my live sand is really clouding tank

[noblejames1]

help guys... I replaced my UGF with a sand bend consisting of 30 pounds of sugar sand mixed with 20 pounds of mail order livesand. I did this about 7 weeks ago and i am having problems with the water getting cloudy from the waterflow. I was told to put this mixture directly on the tank bottom and put my live rock on top of the sand. Did i do something wrong? Shold i have put some other type of substrate on top of the sand to prevent clouding? A fine mist of sand is ending up in my sump and fouling my remora pro skimmer and my overflow box. My tank is a 55 gallon
thanks

 

[Anonymous]

Sounds like you may have to redirect any flow aimed at the sand until the sand gets coated with bacteria. Did you rinse the new sand? If this continues to be a prob, I ran some carbon in a HOT magnum to help clear the water when I added new sand.
HTH

 

[noblejames1]

yes i did redirect the return flow, thanks for your advice. Will the carbon clear this mess up?

 

[esmithiii]

I don't think you need to run carbon. Give it another week and it should clear up. As the sand particles get coated w/ bacteria they will cloud less.

E