I am upgrading my 55 to a 75 gal. And i used sand instead of crushed coral. How long does it take sand to settle down? My tank is very cloudy right now. I have a HOB filter on it now. There are no fish etc in the tank. I plan to let it cycle for about 5weeks.

Just wait until the water is clear. DONT and i mean dont turn on any filters or protein skimmer yet. ^_^

In my experience it helps to rinse the sand before adding it to your tank as it will reduce the cloudiness. I would also wait awhile for the sand to settle before turning on filters, powerheads, etc. as the sand could damage the equipment. I have had filter impellers damaged aswell as the filter stop working completely because sand got sucked up.

I have an old small power head just to keep water moving. And an old HOB filter running. I thought it may help in getting the water to clear up. And it does not matter if the old filter and power head get ruined. I will be adding more sand later. I want to put live sand in. I will be adding live rock in maybe two weeks to help start the cycle. Is that ok, or should i wait longer.

I like to add all my live rock at the beginning of the cycle so the die-off from the live rock can help kick start the cycle.

My water has cleared very well. I will be adding the live sand and rock as soon as the salt and temp are stable.
Thanks for the help. You people are the best. :up: :up:
If there is anything else i should do please let me know.

Have a couple of ? on lights. Should i run my halides and actinics at the same time? And how long should they be on?
And one more ? on feeding. Is it ok to feed everyother day. I just went through a bad case of hair algae and i dont need that again.

I like to run my lights on a 10-12 hour photoperiod. I would personally run the lights like this:

Morning(9am-10am): Actinics
Afternoon(10am-8pm): Actinice and Halides
Evening(8pm-9pm): Actinics
Darkness or moonlights(9pm-9am)

This is just the way I would do it, as you probably have a different schedule. You could turn your lights on earlier in the day and turn them off earlier in the evening if you wanted this is just an example. You could put your lights on a timer which would help.

I would still feed the fish everyday, even if it is just once a day. Just make sure you don't overfeed, and keep up on the tank maintenance. A good cleanup crew will also help keep the algae under control.