Sand not settling in new SW tank... any tips?

[jwentzell]

Hello,

I've just begun setting up a SW tank for my first time. It's only a 25g.
I'm just in the beginning stages, but allready having problems.
I've added the LiveSand and saltwater, but the sand is not settling.
I added the sand on friday, and it's still very very cloudy.
Tonight I decided to change 1/2 the water, but this didn't have any affect, and is now worse than it was..

I havent put in liverock yet, since i heard the cloudiness can kill the rocks due to lack of oxygen.
I've been running the filter constantly, and also one of my powerheads on a timer, 1 hour on, one off, until it gets settled. Am i doing something wrong? Everything i read tells me something different.

Does anybody have any good tips on getting this sand to settle?
Any help would be appreciated!
Thanks!
-jay

[Vincenzo.]

when u put your water sw in, Poor it in on a small dish.

prolly cuz there is no lr so the powerhead is not getting dispursed on anything. So its making dust storm. So throw in some lr

[Snider82]

since there is nothing that can die in there,  i would suggest turning off your powerhead.. and seeing if it clears up..  maby your powerhead is blowin the sand around.  if thats the case, you will have to reposition or turn the speed down.

but wait for the pro's the post,  they may have something diffrent to say. 

[FishPassion]

The above advice is perfect, turn off the powerhead for sure, as it is most likely churning up the sand which hasnt had time to settle and pack. You had mentioned a filter, there again if it is dumping water back in the tank with any amount of force it will turn your water into lemonade and cover your liverock if you add any. What you want is very slight water movement for the start as there is no reason for major movement at the present time without livestock or rock.

[jwentzell]

Sounds like a plan, thanks for the advice, i'll try that out and see how it goes.

thanks again!

[QueensU]

When I first set mine up, it was super cloudy as well. I didn't run any powerheads while the sand settled, but I ran an aquaclear mini with a sponge and some balled up "J-cloths" in it. They pulled out all of the fine silt and the water was crystal clear in about a day. Hope it clears up for you!

[JD]

When I first set my stuff up I used a powerhead with an hagen/aquaclear filter on it. The filter got cleaned the first hour then less and less as the water cleared.
This is what I used.
http://www.jlaquatics.com/phpstore/store_pages/product-info.php?product_ID=hg-phqfadd

[QueensU]

I had that on my AC 70 powerhead. I took the media filter out and just run the plastic cage empty now. The media filters get dirty pretty quick and end up being nitrate factories. I find the cage helps in stopping things from getting sucked in to the intake though.