Bio sand filter problems or not

i don't find a water filter section so i hop this is good here

I live off of grid and set up a bio sand filter. Ive put probably 50 gal of water through it the last ten days. Most of it collected in dirty five gal pail. it has cleared up and runs clear going into the second week. Today i had some water with that had had sand it it. the kind i walk on every day. i put it in the filter and the water came out cloudy. I had done some of this when i first set it up an it did the same thing. i caught a quart of it then and let it set to settle out. But in over a week it was still cloudy. Is there some water these wont filter or should i keep running this turbid water through till it clears up.

Thanks

Is this turbidity biological or is it particulate? (Does it stink or does it smell all right?)

Its particulate. Yellow sand. i keep pouring it back through and it looks like it may be clearing slightly each time. But as i said i drew a quart and let it set several days without much change. A little in the bottom enough so i could tell it was yellow sand.

Could be then that the sand in the filter has not compacted to its final density. Once it is compacted, and the pore spaces are small, there should be much less percolation of particulate through it. As you note, it is getting better, but you can speed this up -- get some vibration going in it. Hold some electric hand tool up to the side of the filter and let the vibration of the tool transmit from the tool housing to the filter body. A high speed drill is probably the best tool to use since it will be generating lots of high harmonics in its vibrational spectrum. All that high frequency shaking should help to settle the sand in the filter.

Thanks for the tip. As a cabinetmaker i have lots of things that vibrate . Will give it a try next week after this weeks freeze is over