Couple of issues

First with the good news, the tank is up and running.

There are only two real concerns:
1 - I bought some aquarium sand from paddock farm at the weekend after a lot of advice from several members. I put the sand in the tank yesterday and then proceeded to fill with water from the tap (untreated for chlorine). Heaters went in to get to the water up to temperature, air pump on, filter was stripped down and media removed so that it wasn't contaminated with tap water. I left some used filter foam in the external filter so that it would collect debris in the water, the fluval 305 was then turned on. The tanks now been running for 24hours and its still very cloudy, not much different, I have also now treated the water with tap safe.

Tomorrow I have some used media (bio max) coming so it will help jog on the bacteria in my filter and tank. How long should I leave the tank for the bacteria to grow before adding a couple of fish (to produce ammonia for the bacteria)? Will the cloud in the tank effect the fish?

2 - Basically I've been advised that I've made an expensive mistake with my tank already, buying aquatic sand for tropical. Whats been suggested is that my tanks gunna look shit as I'm going to continuously have waste sit on top of the sand, I'm gunna have to syphon the sand to remove manure (previously advised on here that I didn't need too as bottom feeders would sort it) dispersing sand all round the tank yet again. Also resulting in a loss of sand meaning I'm going to be continuously have to top the sand up (further expense) and that its gunna knack my external canister.

Is any of this true/false?

Issue 1 - obviously make sure you have dechlorinated first but soon as you have the mature media in you can add a small amount of Danios immediately because without them the becteria will only die anyway.
I don't think the dust will be an issue as water in the wild is never crystal clear and is often disturbed by rain, storms etc. Really the dust is so fine the fish will likely just pass through it. It won't take long for it to settle all of a sudden anyway. Did you wash it before it was added?

Issue 2 - You will have waste build up but this is no more noticeable than any other substrate. What I found is that the corys etc tended to brush waste aside under rocks and bog wood so they did keep it tidy in a way. Although I'm sure they do eat some waste they certainly don't eat all of it plus anything they eat only goes to make another turd anyway.
As regards to syphoning just do this on your weekly water changes as normal that will be fine. You won't lose so much sand each time that you have to replace it often. Unless you jab the syphon right into the sand which you won't. It's more likely every few years you might need to top up. In any case sand is going to settle in the bottom of the bucket anyway so just keep it and re introduce it to the tank when there is a fair bit collected. Be careful you don't stir up the sand and your filter will be fine, every now and then give the impeller a clean.

Hope this helps, good luck tomorrow! You'll have to get some pics up.

youl have to siphon gravel etc to get the waste out anyway as too much fish waste will be bad for your tank. so in a way sand has its advantages instead of having to rumage around in the gravel cleaning it up the waste lies ontop of the sand to be siphoned very easily. i do my water changes weekly and the amount of waste left ontop of the sand isnt bad doesnt look too bad but if i wanted to i could just siphon it out every few days itl only take a minute to siphon it out and replace the few litres of water.

Everyone has their own ways of maintaining their tanks, some like, some don't like sand. I have sand in all my tanks and I would never go back to gravel. I've sent you a pm regarding collecting some mature media and ill give you a run down of how I maintain my tanks that don't collect too much poo. And I have 7 adult poo machine plecs to tidy up for lol.

Thanks for the advice guys, its just a little alarming at what some people come out with. Even though I have kept fish before I am now working with a completely different idea, bigger and more advanced than I've ever gone before. I don't want to make mistakes this time as I have made them in the past a wiped whole tanks out. Thats why I'm asking so many questions so I know whats going on before I start.

Good news is I've come down this morning and the tank is nearly clear. It's still cloudy but has really gone down.

Looking foreword to getting things going this morning.

You will soon get the hang of things again. You still coming today?

yeh, probs be closer to 11 if thats ok

No probs mate

It'll be like second nature.

The cloudy water will clear up. It will take a few days like. So don't worry about it. It's part of setting up an aquarium.