Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Believe me, I washed that gravel as much as I could - for hours, wasting huge amounts of water. But after letting a new system run without fish or plants for about a week, the sump tank if pretty full of dust leftover from the media, and the FT has some too.

How do I clear this out? Can I just put a sock over the pipes and stir it, or is there a better way? I plan on building a radial flow filter "soon"©, would that help with the dust, should I build it now?

Any tips much appreciated, I want sparkling water before I introduce the fish

A lot of the old timers here do not even wash their gravel. It will take care of itself in due time. If you really want to clean it you could put a filter sock, paint strainer bag, or even pantyhose over your pipe outlet heading into your sump. This will help clear it up. Although you may have to stir up the sump and Ft to get the deposits to move through your GBs first.

I guess I'm one of those old timers. I've never washed. Give it time, it'll settle out, the fish won't mind.

Once your system has cycled you will get a good biofilm over your tank surfaces so it wont be 'sparkling' any more. Relax and enjoy getting your system up and running. The biofilm in your growbeds will trap the fines and keep the water clear. I find when I dose with dolomite to raise my pH, the cloudiness is cleared in a couple of hours.

I always clean media but you never get it all out, it will settle eventually though and best not to stir up your media, it just tends to make more dust.