[jesstanner]

So I am currently in the process of re-doing my 10 gallon, which was previously being used as a tetra tank. I am still in the process of deciding what fish I want to put in it...but I have a few substrate questions:
-Right now, the tank has sand and is filled with water
-It has been sitting like this for several days
-It's been several days, but is still very cloudy
-I was EXTREMELY thorough when I washed it
-What do I do? I plan on putting the fish in on Saturday, so I need to know if there is any way to fix the cloudiness? Thanks!

P.S this is my first time working with a sand substrate, so do you have any tips on vacuuming?

 

[Betta16]

Is every thing off, the sand well normaly settle in 48-50 hours but thats with no pumps running. Also did you clean ur sand befor you but it in the tank, if not then you didnt remove the super small powder like sand that well make the clearing take way longer, my first tank took 9 days to clear for that reson.

 

[jesstanner]

Yes, the filter is off, and I washed the sand for about 15 minutes before I put it in. I didn't realize it could take as long as nine days for it to settle! I thought a day at most, thank you for the response!

 

[Micho]

There are some bottled products that work to reduce cloudiness caused by substrate.

I don't know anything of them but you could do some research on them, like Clarity by Seachem.

 

[Bombalurina]

What Clarity does is clump microscopic particles together into bigger ones so the filter can remove them. I wouldn't use it for sand.

Jess, is the cloudiness definitely from the sand, or could it be something like a bacterial bloom?

 

[Kim]

When I redid my 15 gallon with sand it took me over an hour to rinse it and even at that it took a while to clear. Perhaps you didn't rinse it thoroughly enough, although checking for a bacterial bloom is a good idea as well- you can usually tell because the water will have a foul smell.

If the water is fine it will probably just clear on its own within a few more days.

 

[jesstanner]

Thank you so much everyone! There is pretty much 0 smell, so (thankfully) no bacteria bloom! The water is actually MUCH better now...so next time I'll just rinse the sand for even longer...*sigh*
Honestly, I might just give up on sand and re-do it in a few months :/
Anyways, I cleared the water up by vacuuming ALL of the water out into a bucket until there was only wet sand left in the tank. Then I added the water back in using a reverse sort of vacuum, where I put the end tube inside the tank, and the "sucking" device in the bucket, so that the water slowly went back into the tank. It took maybe six hours, but the water is very clear now. Thank you everybody! Hopefully a fish will have a new 10 gallon home by Monday!