Possible contamination

[Trent]

There was only crushed coral and salt water churning in my tank. I added Sand to the coral bed right out of the bag. But I discovered after a minute of holding the bag of the water, directing the sand, that 40+ lbs was starting to get heavy and awkward. So I thought I had a good idea by dumping the rest of the bag in the rubbermaid pail and scoop it in with a small bowl.

Used old sour cream container. It was dry so I thought nothing of it. Didn't think to rinse it out. took a scoop of sand, water and some cruched coral out of the bin and into the tank. The very moment I got foam! And I paniced.
'No, soap!' I cursed to myself.
I probably should have turned the filter off. I now have a ring of foam around the tank and small patches in the middle.
I cleaned out as much as I could with a net.

Is there any chance this can be corrected without dumping the whole thing and starting over?:hurt:

[ajx22]

Relax...it's completely normal for the sand to cause a foam - would have even without the sour cream container.

Just sit back and watch the MESS for the next while - Even with my using over $600 of Caribsea Aragalive - I too had to scoop out as much of the foam as possible...and the overflow + skimmer got rid of the rest.

It's all good.---annoying---but good.

Cheers,

[Trent]

Great, thanks AJ. As this is a learning experiance, I didn't know what to expect. You're right, I gotta relax. --bad things happen quickly.

[ajx22]

No problem at all!! This is the whole reason I bought and installed this forum. :read:

Trust me...learning with this many great people teaching, you're gonna save a TON of cash - not to mention a hundred migraine headaches.:bang:

Keep asking - keep learning - but above all...make sure that you ENJOY. :D

Cheers,

[Dman]

Trent,
In this hobby most bad things happen slowly, or better yet bad things happen when you do things quickly :D
I too had foam from hell when I started up my 200.
As AJ suggested, scoop out what you can and just watch.
DMan
:spin:

[Kenzy]

Also try and wipe any silt/deposits off the glass at least once a day. It sounds like a PITA, but when I set up my tank I didn't do this and had to use a razor blade to scrape off the calcium deposits. On another tank I did wipe it down every day and didn't have this problem. FWIW.

[Trent]

Thanks all for the replies. I want to see if I can get a tool that is made for that. Long handle, scrubby end. Maybe dual sided. Or a cleaning tool that would be equivilent.

I've heard of old health cards being used as scrapers.;)

[Kenzy]

Unwanted credit cards that get sent to you in the mail work well too...;)