Muddy water

[Hammer]

Hi. I am attempting to start a Deep Sand Bed Salt Water Aquarium. As
recommened on more then one web site I obtained play sand from home
depot and put in my empty aquarium. Then I put in the power heads,
filled the tank with water, added salt, and turned the power heads on.
This has been about 2 week ago and I can not get the the sand to
settle. The tanks IS VERY CLOUDY..more like muddy. I have found if I

turn the powerheads off the tank starts to clear a bit but as soon as I

turm them back on the tank gets cloudy again. The power heads are not
pointing towards the sand. Does anyone know what I am doing wrong, or
how I can clear this up?


Thanks in advance

[Billy]

"Hammer" > wrote in message
ups.com...

>
> turm them back on the tank gets cloudy again. The power heads are
> not
> pointing towards the sand. Does anyone know what I am doing wrong,
> or
> how I can clear this up?
>
>


Either wait for it to settle(patience is the most important thing in
SW fish keepery) or toss on a filter (canister or diatom). You didn't
do anything wrong, it's quite normal for this to occur. As long as
it's not Live Sand, you can rinse the sh*t out of it, but it's still
going to get cloudy.

b

[Hammer]

gave up on the play sand. It just looked like mud in the tank after
two weeks. I went to the my LFS and got some fine sand for a base with

live sand on top. By the way the man at the fish store told me play
sand would work IF you had the right sand. He told me that their is
only one brand you can use - Southland - which is only available on the

East coast. Well living in Washington state that isn't much help to me.

Thanks for everyones help. Will try to keep you all posted on how
everything worked out

[Billy]

"Hammer" > wrote in message
ups.com...
> gave up on the play sand. It just looked like mud in the tank
> after
> two weeks. I went to the my LFS and got some fine sand for a base
> with
>
> live sand on top. By the way the man at the fish store told me
> play
> sand would work IF you had the right sand. He told me that their
> is
> only one brand you can use - Southland - which is only available on
> the
>
> East coast. Well living in Washington state that isn't much help to
> me.
>
> Thanks for everyones help. Will try to keep you all posted on how
> everything worked out


I believe he was referring to Southdown sand, which, if I recall, is
no longer available *at all* due to some corporate buyout which 86'd
the sand division of a concrete company that produced it. Someone
else may have bought rights to the name and began producing it again,
however.
As far as his assertion that's the "only" sand you can use, I
will disagree with that point. My 40g planted has playsand from Home
Depot. It's grey and rather coarse, and compacts a bit more than I
like, but seeing the huge proportions my anubias nana has attained,
it seems to be working out rather well. :)

billy

[Empty]

On Thu, 24 Nov 2005 21:56:40 -0800, Billy wrote:

> It's grey and rather coarse, and compacts a bit more than I
> like, but seeing the huge proportions my anubias nana has attained,
> it seems to be working out rather well. :)

A better example would be a plant like an amazon sword or tiger otus that
really relies on its roots for more than anchorage. ;)

~Empty