Running Filter When Water Murky?

[dan the man]

hi there guys,

just started setting up my tank and my water has gone very murky due to the sand im using as a substrate

just wondering if i can run my eheim filter to clear some of this up? or will it wreck the internals of it?

dan :)

[GoGuppy]

Hi Dan

Shouldn't be a problem, as the filter media is upstream of the pump impeller. I would use mainly filter floss to clear the water, don't use activated carbon or other specialised media, as it's not necessary, nor as effective.

What's the substrate you've used in the tank?

[dan the man]

yher ended up turning on the filter, however ive just got the standrd filter medium that comes standard wit the ehiem filters

its slowly clearing up, but ill see how it goes overnight

for the substrate ive used aquarim sand, sort of a coarse grained sand in a browny golden colour

[joz]

The gravel tends to have an excess of fine dusty stuff when first used.
Did you by chance rinse it out before setting up???
It shouldn't cause any issues except that until it settles it won't look clean.
But you can always just do some water changes being careful not to disturb it when refilling.

[Woodsy]

Or try a product such as Magic Clear to precipitate it out, and then just vacuum it up with your gravel syphon.

[wombat1100]

I agree, water changes and a gravel siphon is the go, i would stay away from unnecessary chemicals if you can, just my way of thinking, and as Joz said a thorough rinsing B4 adding to the tank is a must, if you haven't cycled the tank yet i would just keep changing water and rinsing it till its clear then cycle it, might save you trouble later when cleaning the tank and disturbing the settled silt.
Dazz

[Aussie]

Ah you have the troubled dusty sand disease hehe. You didn't wash it did you?? It's a pain in the butt washing it and take's ages. But is well worth it. With your filter running it should clear up in a day or 2, so don't stress about it :)

[miss626]

Or try a product such as Magic Clear to precipitate it out, and then just vacuum it up with your gravel syphon.


hey guys, i also have the sandy gravel in my tank and bought a gravel syphon vacuum, are these meant to syphon the water out at the same time?!
Becos when the lady at the fish shop demonstrated it only seemed to be getting the muck out, and not a lot of water?! i push it up and down and bits of water come out the other end, but i cant see any 'dirt' coming out really...just stirring up the tank a lot...

I dunno, now my tank is really murky :( And i haven't been doing 25% water changed either, i am thinking that tomorrow i will buy bigger gravel and do a water change?!

argh, im new to all this fishy stuff, been reading on here for a while now.

[Woodsy]

It sounds like she wasn't doing it properly miss626.
There are a few designs on the market, but most of the non-battery operated ones have a large tube connected to a 12-15mm hose. The best technique with these is to get the syphon running, insert the vaccuum end into the gravel. When you do this, gravel should come part-way up into the vaccuum along with the detritis (dirt) and then fall back down to the bottom of the tank. With a 12mm hose connected to the vaccuum, you should fill a 10L bucket in roughly 1min (possibly less).
Hope that answers a few questions ;)