The Puffer Forum

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I recently bought a new tank to move my Puffers into as well as the few Damsel fish I have. I was setting everything up and getting it all running. I bought some sand and rinsed it off, then I put the sand into the tank then added the water. Whenever I added the water the color of the water looked like something from the lake, nasty and cloudy. I topped of the water then removed it all, then added and removed again. I'm on my third attempt, water is half full and still not a single change in the color of the water. What is the best way to get rid of this issue? I would like to at least get the water to a clear stage so I can go ahead and get it set up. Any and all advice is greatly appreciated.





**UPDATE**
I've removed all water and all the sand, in the process of wiping down the rest of the glass now. My biggest question is should I go ahead and reuse the sand? It has never seen a cycle, nor been in the tank longer then a day. I'm assuming it's alright to reuse the sand. I'll post some pictures if I get it up and running.

Where did the sand come from?

It's just Pool Filter Sand, bought it from home depot. I actually took all the sand out and rinsed it more thoroughly and it made a difference. I will post pictures tomorrow. They should be in their new home fairly soon!

I had to do 8 water changes for each litre of sand I put in, it took forever to get the water running clean when I rinsed it.

Yeah, pool filter sand is very gritty. You can also add a HOB filter with floss in there to filter out what's left. Keep changing out the floss when it gets clogged.

Pufferpunk wrote:Yeah, pool filter sand is very gritty. You can also add a HOB filter with floss in there to filter out what's left. Keep changing out the floss when it gets clogged.

You could also just take the floss outside and rinse it with a hose to reuse it, that's what I do

But at Walmart, it's soooooo cheap!

Filter with floss and time works well

*shrugs* what can I say, I love to recycle lol

"New" sand is too dirty to attempt recycling, or at least it is for me - use and toss.

FWIW, I don't use any floss otherwise. I only use sponges in my occupied tanks, and I expect them to last ans last indefinitely.

But then, I am a grouchy (and lazy) old man.

That makes me feel better, I point blank refuse to replace my filter media. It gets rinsed in tank water weekly, that's good enough for me. Why would I want to throw out all those lovely colonies of bacteria I've so carefully nurtured.

Next time...


Rinse your sand

Put rinsed sand in gallon zip loc bags. Seal.

Fill your tank.

Put the zip loc bags of sand in the tank, lay them on the bottom. Unseal them, slowly "shimy"/"dump" sand out of the bag.

Remove bags. Put filter floss (pillow stuffing) in the filter. Turn filter on, run at least 24 hours.

Wow PC, that seems so obvious to do so why have I never thought of it? Lol, great idea!

I had went to the store and ended up buying a little more sand, after i rinsed it a lot of time I lost a good amount of the sand. I am in the process of cycling the tank so I can add my fish. Here is a picture without decor as it was in my other tank. I recently added all of the old decor into my new tank.

I do have a question reguarding the plumbing in the tank. I would like to put something over the top of plumbing so the fish dont get stuck inside of it or get sucked down as it is a fairly large 2' pipe. What is fish safe and or friendly. At first I thought about using some type of mesh or screening, but I figured that it wouldn't do much good. On the bottom of the pipe I have bio rubber banded around it that filters into a sock with mechanical that then goes to the media then returns to the tank.

hadla wrote:Wow PC, that seems so obvious to do so why have I never thought of it? Lol, great idea!

You can also do it with sand still in the bag from the store, especially if it says prewashed....but don't add fish right away.. most prewashed still needs to be hand washed.