Info for others having the cloudiness issue: 1) Turbidity is typical of a bacterial bloom and will usually go away on its own. In Angry Owl’s case, it was likely dust from the substrate which is why it stuck around for ages. Bacterial blooms are common in newer tanks, when you’ve overfed, or something died. Except for alerting you of a nutrient spike, the bacteria blooms are not dangerous to fish as long as you have plenty of aeration. 2) If it IS the substrate, you have a few options. 2a) First is total removal. It would be wise to add bio bricks or seachem matrix to your sump and let them cook for a few weeks before removing your sandbed. Taking out sand means less surfaces for denitrifying bacteria to live (which is why it is generally recommended to do it over weeks or months). Doing a sudden change to any tank parameter is usually worth avoiding, but having good mechanical filtration (like a roller mat) and a good skimmer can definitely ease changes like sudden bioload/biofiltration complications which is likely why Angry Owl was okay. 2b) Do heavy sand vacuuming weekly to remove fines in combination with a canister filter running 5 micron filters. This will take forever and require constant maintenance for 2-3 months. 2c) Increase the depth of your sand bed so that fines have a place to settle and not get kicked back up again. Deep sand beds are an animal all of their own, so research the heck out of it. Reducing flow for a little bit can help the dust settle out MUCH faster. 2d) Run clarifiers like SeaChem Clarity. You’ll need a fine filter roller or filter socks to be successful and you’ll need to change them out after a few hours or the particulate will unclump and go back into the water. This will likely take several treatments over weeks to work as well. 3) To prevent this, rinse the absolute heck out of your substrate. Put three inches of sand in a 5 gallon bucket, and go to town with a hose until the water runs clear. Rinse and repeat for all your substrate. It. Will. Take. Forever. But, it will stop this from cropping up. Finer sands are a royal pain to clean, so sticking with special grade aragonite or bigger is your friend. When done, add some Prime to knock out chlorine and heavy metals from the tap water and use a phosphate + silicate absorption resin to avoid diatom explosions. 4) If you have or plan for a high flow tank, stick to larger gravel sizes if possible. Dust can also be made when sand bumps into itself and knocks off little pieces. Larger particles mean less movement mean less dust.
I have to do this so I can turn my DT into QT for ich and I don’t want the sand soaking up the Cuppermine. It didn’t crash your tank I see that’s great
I wouldn't do that because it can still get into rocks and I've heard the silicone as well but haven't seen evidence of that. Personally I think you'd be better off pulling all the fish out and doing a proper QT. But good luck with any route you choose! 🦉🍻
How did your tank do after the sand removal? I just did the same thing to my tank after moving around the rock work and deciding I didn’t like it anymore.
It's doing great and did just fine immediately after removing the sand. They say you should do it slow but I did it all in one shot and maybe got lucky with no losses 🤷♂️ I've had my best stretch in the hobby after removing it! 🦉🍻
@@angryowlaquariums40 Excellent news! All my fish and corals are doing great since the removal yesterday. Water parameters were right where they need to be immediately after as well. Did you need to change up your dosing after removing the sand or did everything stay the same as if you kept the sand?
No I don't think I changed any dosing at all but of course keep an eye on it just in case you get a different result. It's possible corals could consume less alk/calc during this period so worth checking!
@@angryowlaquariums40 I plan to closely monitor them for the next month to make sure nothing crazy happens. Hoping it’s as smooth a transition as your tank, which is beautiful by the way! Thank you for getting back to me so quickly, see you in the next video!
Ktown is a far superior reefer. I hit the 👍🏽 just to spite you and I dont want to know about your light mystery. Also travis from fish of hex obviously knows that no sand is better. The tank looks marginally better 🤷🏽♂️
