Once the water is in, it is almost clear right from the start. I used a plastic bowl for pouring the water on to, so that I would not disturb the sand too much. The whole process of washing the sand and adding the water took about 45 minutes, it needed about 120 litres of water and I finished it off with 15 ml of dechlorinator. Last to go in were the filter and heater.
The aquarium is currently on the floor (that’s my old AquaOne next to it, which I am trying to sell) because I do not have any small table which is sturdy enough to take the 70 odd kg that the full aquarium weights (about 55 kg of water and 15 kg of substrate), so I am planning to build a wooden stand for it in the near future.
An aquarium adventure 