New sand and milky water

[Wes888]

I remember when I set up the tank the very first time, it takes a few days for the sand to settle. Now that I moved the old sand washed it with existing tank water, put into new tank, of course it's clear.

The part that puzzles me is that I put in a few bags of new sand. I washed it like before, except that I used salt water from an established tank instead of from a new tank. The sand settled in less than half a day. What gives?

 

[project5k]

hmm well my first thought was the difference in density of the water, but then after more thought, thats not it...

maybe the newer stuff just didnt have as much dust mixed in? maybe the older stuff had been banged around and ground up the sand in the container before you put it in more than this newer stuff, and thus there was less dust, or maybe this time you know more about how to do it so you didnt stir it up as bad as that first time..

just some ideas...

actually, now that i think about it, it could be a difference in density of the water, if you used salt this time, and fresh last time, then i can see how it would clear faster this time, cause the salt water is that much closer to saturation, and the fresh could hold more material in suspension for longer.

hell i dunno.....

 

[daugherty]

you have better filtration now. i can judt dumo a bag of sand and my tank will be clear in less than a day maybe 6 or 7 hours

 

[Brian_G]

so are you saying i have bad filtration since my sand hasnt settled in 24 hours?

 

[dcantucson]

Not that it is "bad" it's just not established as much yet.

 

[Brian_G]

oh okay. and it might help if i ran my protein skimmer. but im not right now. i need to get an air line for it

 

[daugherty]

no for example all my tank water has to run throught tons of rock that help stop the sand particles in the water plus i have tons of flow from the sump to the tank so a large volume of water is being ran through the sump.