First of all...don't panic! Sand clouds sometimes when you first put it in, its not usual, and its not harmful as far as I know. So don't worry.
You may just have not washed it out enough......I use Petco sand in various colors in all of my tanks and I've never had a problem with it clouding except for once with the gray sand, but that was only slight and for a couple of hours.

What I did with rinsing the sand was do it in small parts. I think it was about....four or five parts total for a 5 lb bag of the stuff. I rinsed it a few times really well, like I would with gravel....filled up the container with water, stirred it all around with my hand, then slowly poured the water out and repeated several times, then added that part to my tank and did the same with the next part. I can't be entirely positive since this is what I did for all of my tanks, but I think this really helped to eliminate clouding personally.

For now, since you've already got it all set up, try a couple of large water changes. Go in and stir up the sand really well with your hand, do a 75-80% water change, wait a bit, then repeat one or two more times if it still looks cloudy. I'd say that'd probably help at least some.

Also....do you plan on getting a filter soon? Are you planning to cycle?

 

I do plan on getting a filter, I just don't have one atm. Will a filter help?

what do you mean by "are you planning to cycle"?

Stiring up the sand will help it to be less cloudy? I would think it would make it worse. the reason I thought it was so bad was because I stired the sand alot trying to get all the rocks out because some how they got burried in the sand even though I put sand in first. and same with changing water, wont that make it worse too? I guess I'll try it thanks.

 

I'm not sure if the filter would really make much of a difference all that much with the cloudy sand, but its not going to hurt it anything either.

Well if you are going to be adding a filter, then, so long as you don't remove/turn off your filter or break down your while tank, your tank will go through whats called the Nitrogen Cycle where your tank establishes a colony of beneficial bacteria that break down the harmful chemicals your fish naturally produces, allowing you to cut down your water changes to just 30%-50% per week once you're cycle is established. Its a bit like...establishing a bit of a little ecosystem.
This thread explains how the cycle works: http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?t=98795
And this thread explains more of what you need to do during the cycle and whatnot: http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?t=107771

Well, you stir it up and then make your water change. Since I assume you probably just didn't rinse it enough, if you do this a few times then it should help cut down on the cloudiness. Try to, when your pouring the water back in, pour it in nice and slow and gentle, maybe over on a decoration or onto the divider. Petco sand isn't all that fine, its more like fine gravel rather then sand, so when rinsed properly its not going to stir up like fine play sand or pool filer sand might, even during water changes.

If that doesn't help and its still cloudy after a day or two, I'd suggest draining the tank and completely re-rinsing the sand in small parts, like I explained in my previous post.

 

my black petco stand trapped airbubbles and floated...really pissed me off... but it does settle after a while...

if u are taking about cloudy sand instead.... justdo a few water changes... when u pour in new water lay a plastic wrap ontop of all the sand and pour over that.... it will help keep the sand intact...

 

:O Plastic wrap over sand is an amazing idea! Could you leave that in permanently? I love the look of sand but every time I've tried it it constantly clouded and it was annoying every time I tried to clean the water. I was thinking put in some caves and decorations on the bottom, and a lot of floating plants to make it still as green as my other tanks.

 

i doubt it... lol because even if u held it down... u will create anaerobic pockets...

 

Yes he did! I'll probably take pictures of him in the quarantine tank as soon as he's acclimated. I'm so excited to get to meet him in person! I remember a thread where he hid, well I had Eko scare the daylights out of me. He jumped into the filter and got himself stuck there until I rescued him. I then made a cover for the filter with craft mesh, my favorite fish tool.

 

*thread is hijacked*

Lol yes! I left his susswassertang in there, but in the frenzie of the day, I forgot his food

You can leave the susswassertang suspended it sinks, so if you stuff it in a corner, it will generall stay there. needing the occassional poke to get it back into place. it should grow for you over time!

 

Yay! Plants! Bettausa sent some food with him, so it's all good. I also just got a new jar of omega one which both my guys seem to love. I'm stalking my porch in anticipation!

 

stay on topic?

I need help :/

more info the better

 

Did you try what I suggested? Was it helpful?