Cloudy water

[prohockey86]

Hey I recently upgraded my 55 gallon saltwater reef tank to a 180 gallon saltwater reef tank when I started my 55 I never had cloudy water but with my new 180 I can't seem to get rid of the cloudy water. The tank has been up and running for about 3 and a half weeks now. Any suggestions on what I should do to help get rid of the cloudy water.

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[Euroreefer]

Are u running any media? Filter sock? did u use your old sand?

 

[prohockey86]

I bought all new fine white sand. What's happening is I believe my stingray keeps stirring up my sand and makes it cloudy but I don't want to keep doing water changes so quickly because it will take out the good bacteria too. I have a uv sterilizer and a protein skimmer rated for a 350 gallon tank and a phosban reactor.

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[prohockey86]

Oh and two filter socks and lately I have been rinsing them out once a week from all the sut

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[Euroreefer]

Using a filter sock? u probably did not rinse out the sand

 

[prohockey86]

My first tank I didn't rinse out the sand this didn't happen though so what do you recommend, will it go away in time?

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[Weicowireman]

Did you use a finer grain of sand for this setup?

 

[yesjenks]

Did you use a finer grain of sand for this setup?

+1
Having kept stingrays myself if you used fine grain sand that is your problem. With stingrays you have to use a biger grain because they like to dig. If you use fine grain this is what happens.

 

[prohockey86]

See and I was always told use fine sand because rough sand scratches them

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[yesjenks]

Don't use "rough". Use bigger grain.

Pool filter sand can be bought and any local pool stoor for around $5 per 50 lbs. It worked great for me! Sand is bigger yet still pretty fine grain and my rays loved it!

What kind of rays are you keeping?

 

[prohockey86]

Just Cortez rays but my tank is all together so don't really want to take all sand out. Do you think in time the water will clear after all the sand is churned up

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[Euroreefer]

I would switch out the filter socks more often. like every 3-4 days, not weekly. the fine sand is also the problem giving off way more Dust.

 

[yesjenks]

I would switch out the filter socks more often. like every 3-4 days, not weekly. the fine sand is also the problem giving off way more Dust.

As Euroreefer mentioned you can switch out your socks more often . . . if it was me I would switch out the sand though. I had to switch sands 3 times before I was happy, the wife was ready to kill me but it was worth it in the end.

IME fine sand that has lots of dust wont ever really settle when being kicked around like rays do.

How much sand do you presently have? Do you have alot of rock in the tank?

 

[Weicowireman]

I would add a larger grain of sand on top of your existing sand Depending on how much sand you have already. Some of the ray tanks I have seen have a minimal amount of sand. Not to sure if they do that specifically to reduce the sand storms.

 

[KathyC]

You might try running a Diatom filter to reduce the amount of sand dust in the tank, but it would still be a while before the dust stops clouding the water.

Short of removing the sand and rinsing it, it sounds like a long while before your issue will end

 

[prohockey86]

I spoke to absolutely fish by me today and they said possibly 2-3 months then it should stop. They also said clean then sand regularly about once every two weeks and suck out most of the sand dust. I just don't know lol i spent so much on this tank recently i dont know if i should just wait a month more or so.