Hi Guys, I messed-up my tank. For some reason I decided to take all the plants out and do a thorough gravel clean, only I forgot that I had white gravel mixed with fine white sand. Now after I took the plants out and did the clean, the tank is cloudy and has been for a few hours. Do I turn the filter on, it's currently off.
There are fish in there and they seem fine, but obviously I can't leave both my external filters off over night. I have two filters Eheim and Fluval.
Any advice to rectify this mess would be very much appreciated.
i made a similar boo boo a few months ago and i just kept the filter running and cleaning the filter daily(in used tank water)....it took about 8 days but then it went back to normal
I have heard of people placing a sponge or a piece of pantyhose over the intake to protect the filter from sand. I have not tried it myself, so not sure how well it will work.
Hi Marco, welcome to the forum! I did close to the same thing you did in one of my tanks. I left the filter off for a few hours, when I went to turn it back on I did exactly as Twistersmom's suggests. I used a section of pantyhose over the intake on the filter to keep sand from getting sucked into it.
Yea or a sock will keep the filter sand free too. Shouldn't take long to clean up once you plug your filters back in, max 1 day i'd say. Same in new tanks that are set up with sand and then filled, cloudy for 1 day and then they're good
i have sand substrate to, when i vac i always stir up the sand which is then suspended for about 15 mins or so but then again i washed mine to hell and back before adding it. just turn your hob on and let it run for a day or so then rinse out the media then turn on the can filter all will be well my friend.
All of that advice sounds good. I don't have sand substrate mind you but I find that when I decide to do a thorough cleanup, leaving the filter on clears up the mess fairly well... I wouldn't wan to leave the tank to "settle" by itself as that could take days.
I always turn my filters off while doing a water change. I do not want sand getting sucked up into them. It doesn't tank long for the sand particles to settle down (water will be cloudy) and then turn it back on. Just my 2 cents.
haiwkin if it's taking so long for the sand to settle can you just do a pwc and draw from the sandy water? i've never used sand substrate so i'm probably putting my two cents where it doesn't belong.
but that along with turning on the filter with the secondary barrier (eg pantyhose)
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