help please.... araganite question

[saltytaste]

hi there i just set up my old 24 gal jbj and put in caribsea seaflor araganite for my sand bed well i only rinced it a couple times to keep the goods but my tank has been milky for about 10 days or if it settles a little one little bump of the sand and its milky again ... any advice out there on what to do besides wait.

 

[CRASHFIREJOE]

I rinse the sand with R/O water very well before adding to the tank to help eliminate this problem then the sand clears in a few hours or at least the next day.

 

[user 26995]

I would do a few water changes with a siphon hose and suck up the dust from the gravel. Just the top inch or so. It will take a few water changes, but it will get better.

 

[jrgilles]

I was an idiot and didn't even wash the fine sand I put into my 75 when I set it up. probably around 10 days it went clear and hasn't been an issue. You should be alright I think

 

[thatguy559]

i would run a gravel vac and vacuum the top layer of the sand and running the water into a container with the hose running into a double filter sock. in that container have a pump putting the water back into the tank.

or you can just leave it and you have sand dwellers they will kick up all that stuff that settled. this is my issue right now except i tried to rinse the crap out of it

 

[Gort]

I know there are 2 schools of thought on the sand / substrate issue. I'm looking to do about an inch of CaribSea Ocean Direct in my new Solana 34 - thoughts?

 

[Krish]

Here's what the directions say on caribsea's website for the seafloor substrate. I would have thought by now it would have cleared up though. Maybe do as suggested which is vacuuming it a bit and see if that helps. Good luck!

Rinse until water coming out changes from milky to cloudy and place in aquarium then add water. It may be easier to place a flat object on the substrate to run water onto, (such as the empty substrate bag or a plate), to minimize churning the substrate.

Tip: For 20lb. bags it is often easy to cut out one of the upper corners, (enough to fit a hose through), and turn the hose on. The effluent coming out of the same hole will gradually change from milky to cloudy and is then ready for use.

I know there are 2 schools of thought on the sand / substrate issue. I'm looking to do about an inch of CaribSea Ocean Direct in my new Solana 34 - thoughts?

If someone put a gun to my head and said I had to use sand, I'd go with the finer grain sand like the fiji pink over the more coarse stuff like crushed coral.

 

[user 26995]

If you are wanting a sand sifting animal, I dont think you want crushed coral. It tends to be sharp and can cut from what I understand.
I have three different substrates in my tanks. I have two bare bottom, two with Carib Sea Super Reef Aragonite Sand, which is coarser, and one with a CaribSea Aragamax Oolitic Select (fine) Sand. The two with the coarser reef sand, one is very shallow, less than 1", and the other is 2-3" deep. The tank with oolite (fine) sand is 2-3" deep. The reef sand, I rinsed in rodi water three times till the water just barely turned cloudy before putting it in my tank. The fine sand came with a packet that helped clear up the cloudy particulates in a day or two. I think that if I had to choose one over the other, I think I would also go with the fine sand. I like the reef aragonite, which is a little coarser sand, for my sand sifting goby. I think for the sand sifting starfish, I like the fine sand better. Also for the clams, I like the fine sand better. They may like it better too. As far as looks...I think I like the fine sand better. The shallow reef sand bed is easier to siphon detritus out of though. And the bare bottom is even easier. It is really a personal preference as to what kind of animals you want to keep and what you like for looks as to what type of substrate you want to use.

 

[ReefLogic]

I just went through this. I ran a bunch of carbon, and kept changing out filter socks. Only took about a day or 2 to go clear. What I did was every time I got ready to swap the sock I would get in there and stir up the sand a bit to get it all in the water. I did a water change shortly after and swapped the sock.....

Hope that helps.

 

[saltytaste]

ok so yeah this was fun i ended up doin a vacume for a little while then that stirred up so much of it i layered three fine filter socks on my overflow and kept cleaning them out ever hour horable lol... i woke up this morning came out to my tank and its all gone looks great ... man caribsea needs to change there lables it said on there you didnt even need to wash it out and if you do its minimal rinsing i call b/s on that one....

 

[ReefLogic]

yeah no kidding. You should have snapped some pic's and sent em in.

 

[saltytaste]

im sure they get crap all the time about it

 

[Gort]

The CaribSea mfg instructions vary per product - some say rinse -others say do not.

 

[ReefLogic]

if yours said do not you should have sent in images and been like WTH?

 

[Gort]

Hey ReefLogic - thumbs-up on your tag-line but is it really true? Seems like them more I know the more I need...

 

[ReefLogic]

The first part is subjective....the second part totally true.

 

[NWDiver]

The more you know the less you need... But the more you WANT!!

 

[ReefLogic]

The more you know the less you need... But the more you WANT!!

Spoken like a true hobbiest

 

[Gort]

I'm the dictionary pic of hobbyist as addict - now look what I'm getting myself into.. let the wallet draining commence!!

 

[ReefLogic]

we should hold RA meetings or something.....you know....Reefers Anonymous.