I would (and did) leave my wavemakers off, and only ran my tank with sock filters and the main return pump until it cleared up (those packets do make a difference). Mine settled within 12-18 hours, and then there was a bit more that had to clear up after I added all the rock, etc. that disturbed things again. And then I did have to give the tank, sump and return pump a good wipe down to get this fine white residue off. Only after everything had settled for a good 24 hours did I add and crank up the wavemakers.

I apparently went with the nicest (but worst) substrate, that being the CaribSea AragAlive Caribbean Oolite. Very white, quite spectacular - but it's like mixing a protein shake in your tank...

 

[jonleeroyix]

My live sand package had a couple of packets to settle the sand out of the water column. Took about 3-4 days to settle.

I used the packets in the bag, well one of them didn’t have it, or it’s buried lol but 3-4 days!! Nooo!!!! Haha

 

[brandon429]

I know it doesn’t help much now but this is why we rinse the sand in tap water before use, with a final rinse in ro for a perfect cloudless start. You can still redo it that way if you want, its ideal.

it doesn’t harm bacteria, thats why nobody has a thread proving it does but our pre rinse thread of fifty pages shows laser clean happy tanks (fifty pages of examples of tap water pre rinse preps)

Keeping that cloud has no benefit. It might settle in a few days, but can be stirred up again by accident. If clean, it stays clean.

 

[PhilMStudy]

Water pumps will stir it back up anyways where it wants to, and you’ll adjust again then...

 

[brandon429]

I put the link for our pre rinse tap water prep advice on brs’s YouTube video so readers can see accurate science. BRS always needs correcting, retailers make stuff up lots of times.

BRS said don’t rinse the wet pack sand, false.

BRS said we can’t remove a sandbed from a running tank all at once, false. We do it for fifty pages to this day in the sand rinse and removal thread
when BRS tries to do something and it fails, that doesn’t mean it’s a bad practice, just that they’re not very able. We have about twenty links/examples handy of folks who hated not pre rinsing their sand, it didn’t clean even with the clarifier used for many folks. In 100% of settings, pre rinsing in tap is ideal


heres the works

Official Sand Rinse and Tank Transfer thread

If you are reading this thread to cure a tank invasion from a link I sent you, we do not need to identify your type of invasion here we do not need you to test anything at anytime regarding nitrate, phosphate etc Above all, we do not need to see a microscope slide picture of your invasion at...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[fishface NJ]

I would fill the tank at this point in the process, place filter socks in the sump and let the socks do their work

 

[brandon429]

Hopefully BRS will change their advice that turns out total clouding for days, but probably not. One of the big let downs in our collection of examples was the one where after waiting for clarity to kick in, they scaped their tank and then the powerhead dislodged and re kicked up the mess for days and days in a stocked reef. Had they simply pre rinsed, it would have never happened. There is no setting in which skipping pre rinse is wise or better, but agreed most do it this way without rinsing. Finding examples of those who wish they pre rinsed is still easy though.


guess what has zero examples: someone who pre rinsed, has a cloudless tank, and regrets that. Redo this reef above, the right way, start with total command vs hesitation. That transfers into so many other proactive reef behaviors that can save your reef one day vs passively watching it die/lose/scale back. Pre rinsing is typically the first assertive / non fearful thing an aquarist does.

Conversely, skipping the rinse out of fear of bacterial loss, when zero proof exists for that claim, starts the aquarist off on the wrong foot and hesitations pop up in several ways along the life of the tank, an example is the fear of cycle being stuck when api shows .25

the first fear of bacterial loss makes the reefer less able to keep the tank alive, that concern trickles to everything from cycling to invasion control, ironic consequence. to begin with total resolve over known outcomes from an action taken makes the aquarists far more in control of the setup, we show.

BRS is turning out weaker reefs with their advice.

 

[elorablue]

Ya it could take a couple of days to settle but what does it matter? nothing else will be going in for a couple of weeks..minimum anyway. Learn patience now and you'll be a good reefer longterm.
Personally wouldn't use powerhead or socks during cycle, just the return pump and no light.

 

[Saltyreef]

+1 on rinsing before placing in tank.

That silt cloud will disappear....back into the sandbed....and then be fuel to your algae issues that come next.

Rinse and dont fall victim to the cloud!

 

[brandon429]

Aquabiomics was sent samples of the sand to analyze

it didnt have the bottle bac in it I had assumed it had/the label says it has etc.

either way, the rinsing it merely a control option. There is no downside to prepping the tank for total control, with no wait, from the start. Redo this run above


there have been recent sand runs posted that used the clarifier, and it worked. I can’t explain why some beds take so much longer, perhaps more silt due to handling differences while bagged etc

not one time in history has someone pre rinsed correctly, installed perfectly rinsed sand, and then regretted it.