Cannot get my water clear...

[Fishy Lee]

So here's what I got going:

46 gallon tank (which in May, when I move to our new house, is going to become a 75 gallon, or a 110 tall)
2 external power filters: 1 aqua clear 50 and 1 canister filter
1 water pump: maxi-jet 900

Lots of Lava Rock Decor and a few plastic plants and sand substrate

The fish:
3 electric blues
3 electric yellow labs
2 sunfire pea****s
2 julidochromis regains (convict julies?)
1 upsidown catfish

Water conditions are all pleasing, nitrates are low, ammonia is low, ph is right around 8, temperature is right at 81, and fish are very happy (eating well, behaving typically, active, colorful, good fins, no fast breating)

No matter what I do it seems there is sand floating around in the water making it seem like the tank water is murky and cloudy. From far away it looks nice, but once you get upclose you can see sand just floating around.

I was thinking the problems could be that I didn't wash the sand enough when I bought it? (I got 4 bags of play sand from Home Depot, and rinsed each bag out for at least 30 minutes in a bucket. Any ideas on how to combat the sand in the water? I'm worried about my fish's gills, and my power filters, and of course the look of the tank in general.

[cheseboy]

Well it won't hurt your fish's gills since in the tropical areas of the world in lakes the water is almoast always merky. Even if your fish arn't used to in it won't hurt them. The best thing to do I guess is water changes. When you do your weekley water change you'll be taking out some suspended sand particales every time. I used to have this problem also a while ago it was gone in about a week of corse I diden't have a powerhead constantly blowing the particles around.

[ron v]

Are you sure it's sand? Could it be tiny bubbles, maybe coming from the filter?

[Fishy Lee]

Definately not bubbles, I'll just have to keep up on my water changes, see if they decrease it all.

[leveldrummer]

to speed up the process, but make your tank look alot worse in the meantime, stir the sand real good before a water change, turn off the filters first, get as much sand suspended as possible, then do a large water change, in a couple of hours it should settle back down, and repeat next water change, you really got to wash that sand good before adding to a tank, you said 30 minutes, but you should fill up a bucket about half way with sand, fill with water, stir and poor off the water on top, untill your pouring off crystal clear water. may take a very long time to do.

[Fishy Lee]

So I'm kicking myself in the face right now, because I made a very very dumb mistake and realized where all the soot in the water came from. I'm a little embarassed to say I did this, because it's a beginners mistake that I made because I was so distracted. I bought two large pieces of lava rock and four plastic plants the about four days ago, and I put them in the tank without throroughly cleaning them. I don't know what I was thinking, but I'm pretty sure this is the problem, since the sand never really gave me any problems before. So today, needless to say, I'm taking out the new stuff, and giving it more than a healthy cleaning.

As far as the water changes you mentioned level drummer, you think about once a week is okay? Or should I do more or less???

Thanks for your advice guys!

[lochness]

well im glad it's mostly taken care of, my only concern is that you said the ammonia is low -- it should actually read 0 - any number higher than that will cause problems and a water change might help that (which is what you are doing anyhow) i will also add that a once a week water change is good - some do so more often and others do it every 2 weeks - i'd say 20%-30% weekly is good to maintain some form of stability and yet keep the ammonia to 0 as much as possible - of course every tank is different so to find out what's best for yours, test your water regularly a couple of hours after a water change and gage the numbers -- and then alter your water changing regime accordingly.

[leveldrummer]

Originally Posted by Fishy Lee

As far as the water changes you mentioned level drummer, you think about once a week is okay? Or should I do more or less???

Thanks for your advice guys!

i was just refering to getting the debris out of your tank, since you think you found a solution (the lava rock) it will just take time to get the particles out, i was assuming it was the sand like you were, and its hard to wash sand in an established tank. but since that isnt the case, just clean that rock real good, and stick with your regular maintenace scedule, and it should clear up.

[ron v]

A tip for washing sand..... This won't help you now Fishy Lee.. but maybe next time... Go to the paint section of Home Depot ( or anyone that sells paint ) and ask for a paint strainer. Its a mesh screen that's designed to get trash out of paint. It fits over a 5 gallon bucket and you put sand in it and rinse with a garden hose. It work great.

[micstarz]

good to hear youve worked it out

[BigEyedFish]

So here's what I'm thinking. I was going to move everythign out of this 46 gallon tank and into either a 75, a 90, or a 110 when I move to my new house in May. Nooooow I'm thinking (maybe I'm just talking myself into buying a new tank earlier muahahahah) that I'm going to buy the tank now, for the sake of ridding myself of this problem completely. SO I was thiiiiinking about the process. Right now I have a aquaclear 50. I'm going buy a aquaclear 500 to go along with it, which should take care of any filtration problems. I'm going to take out allll the lava rock and plants and run boiling water over 'em to make sure they're squeeky clean. As for the sand, what are you guys suggestions? The mesh paint thing sounds very very intriguing, but I'm not sure how I'd go about it with sand that's in a tank with water I have to save.....

Help me out guys, this could end up being a good thing for my fishes and I!!!

and as aways, thanks for you time and help guys!!!

[BigEyedFish]

oh, real quick...I dont' know why my user name just changed...I know I got a new one because I couldn't remember my old password, it must have been saved on this computer (obviuosly different from the one I was using before...just a heads up!)

[leveldrummer]

well if the problem was the lava rock, dont worry about the sand, unless you just want to rinse it some more. you dont need to save any of the water, its the sand, rocks, and plants that you want to take care of. unless you want to start fresh and completly cycle the new tank all together. but thats up to you. if you want to wash everything, do the sand like i told you above, dont worry about saving the water, because its usless if your washing everything any way. but you should put all the fish in the biggest container you can find and put a filter on the side of it. then drain the tank, wash the sand put it in the new tank, and rebuild it. i usually let me new tanks run for a couple days before adding fish, but someone can tell you about some chemicals to add so its "fish safe" real quick.

[Fishy Lee]

to ron v,

I tried sending you a private message, but I don't htink it went through:

Hey ron v,

in a thread you talked about a paint strainer. How exactly do you use this for sand? I'm gonna switch tanks, and in the process I'm going to comopletely RErinse my sand, and your idea seems the best. Do you put the sand on top of the strainer, and run water over it, and just use the sand that stays on top of the strainer? Any details would be great, thanks man!!!

[ron v]

The paint strainer is not rigid. It is more like a big sock. It has an elastic band around the top that is designed to fit over the top of a 5 gal. pail. Painters then pour old paint into the bucket through the strainer. With sand, fit the strainer over the pail, put 3-4 cups of sand in the strainer and run a garden hose onto the sand. It works pretty well. Just don't try to do much sand at a time.