Flourite Black Sand and Water Clarity. Need Advice

[rjohnson16]

Sigh...so, I am setting up a new 29 gallon and I bought Flourite Black Sand as my substrate. Unfortunately, I only rinsed/soaked it once before adding to the tank. After 2 days, the water got a little clearer--I could actually see the plants in the back of the tank. But, in the last 3 days, there has been ZERO improvement. 

I have a Tidal 55 filter running. I put filter floss in the filter Day 2. I did a 10% water change two days ago and a 20% water change last night. And when I am adding water back, I am going SUPER SLOW to not disrupt the substrate.  No difference at all when I woke this morning. It's been 5 1/2 days at this point. Wondering if the filter is even worth a damn not being able to clear this up by now...but I am guessing this is a normal occurrence w/ this substrate...

I've been using Prime, Stability and some Fritz Zyme 7...

What more can I do? Just continue to do daily water changes? 

Can I add fish to cloudy water? Or does it need to be totally cleared up? 

Please help my sad ass...

Edited January 5, 2022 by rjohnson16

[FrozenFins]

I had this exact problem. And to be honest all I did was let it be, no waterchanges no anything. I didnt want to risk disturbing the substrate again so I lef it. and after maybe a week it was crystal clear. 

Flourite is a very messy substrate and ive learned you really have to rinse it if you dont want cloudy water. 

Thats what my aquarium looked like minutes after putting water in, you cant even see the filter. My aquarium may be less foggy then yours, so it may take even longer for you to see crystal clear water but none the less it'll come just be patient.

[scott the fishman]

On 1/5/2022 at 10:12 AM, rjohnson16 said:

Sigh...so, I am setting up a new 29 gallon and I bought Flourite Black Sand as my substrate. Unfortunately, I only rinsed/soaked it once before adding to the tank. After 2 days, the water got a little clearer--I could actually see the plants in the back of the tank. But, in the last 3 days, there has been ZERO improvement. 

I have a Tidal 55 filter running. I put filter floss in the filter Day 2. I did a 10% water change two days ago and a 20% water change last night. And when I am adding water back, I am going SUPER SLOW to not disrupt the substrate.  No difference at all when I woke this morning. It's been 5 1/2 days at this point. Wondering if the filter is even worth a damn not being able to clear this up by now...but I am guessing this is a normal occurrence w/ this substrate...

I've been using Prime, Stability and some Fritz Zyme 7...

What more can I do? Just continue to do daily water changes? 

Can I add fish to cloudy water? Or does it need to be totally cleared up? 

Please help my sad ass...

I used the flourite black gravel and i had to wash it many many  times, it was so dirty. i have the tidal 110 and the penguin 400 pro HOB with a large power head in side of my tank. it took 3 days to get crystal clear water, 

[Patrick_G]

Sometimes putting a layer of floss on the filter spillway helps. 

[Kmanns75]

I also had this issue after setting up my tank with Flourite black sand. I’m using a canister filter with some polishing pads, so I thought it would clear up on its own once the sand settled.  After 3 days, there was very little difference. So I did some research and decided to try Seachem Clarity. Followed the instructions on the bottle and in about 3 more days the tank was clear and looking great. After the tank was clear, I had to change the polishing pads again, but the Seachem Clarity certainly did the trick.