Cloudy tank

[LizzyP]

I'm still getting used to vacuuming sand instead of gravel and it gets pretty messy

Today it was really bad though. I was digging around in the sand trying to cover up some plant roots. Dumbledore is in a large container (about 2 cups) floating in the tank in clean water. It's been about 2 1/2 hours since I cleaned the tank and it's still pretty cloudy, I don't want to let Dumbledore out since it is cloudy. But he's really stressing. Lost a lot of color in his face, just sulking in the very back of his cup. Can I put him in the big tank? I'm assuming it just needs time to resettle.

Thanks
Lizzy

[Oldfishlady]

I would make another water only changes to try and clear it up.

What size tank, how deep is the sand, how many and what species of live plants and are they growing well, how long has the tank been setup.
Do you have a filter, if so, what kind, filter media care and did you turn it off for the water change.

[LizzyP]

It's a 5.5 gallon tank, the plants have only been in there for 2 weeks. Sand is about an inch-inch and a half thick, plants are doing well. Have only had to clip a few stems. It's pretty heavily planted with anubias, amazon swords, floating wisteria, java fern and a moss ball.

I use a Fluval U1. Filter is always turned off for water changes and the foam is swished in dirty tank water about 1-2 times per month. It was not rinsed today. I wanted to clean the tanks quickly since Sandy is coming here. Heavy rains and high winds and only going to get worse.

[Oldfishlady]

Everything sounds good-the tank should have cleared within an hour at least once you turned your filter back on.

I would make another 50% water only-being careful not to disturb the sand (as I am sure you are) Wait 10min-then turn the filter on.

Just to be sure-the output of the filter-is it directed toward a hard-scape object so it doesn't kick up the sand.

Keep safe during the storm...

[LizzyP]

So I just did a very large change, about 75%. I just stuck the gravel vac in and sucked water out. No sand was disturbed. I did rinse the filter media but plugged it back in as soon as I was done. After reading your post I just unplugged it. However, it's still very cloudy. I moved Dumbledore to a 1 gallon for now. I took a picture of the tank after this last change.



The only thing I can think of is when I kicked up a lot of sand, one of the root tabs was disturbed too. I use the API Root Tabs and API Leaf Zone for fertilizer. I did poke around in the sand with a tooth pick to release gas but I'm still not sure what to do.