New substrate made water cloudy

[xXSierraXx]

Hiya!~
I have a 20 gallon tank which houses two Green Spotted Puffers. (Don't worry, they will be getting a bigger tank soon.~)
Today, while doing their water change, I removed their gravel and replaced it with 20 pounds of fine coral sand.
Only problem is, when I filled the tank back up, the water was a gross, milky white color. I cleaned the sand out until the water ran clear before I put it in the tank, so I'm assuming that the cloudyness is simply because the sand isn't settled.
My family is making me take out the sand and rinse it again, but I know that won't make it settle any better. However, I don't want my puffers to live in a bucket for a week. Is there anything I can do to make it settle quicker, or just clear the water in general?

-Thanks, Sierra.~

[chuckfriedrice]

If youve rinsed it till the cloudyness is gone ! Then everything should be fine ! No matter how much Ive rinsed my crushed coral the tanks always get cloudy . Usually goes away in a few hours if your filter are running ! You may Just wanna change the filters after they absorb all the cloudyness .

[energizerfish]

It took two days for the sand to settle in my tank. Your puffer will be fine in cloudy water if it's just sand causing the cloudiness. However, 2 puffers in a 20gal tank is not ideal. They may get along now while they are juvenile, but they will fight as they get older, and they amount of waste they produce even as juveniles is way too much of a bioload for a 20 gallon tank.

[Purifire]

Rinsing the sand again and moving the puffers will cause un necessary stress. Let the tank just run and things will be fine in 24 hrs or so.

[xXSierraXx]

The puffers were never put back in their tank again the first time because we literally couldn't see the hydrometer right up next to the glass - they remained in a small, three gallon tank. We went ahead and re-rinsed the sand and, although it's still cloudy, it's an improvement from the first time. They're now back in the tank and doing fine, and we'll let the filter do its thing.

I know keeping them in a 20 gallon isn't good, it's just all we could afford at the time. We've actually ordered a 60 gallon tank for them now. For now, since only one puffer is fully grown (He's a full six inches and we've had him for about three years now, while the other has only been with us a few months and is 3 and 1/2 inches long), they're remaining in the 20 gallon while we set up the 60 and let it run for a few months. We'll be moving them as soon as possible.~

-Sierra.~

[Pufferpunk]

Those floating-type hydrometers are temperature calibrated. Get a swing arm one.

To clear the cloudy water, add 1" filter floss (or pillow stuffing from the sewing machine store) to your filter. Keep changing it out when it gets clogged.

[xXSierraXx]

I do have a swing arm hydrometer - I keep it in the tank so I can constantly keep track of the salinity.

And thank you for the tip, I'll try that out.~

-Sierra.~

[Pufferpunk]

I can't imagine it works well that way.

[xXSierraXx]

Maybe not. XD I got the tip from my friend, to keep it at the bottom in the sand. It tends to get the same readings in the tank as it does when I take it out, though.~

-Sierra.~

[RTR]

Until it coated w/algae or such.

[Purifire]

Yeah I'd run it outside if I were you.