Cloudy water from fine sand?

Hey guys, I'm preparing my tank for my newts, and I put in my sand a few days ago, and it is still a little murky from the fine sand I put in, I rinsed it and washed it before putting it in, any suggestions?

I had the same issue with my new tank. The cloudiness lasted for about 3 or 4 days and I was afraid I'd made a mistake, but then it disappeared completely. I'd just be patient

Thanks slowfoot, I was worried maybe I didn't rinse, or had gotten something bad. Do you think it's ok to use this kind of sand for my newts?

I'm not sure what kind of sand you're using. I used a brand of play sand, which was a very fine, white sand. It's been great so far with my newts. Like I said, very cloudy at first, but then it settled. My newts started 'tasting' it when I first put them in (they'd been on large gravel previously), but now they seem to ignore the sand.

Anyway, I like the sand so far - my plants are rooting well in it and I like the way it looks - but I'm not an expert on it and the tank has only been up and running for about 4 weeks. Some people caution about using too deep a layer as it can become anoxic and gross. But I think you'll be fine if you don't overdo it.

I have most of my 10 gal. tank about half an inch thick in the fine sand ( Sold as Natures Ocean Marine White Sand ) and to the left side, i piled some up on my gravel, so it comes out of the water, that's about 4-5 inches high, maybe i should do something else for land.

I've heard that any sand sold for saltwater aquariums is probably not good to use for newts - something about the shells/corals it's made up of changing the pH of the water. Maybe someone with more experience can help you out.

It's pure sand, not crushed coral or shells.

'Sand' can be made up of a number of different materials: ground coral and shells, silica, etc, etc. My point is that sand sold for use in marine aquaria is often from a marine source and, therefore, is more likely to be made of ground shells and corals and contain salts. Great for marine organisms, but not so good for newts.

However, like I said, I'm not an expert.

I understand this, but I'm saying that generally if it is made up of crushed coral, or other potentially harmful materials they specify it.

I looked it up.... 5th product down...

http://www.reefsand.com/

says 100% aragonite... like the first product that says its taken directly from seabeds.

Wikipedia says..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aragonite

"....Aragonite forms naturally in almost all mollusk shells, and as the calcareous endoskeleton of warm- and cold-water corals (Scleractinia). ....."

Sharon

Yep, that's it Sharon, so what do you think, is this okay?

I learned my lesson long ago that mixing saltwater and freshwater is at the least difficult. Mixing mediums is a no no in any animal enclosure.

I have no idea how much salt and other things are in that particular type of sand. I do know that if anything goes wrong you're going to be wondering if it was the fault of the sand or not. Its one of those things you'll have to rule out before moving on to other exclusions.

I checked my bag. It says 100% silicate or silicone - from sakrete.com

I found less info on the website than I did the bag so that wasn't much help.

I found this on another site... "...SAKRETE® PACKAGED SANDS are produced from British Columbia sources and are high quality, washed and flame sterilized. Typical sieve analysis of SAKRETE® PLAY (FINE) SAND and SAKRETE® ALL PURPOSE (COARSE) SAND are given in the following table..."

http://www.basalitedrymix.com/products/sakrete_play.htm


Sharon