Habitat - Indoor :: Play Sand - Frustrated!

[Yagermeister]

I recently bought a 75 gal tank for my 8 yr old RES. After reading a lot of posts on this very helpful site I decided to go with sand as a substrate. I went to two different hardware stores looking for pool filter sand and they were out of stock, so I settled on play sand. I rinsed each bucketful for 15 minutes until the water ran clear, then filled up the tank. I've got 3 50lb bags in there, sculpted into a gradual slope up to a basking area. I let it sit for days but it was still very cloudy, so I did several total water changes. The most recent time I put a bowl upside down on a dinner plate and focused the hose on that so that it wouldn't kick up any sand. This worked well and the water was maybe 80% clear afterward, so I turned on my filter (XP4, brand new) and let it run overnight to clear it up completely. I woke up this morning and the tank is almost opaque again! The filter seems to have kicked up more sand and saturated the water! The output hose sits just beneath the water level and doesn't visibly affect the sand, the input is about 4" above sand level and has some river rocks underneath it. I'm starting to wonder if this water will ever get clear and whether I should just do away with the sand and go back to river rocks! Can anyone provide any insight?

[michaelg]

Sand is definitely better than river rock. The rock traps waste and food debris and it will foul the water quicker. If it were me, I'd remove all the sand and re-rinse it, over and over again until all of it together runs clear. When I clean sand, I put it into a wheel barrel and stir it around. With sand, dust gets trapped very easily. Using the plate trick works for filling with water so it doesn't stir up the sand, but your turtle will most likely dig which will also stir up the dust.

Actually if it were me, I'd dump the play sand and get pool filter sand. Try a pool supply store, they'll definitely have it in stock. You will still need to rinse the pool filter sand, but not nearly as much.

-Michael

[happycamper]

Also you want to make sure your sand isn't too deep. Play sand worked fine for me, but yeah you really have to rinse the heck out of it!

[Yagermeister]

Thanks for the replies. I've currently got a hose (with some pressure) and a siphon in the tank, keeping a constant water level. Every few minutes I agitate the entire tank down to the bottom. Basically, I'm re-rinsing the sand as well as I can without taking it all out of the tank (I don't have a wheelbarrow or container big enough). I'm going to do this for a couple of hours, then completely drain the tank and fill it up with clean water again and see where I'm at. Keeping my fingers crossed!

[happycamper]

That sounds like a good plan to me, you have the filter off right? Sand can cause problems if a bunch gets in the filter.

[michaelg]

That should work too. The key is to stir up the sand while it is in the water so it can release the dust. And when you think it is all clear, do it a couple more times

-Michael

[Yagermeister]

Yeah Happy, I've had the filter off since I woke up this morning and saw that the water was cloudy. This filter was NOT cheap, I don't want to ruin it!

Thanks again Michael. I'll keep stirring it up!

[Rubicon]

Are you sure it's the sand that's made the water cloudy and not a bacteria bloom? Did you just start using this filter?