Saltwater Help?

Question

I just recently started a new saltwater tank and shut everything off and took all kinds of water out so I could put my crushed coral in. I washed it exactly how the directions said and there is so much dust! I put water in and it is so cloudy! After about 12 hours it settles, but all I had to do was drag my hand across a little of it and it was super cloudy again. What should I do? Should I keep mixing the dust around until its all sucked into the filter? Please help...

Answer 1

the best thing to do with your crushed coral is to stir it up, really well, turn off your filter, skimmer and powerheads. (for about an hour or so) all the fine sediment will come to the top of your crushed coral. Use your gravel siphon and suck the "small dusty" layer out. (This makes a big difference) Turn your filter back on and let it clear the rest on its own.

Since you won't be adding fish any time soon, you can on occasion swish up the tank.
This is the only problem I have with the crushed coral. The instructions don't really give you a good way to clean it. I always dump small amounts of mine in a bucket and swish the heck out of it and dump off the milky white water. It will eventually settle thru the coral, however I don't want to sound mean, depending on how think you have your coral, this can go on for many months! (if you disturb the bottom that is) No worries, it won't hurt your fish down the road. Make good use of your gravel siphon.

If you just want to clean the tank, you can always run your siphone across a filter pad or thru a filter box and reclaim your water once it settles.

Answer 2

Yes, that's the best thing you can do. I've had it take up to 3 days before enough dust was out that it didn't leave a film on everything in the tank. You may want to clean the inside surface of the glass, too. Some dust will settle on it and it can make things look even cloudier if you've got a film there you have to look through.

Glad to see you're going with the aragonite/calcium substrate - all that dust will help your water hardness, plus it will keep the pH and hardness levels where they should be. (Now if we could just convince you to use the live rock....)

ADDITION: I just saw what Daniele Z wrote - this would be a quicker option of "unclouding" your tank, but if you were having problems with your hardness, I'd let the filter remove the dust - this way it still stays in the tank where some can be dissolved into the water.

Answer 3

The water will be cloudy for far more than 12 hours. When I started mine it took about 48 hours before everything had COMPLETELY settled. Sorry buddy but you can't do much but play the waiting game.

Answer 4

You are right, eventually the filter will get what doesn't settle, but you can keepo it suspended in the water for the filter to remove and that will get more of it out.

MM