Turn ur power heads off. Just use the return for flow for now. The sand needs to gum up a bit or it will keep blowing around. Took tens days in my tank. A filter sock should help catch the dust and silt.

What I have been told and read suggests that bacteria colonizes that fine sand particultulate making it heavier so it settles out.... Could be with no LR in the system, this is not happening.... Like PDR said a filter sock should really help

How about taking the live rock out of your sump and putting it in your display tank instead. Sorry, when I suggested you put the live rock in it I was meaning in your display tank.

You are running filter socks now, no?

Not that im pro chemicals, but, you can also get products like this as well. If all else fails this will help "clump up" the particulate in the water and help the filtersocks catch more. since you have no live stock to worry about this might be a good option if you want to speed the "clearing" process up.

http://www.freshmarine.com/km-pro-cl...rine-16oz.html

Yea definitely have it running on socks right now. Some people are saying it might just need a lot more time. It's just started to clear enough for me to start seeing some of the sand in the display, so I am hoping it will get better. Going to give it more time, but man does it suck! I had never thought that this would happen. Going to give it another week or two to settle, and if it fails, ill have to empty the tank and put something else other than sand because I dont want to have to go through that every single time I make a change to the tank.

The tank got suddenly much clearer again. Now we can actually see the sand. I ended up not turning off the powerheads like I thought I was going to. We've also added PVC to the sump and brought down the noise to nearly nothing! much better. Now it's just more waiting. Will test the water tonight.

From this
http://inlinethumb01.webshots.com/48...600x600Q85.jpg


...to this in 12 hours(after over a week of not improving much)
http://inlinethumb57.webshots.com/46...600x600Q85.jpg

http://inlinethumb02.webshots.com/45...600x600Q85.jpg

filter socks and Good skimming will tae alot of it out. keep changing the sock out for a clean one it helps alot.

You bring up a question I had. Last week one of the socks got stuck with the laundry and got washed WITH the clothes AND detergent. Is this particular sock shot? is there a way to rinse it, or anything else to allow me to use it again in the tank?

Personally I would garbage it. At the cost just but a new one or 6

no there isnt anything wrong with it just re wash it in hot water that s all I ever do and I dont have a problem.

Good job so far. You are having many of the issues I had. Glad to hear you are working them out.

If you do decide to remove your sand you don't have to empty the tank you can just siphon out the sand with wider bore tubing (something like 1/2"). If you keep the tubing in the sand you don't remove too much of the water. I set up a new tank a few months ago (no journal yet) and used this method to remove most of the sugar fine I started with and replace with slightly coarser sand as my MP40 was moving it around too much. It worked great.

Another option to quiet your pump if you don't like the idea of the styrofoam staying in the tank is a mesh like Lifegard aquatics aquamesh filter - I used the blue stuff and it works great. I know I am going to have to clean it really well when I clean the pump but better that than the noise.

Took all the advice that came. I put some foam on the bottom of the pump which did help, and added some dry rock to the sump(biggest result), I also added some PVC to the vomiting end of the skimmer to not have that "splash" when it comes back out-that was another great, HUGE noise control option.

Now it's focusing on clearing the tank.

Next steps?
 

So we took care of doing the first few steps, measuring salt tonight, cleaning the filter, and installing the lights. The water is at the right temp-what's the next step once the tank clears up?

looking forward to seeing it soon.

Once your salinity is right.......GET SOME ROCK IN THERE GIRLY!!!:wink::biggrin:

I've been really curious as to why you added your salt to a tank full of water. I'm sorry and apologize if you already know this, but you should never mix up your saltwater in your tank. Have you put any live rock in your tank yet? You dont need to take out your powerheads either. Just position them different. Make sure there is a it of a ripple on the surface of the water. As another member posted early, if you put some rock in your tank it will help "break up" the flow on the sandbed.

Red coral had some wicked pieces of live rock when I went this afternoon. Really light ones too.

I mixed my salt in my tank when I was setting it up. I don't think there is anything wrong doing it that way if there are no livestock still in it.

Been changing my filter socks every morning for 2 days, and look what I have...funny how that works...

http://inlinethumb44.webshots.com/48...600x600Q85.jpg

:wink:

It did clear, unfortunately tho, I left the R.O. unit running before leaving for work-on and forgot to turn it off. I was nearly an 8 hour shift at work, when I got a call that there was a "water leak" coming from my unit, and came to over $4,000 worth of damage in 2 different units-mine and the neighbor below.

Spent my entire weekend emptying the condo to rip out the carpet and the underlay. We've had fans in there for 2 days now-buying new underlay today. The tank tho at the time really upset and wanted to let it go-has been moved to storage in our underground storage unit. Gah! we were getting so close! everything has to be on hold while we wait for insurance to call us back.

I'm so sorry to hear that. Nothing worse than going through all that work and someting like this happening. I hope insurance takes care of it for you.

Do you think you will try again?

I will, I was so upset when it first happened. I knew flooding is always a risk, and really, I was waiting for it to happen-but not to that extent-especially when it was preventable. Eeverything is out right now as we redo the condo. It wouldn't have been a big deal had it been plain water-but it was salt water. Im thankful I didnt have any rock yet.

Glad to hear that. It is so exciting watching things grow and interact.

One low tech trick I use so that I don't forget to turn something on or off, is that I set a timer that beeps at me. The beeping reminds me I have to take care of it or reset the timer if necessary - so far has worked great.

..you're not kidding. I have always had such a problem with forgetting silly little things-but this never! it was a routine thing I did all the time-that why it makes me so upset.

sorry to hear that Disney
I can only imagine the mess and the clean up.
Steve'o

That really sucks, on a plus side at least there wasn't any livestock in the tank yet. I went through a top off disaster with a freind leaving the top off running all night and it ended up killing pretty much everything in the tank :sad: Really sucks though having to replace all the flooring :sad:

sorry to hear this dear:(:( if it wasnt for bad luck thered be no luck at all i wish you the best in repairs and hope its not as bad as it sounds:)

Sorry to hear about your bad luck. Well i guess its time to buy a house now.