Cloudy Water before adding salt?

[daren123]

I made 200+ gallons of RO/DI water and added to my soon to be reef tank. Once it was full the water was clear. I let my Hydor power heads blow and churn the sand on the bottom of the tank for a day while setting up other parts of the aquarium to filter out any debris.

Now its 4 days later and the tank is still cloudy? I let it run for a day using filter fine filter socks...no better. I shut the tank off for 24 hours...no better. I added carbon...no better.

It does not seem to be sediment or particles in the water...it seems that something very small is bound to the H2O molecules?

Any ideas would be appreciated. The tank is completely empty except water and sand. I have used the same sand in a past reef tank...but I cleaned and rinsed the sand thoroughly before adding it.

Is it because the water is de-ionized? Would adding the salt mix to the water cause it to precipitate out? I don't really want to add the salt mix and waste it if I need to discard my water and start over.

this is very weird

[SushiGirl]

Possibly bacterial bloom?

[mpderksen]

Pull a few gallons into a clean bucket, add salt and powerhead to test your theory on a small, and cheaper scale?

[disc1]

Originally Posted by daren123

I let my Hydor power heads blow and churn the sand on the bottom of the tank for a day while setting up other parts of the aquarium to filter out any debris.

Now its 4 days later and the tank is still cloudy?

New sand tend to make the water cloudy when you churn it up. Really what do you expect. Sometimes it takes a while for all that to clear up, especially if it is still churning.

Did you rinse this sand?