How to clear dusty water? (pics)
 

So I've finally filled my new 50G tank. It has about 40lb. of dry rock from marcorocks that I drilled full of holes for mounting frags and stacking with rods. After filling the tank, the water is very cloudy, white with a slight brown tinge. (Nothing alive in the tank at all). Mostly rock dust from all the drilling with some of the dead material from the rocks. This is what I'm working against (forgive the temporary wiring job):

[IMG]http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r125/LockeOak/01-08-08_2222.jpg[/IMG]

How can I clear it? Right now I have a phosban reactor with a media bag of carbon running on it (no phosban) and a MJ900 with its output blowing into a brick-sized block of foam from an Aquaclear filter (pics below). I don't have any filter socks, would some media bags wrapped around my overflow output help?

[IMG]http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r125/LockeOak/01-08-08_2225.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r125/LockeOak/01-08-08_2226.jpg[/IMG]

Time, just give it time.... When you get up, it will probably have cleared up.

It's been 3 days already :)

I have moved/set up a 18 gallon, 60 cube, 135 gallon (moved that one a few times) and a 100 gallon I set up in a hurry when my 180 sprung a leak and had to directly move everything at once, including sand which was a nightmare as my corals went in as well, and then my 180 the first time and when I moved back over. The last time, was a problem. The last time I moved my tank over, I didnt rinse out my sand, and had alot of problems with settling. It was unclear for days and I ran filtersocks continuously, cleaning them every few hours, had hob filters running, changing out their filters. It didnt work either. After like the sixth day, I just turned everything off. After about 24 hours, it was clean enough to see the back glass, after 48, it was clear as could be. Without anything moving around, it settled. Then I just vacumed up the stuff off the bottom.

Good idea, I'll try that. I've had a Koralia 4 running in the tank, it sure does a good job at keeping the bottom glass clean :) I'll leave it off overnight and see if there's any improvement.

my 100 took a week to clear.

100% Water change might help, just try to keep from stirring anything up when you put the water back in.

A skimmer will help pull out the particulates.

[QUOTE][i]<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11556843#post11556843 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by RWillieK [/i]
[B]A skimmer will help pull out the particulates. [/B][/QUOTE] Ditto on the skimmer.

I ran my skimmer and a power filter with the blue filter pad. After two days it was clear. The filter pad was caked with gunk.

maybe turn the power heads off till it clears up

Skimmer and Filter sock with a carbon bag maybe.

since the dust is not dissolved in the water (it is suspended particles), carbon isn't going to have any effect on the cloudiness.

[QUOTE][i]<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11557354#post11557354 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by RWillieK [/i]
[B]since the dust is not dissolved in the water (it is suspended particles), carbon isn't going to have any effect on the cloudiness. [/B][/QUOTE]

We used a filter sock and added a carbon bag inside and ours cleared up in 24 hours after being cloudy for 72 hours. I was just giving advice on what worked for us.

Yeah, the carbon was more to absorb some of the nastiness from the dry rocks, not the cloudiness. The media bag in the phosphate reactor seems to be helping though, it's getting pretty grimy.

A skimmer will help, and any mechanical filtering you can do (filter sock, floss, etc.) will also do its part, but the best, fastest way to clear a tank IME is with a diatom filter. Some LFSs will rent you one, or you might know someone in your local reef club or circle of 'fish buddies' that owns one... or you could do what I did and buy one, you'll use it more often than you think! I love my diatom filter. Want to clean out the sump? Turn off the return, stir up the gunk, and filter it out in 15 minutes. Tank full of detritus? Hook up the DF and start turkey basting - in an hour, all that gunk will be inside the filter and the water will be crystal clear. Move the rockwork and create a cloud of nastiness? DF to the rescue!

:D