Sand Problem

[Tango]

Hello,

So I bought some fine sugar sand. Washed it and placed it in the empty tank and it was still a little wet.

I noticed there was a lot of air pockets in the sand. But I figured once I add water it will add pressure on top of the sand and push those bubbles out.

I guess that didn't happen!!

Here is what it looks like with freshly added water

Will these air pockets cause a problem?
How do I fix this?

I went over today and stirred the sand bed with a stick and now the sand against the glass is nice and smooth, and solid with no pockets. However, how do I know I reached all the places in the centre of the tank?

 

[little_fish]

Its not something you need to worry about, but you might find have trouble getting proper flow in your tank and keeping the sand from flying about.

 

[Tango]

Thank little fish

right now flow is messed up!

I had my hang on filter running and it caused a crater as you can see from the pic lol, but that is because the water level is soo low right now (waiting for live rock to fill the rest)

I turned off my powerhead and filter now to let the sand settle, so hopefully things will clear up!

So having air pockets in sand is ok? I kept hearing about them being nitrogen traps etc.

Also side note!

I find a lot of foam around the top off my tank. I imagine it's salt. Is this normal? there is tons of foam and when I dip my hand in the tank for a while to do something, my hand comes out with tons of foam. Is this normal??

 

[little_fish]

Its little stuff from the new sand, just give it some time and the foam will go away

 

[Tango]

Thanks little fish

Just to make sure we are on the same page. I understand the water is cloudy right now because of the sand particles all over the place.

I'm talking about the foam around the rim, it looks like salty foam, you can barely see it in the last picture it's at the water line and I always spray it with water to disappear. and just causes little foam islands on the surface. Is this normal? does sand have to do with it?

 

[ErinCahir]

The foam (as well as the cloudiness) are from the new sand. Don't worry about it!

 

[Smitty]

Lil fish and Erin has you covered...it'll eventually go away.

 

[Tango]

Ok thanks, I guess I'm just really nervous!

I took two more pics to show you what the foam situation looks like. Let me know if this is still "normal"

 

[little_fish]

normal

 

[ErinCahir]

Still normal. :)

NINJA'D! That's the second time today, Hannah. :shakes fist:

 

[Mr.Diggler]

You can use a fish net to scoop out some of the foam.

 

[sen5241b]

There's no reason you can't reach in with your hand and stir the bubbles out of the sand.

 

[Tango]

Ok I stired the bubbles out! Thanks Sen! and got almost all the foam under control thanks to DIgglers tip!!!

So new problem. The water was getting clearer and so I turned on the Powerhead and HOB filter.

BOOM instantly cloudy again! Arg.

Next day it was clear as day, But there was powder on the powerhead and magfloat. I believe it was sand particles so I shook them off.

So things were clear and I added a bit more premix water and BOOOOOM afterthing was everywhere again.

So things cleared up again after a day and then I slighlty tilted the HOB filter and all these white milky powder came out and BOOOOOOM tank is a giant cloud again.

I'm starting to worry that everytime I touch the tank it disturbs everything and becomes a huge storm of sand.

Especially water changes.

Now I plan on adding live rock today. Do you think Live rock will help? all I have in my tank right now is sugar fine sand and saltwater and I seem to be having problems with that.

Or is this all normal?

I plan on removing my HOB filter today and clean it out to get all that milky substance out.

Any tips?

 

[Nanna]

I'm no expert but I believe using the sugar fine sand will cause you constant problems. Every time you do anything to the tank the sand will be disturbed and cause the cloudiness to reappear. I think even running your powerheads will stir up the sand. Sorry but that's my 2 cents.

 

[Northstar24]

I have very oolitihic sand as well (this is what they call the sugar fine stuff) It is annoying. The good news is that its great for all kinds of sand sifting critters such as gobies. The bad news is its a pain in the &@%$@! to get your powerheads adjusted correctly so that they provide the needed flow, and don't whip up the sand....

It honestly took me several months to dial in the flow to my tank. The Vortech prop pump worked the best for me. It moves TONS of water, but does it in a wider gentler fashion than other pumps I've tried - and it doesn't move the sand around