Added sand, could not be more cloudy

[steelerguy]

My tank had been filled for a few days while I made sure there were no leaks or anything. Everything was good so I went ahead and added salt and then sand. Of course adding sand after water is not that best thing, but there was not much I could do. So the water is extremely cloudy now as expected. The bag of sand (Caribsea Ocean Direct) said to add the sand and then immediately turn on all your filtration, well I did this and it has made a mess of my sump. It has been running for a few hours now and does not look any better in the tank. Skimmer started to pull out so much crap I had to throttle it back quite a bit.

Should I turn off the CLS and just leave the sump running? Should I turn off all pumps to let it settle down? What should I do about skimmer...turn it down or turn it way up and just skim like crazy?

[kkyyllee]

sandstorms take a day more before things seddle down

[NanoGurl]

I would leave everything running normally.

[Reefbox]

I'd just let it all settle down for a couple of days.

[chris31]

they tell you to shut your equipment down because sand contains sand dust basiclly smaller particals of sand that float around and they dont want to be responable for cloged or broken pumps or anything the best way to control this is to rinse the sand before putting it in the tank so the sand is wet and wont stir up or the garbage bag method.kinda late for this now i guess. it will be fine dont worry about it leave your pumps off for a day or so you dont have any live stock in there so it wont hurt anythng.

[1F2FRFBF]

Will your setup allow for a filter pad in your overflow box or a filter sock at the end of the drain line? If so, this might help keep some of the sediment out of your sump and your equipment. Just remember to check it every couple hours to make sure things don't get clogged or backed up.

[AZDesertRat]

Get a couple of cups of live sand from friends established tanks and seed your sand. Once the bacteria becomes established the sand storm will settle like a rock. It just takes time.

[steelerguy]

To address a couple questions:

chris31: The sand actually said it didn't require any rinsing and to turn the pumps on right after adding it. I kind of thought this seemed weird, but what the hell, I did it.

1F2FRFBF: I can put a filter sock on the output in the sump. I actually ordered a couple socks yesterday and hopefully they will be here on Friday.

AZDesertRat: I actually have a nano at work, but being that it does not have a lot of sand to begin with I would not be able to take more than a pound or so. The sand I added was that fake live sand stuff CaribSea Ocean Direct, so it may or may not actually have a little bacteria. Regardless, I ordered 5 pounds of live sand today along with live rock, so I should have that very soon.

Thanks for all your comments people, I will just leave the pumps on I think and let nature take its course. In my nano I added the sand first then water slowly so I didn't have this problem. In my freshwater tanks, it was always gravel. So I felt like a newb when it came to adding fine grain sand to an aquariums with over 25 time or so turnaround.

[AZDesertRat]

Fresh sand from local established systems will be much better than purchased sand. Find someone close and bum a cup or two, thats all it will take to get it jump started.