Quick Question about Southdown setup...

[wittyfellow]

Hi everyone...

I've read the cloudy water posts about sounthdown sand water being cloudy and that it won't clear up for a few days (sometimes weeks).

I have 150 lbs of southdown in my 60 gal and it's been cloudy for a good week now. The water is heated to the proper temperature, but I'm not sure if I'm suppose to turn on my powerhead or my skimmer because I thought that doing so would suck out all of the beneficial southdown sand that is causing the cloudyness in the first place.

How much longer will this last? As I do not have my live rock in and it is basically just the sand and the salt and the water, I'm wondering if I should just place the live rock in and get the bacteria started and wait for the water to clear up?

If I do put the live rock in, wouldn't I need to run my skimmer? And wouldn't doing so get rid of most of the beneficial sand?

If someone can just clear this up, it would help greatly.

Thanks everyone.

 

[craw]

Put some live rock in the tank. The bateria on it will collect on the small debris floating in the tank and help weight it down caussing the tank to clear faster. Do not turn the skimmer on untill that tank is some what clear.

Mike

 

[UnderGrad]

Witty,
I left my skimmer and powerheads running 24/7 in my 65g when I put the sand in. The sand settled just fine (in about 2-3 weeks). You'll probably want to leave a piece of raw shrimp in there to help speed up the bacteria growth. And what are you waiting for with your live rock? Throw it in! It'll help (don't put the raw shrimp in if you put your rock in though). Like I said in the other post, just keep the settling sand off the rocks by basting it off the rock once a day with a turykey baster. Have a little patience with it and you'll be well rewarded. And don't freak out if you have an algae bloom once your tank has been cycled. If you have an adequate clean up crew (and you don't overfeed), they'll take care of it in less than a month (in my experience). HTH.

-AM-

 

[craw]

And don't freak out if you have an algae bloom-AM-

Thats right. Udergrad has an excellent point. Your sand WILL become covered in a golden sheet of diatoms. Dont worry its just part of the cycle, and will go away after a week or two.

 

[wittyfellow]

Thanks everyone for your help...

I've ordered the 60lbs of live rock from ffexpress, which should arrive by Tuesday.

Until then, I'm running both the maxijets to get some circulation. Once the rock arrives, I will put it straight into the tank and then turn the skimmer on after a few days, when things clear up.

I'll keep an eye out for the alg. outbreak...

thanks all for your help... I've done over 6 months of research and reading and it's a bit less stressful knowing I can come back here for some tune up advice.... AND that I'm not going into this completely blind.

 

[SaltyinNJ]

I would suggest that you turn the powerheads off to help let the sand settle. Also, I used a hang on back filter with just floss or foam to help clear the water. My tank was pretty clear in 3 or 4 days.
Just my 2 cents.

 

[King Jason]

Your sand will not settle until the rock is in. There isn't anything to stimulate the bacteria growth which makes the sand settle down. You can check my website out for some pictures of what I went through.

The water was cloudy until I put some live rock into the tank. Since I didn't feel like waiting for the weekend trip to Jeffs to get the majority of my live rock I went to my LFS and picked up 10 pounds of rock. Once the rock was in the cloudiness started to subside.

A week after I added 150 more pounds of rock it was crystal clear.

I let the algae grow for about a week on the sand. It was nice and brown. By then my cycle was done and I picked up some hermits and snails. They cleaned the sand up nice and fast.

Then, after the tank turns brown it will turn green. Then if all goes well it will turn purple.

 

[Anonymous]

I heard all these similar posts when I asked the question, the cloudy water goes away quickly, but the southdown still gets stirred up way too much, unless you have really low current in the tank.

a month later I was still moving southdown from the sump back into the tank.

I finally gave up, and bought a bag of heavier grade sand, this settled the tank down instantly, only took about ~10 pounds of it too, I no longer have plumes of southdown getting kicked up and sucked into the overflow.


L8r mega

 

[craw]

I"m not sure what kind of flow megadeth had, but I had 6 power heads in my tank and I had a AM3000 as a return pump and I never had to take sand out of my sump. Evey tank is diffrent though.

 

[Anonymous]

4 maxijet 1200's on a wavemaker, with a 3/4" swirl & velocity t3 return, 75g tank

My whole tank is sand drifts, the corners are almost down to the glass, I was getting flumes of sand swirled up like a tornado, it would go right up the the water suface and into the overflow.

Southdown is a tad too fine for my taste.

I'm waiting to see what the tunze streams will do to my tank, probably remove all the southdown from the tank and move it to the sump in the garage, yes I like alot of current, I used a pair rio 2500's on a wavemaker behind the rocks in my previous tanks, I just dont trust the rio's anymore though, and with this tank being slightly smaller, I"m kinda happy with flow, still some deadspots but not too bad.

I think I have had gone with the 1" swirl it would cut down on the sandstorms, live & learn

 

[King Jason]

MegaDeTH did you have your pumps and return line pointing directly at the sand?

I have an AmpMaster 3000 and AmpMaster 2100 on my tank and I don't have any Southdown in my sump. Are you continually moving your rockwork around, or stirring up the sand somehow?

 

[craw]

Megadeath, now that I think about it dont you have a picture of that? Thinking about it I could have sworn you posted a picture, maybe on RC?