"Polishing" Water

[Scoot]

Now that I'm running a skimmer and UV, my water is crystal clear, *except* for the little bits of stuff floating about, some from normal fish activity, stirring up sand, some from my sump, which gets some particles stirred up with I do daily top-offs.

I'm running an emperor 400 (dual bio-wheel), and I clean those filters frequently, I have sponges over my powerhead intake, a sponge on my overflow box, and a filter pad on my return pump. All those get cleaned frequently, but I still constantly have bits of "stuff" floating in the water.

Isn't my water movement supposed to be strong enough to keep this stuff in suspension until my filters pick it up? It seems like the stuff just doesn't settle out.

I'm thinking about building a filter over my sump for my overflow line, to help eliminate the particles floating in the water, but I'm not sure the filter pads or sponges will pick much more up.

Suggestions for fine filtering?

 

[20 20]

100 micron filter sock...

http://www.marinedepot.com/md_viewItem.asp?idProduct=BS1123

 

[Scoot]

Perfect - anything filter pads or sponges I add to the overflow seems to drastically reduce its flow - this should let the flow pass through well, but still catch the little stuff.

This is what I was thinking might work, but didn't know exactly what to look for.

 

[abnmojo]

This is the reason I invested in a sump years ago - you can vacuum the stuff out of the sump below the tank, and it ALL goes down there eventually.


I have read a lot of folks posting stuff here and elsewhere telling about how Trickle filters are no good, and that you don't need them, but I have found that nothing collects the goo from the tank and keeps it out of the tank quite like one.

here is an oversimplification of my setup - heater, skimmer, UV not shown

Very little crud makes it back into the main system. I am not using this to filter the water, per se, as I use the live rock and sand to do the heavy lifting. The skimmer gets the disolved organics, this filter set up is mainly for just getting the crud out of the tank where it can be sucked out of the system and dumped down the toilet. If I forget to clean the sponges out often enough, the sump just overflows into the 29 gallon anyway, and I can hear the water and know it is time to clean.

 

[Scoot]

The new snails have been starting to reduce the crud in the sump, but slowly. I think I need about 10 more - 5 in the skimmer side, 5 in the fuge side.

I do think bio-bale would help in my case, if I could build a canister to hold it - I'm limited on space under the cabinet ;( Anything that could easily be removed and cleaned.

Vacuuming the sump would require a powered vacuum - its too low to use a siphon sump, but yes, you're right, everything does tend to settle there. But, if I don't get rid of it, it just turned into nitrate.

 

[abnmojo]

I use a powerhead to suck my pump dry. Get a cheap walmart powerhead, and about 6 foot of flexible tubing.

Take all the attachments off the powerheads intake and outflow

boil some water

cut the tubing so you have a 2 foot and a 4 foot section

heat the tube in the boiling water, and when it gets soft slide it over the end of the powerhead. If you got the right size, when it cools it will stay on there for years

it can be a pain to prime, if you put too long a section of tube on the intake, but you just put the longer section from the outflow into a bucket and use the shorter intake side to suck the crud out of the sump. Trim any length to suit your needs.

Good luck, hope this idea helps