Hi Folks

I have a question/need some help!

I purchased a new 4x3x3ft tank to house some of my cichlids in the other week and it has been cycling the last week and a half. I tested the water today and the results came back awesome. (Which after a week only i was suprised at!)No/minimal readings for nitrIte, nitrAte or ammonia. Neutral pH.

Tank stats:
*Aqua One CF1000 external filter
*carbon pouch in filter media to asisst with water quality
*extra filter media sponge to help strain water from fresh dust
*white sand mixed with a marble for ground
*air stone
*fluro and purple light fixtures
*2x plants

My question: i have sand in my smaller tank and it settled real quickly and doesnt get stirred up. It appears to be a thicker sand than this one. But the sand in our new tank just wont settle. The water is cloudy with dust. It clears but not enough.

We have rinsed the sand, rinsed the filter twice this week to remove the sand dust (the dust is everywhere!!) and im just wondering how long it will take to settle? Is it always going to be this cloudy? It puts a fine coating on everything!

I brush the pipes everyday pretty much to move the dust.

I added the carbon to the filter today so im hoping with the addition of that and an extra media sponge it may make a difference in straining the water.

I would love the keep the sand and am probly just inpatient but i dont really want to rip it out and put gravel in

The guys at our local aquairium who we get along with great told us to rinse the filter after a week. Will it constantly stir up and go cloudy? I dont want our fishies swimming round in a cloud of dust...

We put a couple of plants in to help with the filtration and am tossing up the idea of adding the slate and rocks to make their homes asap. Or when i do this will it stir up the sand again?

Will it ever settle and stay settled?

[Updated on: Sun, 23 March 2008 06:09]

allen wrote on Mon, 24 March 2008 02:45

What kind of sand did you use? A diatom filter should clear it up but if you used the wrong kind of sand,you will continue to have this problem

The sand name? Im not sure. The guys didnt give us the official name It is the same sand they use in all their tanks. With marble mixed through it. They said it is good sand.

The filter is a great filter Its the next model after the one we use for our 3ft communal tank which is a Aqua One CF750.

Malawi Mother: i know its nowhere near finished cycling Was just suprised that the readings came back like that. I was going to put a few feeder fish in as you suggested in your cycling thread i read the other day. (It was very helpfull thanks) To asisst with the bacteria as you mentioned. But i dont know if it would be that healthy for them with the dust (?) Will all the feeder fish die?

Im not an expert by a long shot. I really appreciate the help

A childrens rake sounds like a great idea. I never thought of that. Ive been using a strainer/net to sift through my other tanks sand to pick up all the left over matter and air pockets. It all falls back to the ground pretty quickly when I do thtat too.

Or i just use my gravel vac gentle skimming it along the top to pick up the matter.

Geographically challenged means Im useless with with reading maps

[Updated on: Sun, 23 March 2008 19:58]

Is 68degrees Celcius or Farenheit?

The sand seems to be behaving itself now. It is still a bit cloudy but this is possbily the bacteria you mentioned.

I have been adding fish food every two days (only a small amount) and there are also some plants in the tank to help out.

The feeder fish prone to disease sort of puts me off adding them though. Id rather not make my tank suseptable to 'ick' and other goobies.

I have added used filter media and also taken water from my other two tanks to add to this tank aswell. Not much, but every bit helps.

Quote:

I do know that cichlids actually do suck in the sand through their mouths and spit it out through their gills which is quite interesting to watch and sometimes funny.

My lombardi does that all the time! It is hilairious to watch. he rearranges the tank. He loves it. Its hilairious and when he does the body shake to, thats even more funny

[Updated on: Tue, 25 March 2008 04:53]

[Updated on: Tue, 25 March 2008 10:04]

I guess im just scared of my tank getting diseased because we had to strip back our smaller tank to get rid of the black beard fungus. Scrubbed, scrubbed and scrubbed but it came back with vengance. We had to completely dis-assemble it.

I bought 15 of the lil feeders today and dropped them into the tank. They stuck to the plants like glue to begin with but my partner said they were all swimming around now.

I told him not to get attached to them as they will all no doubt die Otherwise if they survived they would become a gourmet lunch for our convicts and yellow lab.

My pH was through the roof today. I had to use a small amount of adjustment to bring it back down. It was so alkaline it was off the charts.

Am I allowed to adjust the pH during 'cycle time'?

Ive been writing down and testing the water nitrIte, nitrAte, ammonia and pH every couple of days. Apparently the sand we have has a very high pH on its own. But it should settle down eventually. Im hoping the addition of the feeders will aid this. My other tanks water is always dead on neutral. We hardly ever have to adjust it.

[Updated on: Wed, 26 March 2008 04:15]

[Updated on: Thu, 27 March 2008 00:38]

^^^
Cheers for that. The sand seems to be doing ok now. Just not looking forward to stirring it up again when i add some rocks etc.

Malawi Mother wrote on Fri, 28 March 2008 01:04

Yes too high pH value will hurt them eventually. It could burn them or set them up for disease. Just curious, have you had your convicts and yellow labs together for 12 months in the same tank?

Maybe when the bacteria builds up it will levelout the pH. My high range pH kit told me it was at 7.4 last night. I think it will come down to neutral eventually, just maybe not till the water settles down.

Our convicts and yellow lab have been in the same tank together all their life. Well since we got them from our lfs. They are in our communal tank. They get along really well. They were quite small when we got them. Our convicts are both girls. Same with the yellow lab. They live with gouramis x4, bristol nose plecs, clown loachesx2, tiger barbs x2 and a silver fox. Ocassional when we put a smaller fish in there they will pick it off but i learnt that lesson quickly

I will drop some test results in tonight when I get home.

Feeders: now 14.

The suction in my filter must be pretty good because the feeder that died was sucked into the side of the basket on the end of the inlet pipe. I had to pull it off!

[Updated on: Thu, 27 March 2008 21:59]