Floating things in my water.

[Scatcat]

Ok this is driving me nuts. My water is not cloudy but it has these floaty things in it. Like sand particles. I don't have much in my tank and it's completely cycled. About 2 months old. It has a urchin, some snails, one strawberry crab that I never see, one coral banded shrimp that I never see, one serpent sea star, 4 reef hermit crabs, 2 perc clown fish and 1 lawnmower blenny. The tank is 24 gal nano cube. Oh and I have sand sifting star fish that doesn't really bury in the sand crusises the top of the sand all night. He is quite small. Is he the problem? I looks like sand floating all over the place. I am tempted to put some sort of cloth over the water spout to "sift" out the particles but I'm scared I'll sift out the salt as well. What do I do about this?

Rachel

 

[Scatcat]

Oh I might also add that the sand sifting star fish is one of my favorite things right now. I always know where he is. If he is buried it's only a little so it's pretty obvious where he is I guess I just enjoy looking for him. One of the reasons I picked him was because at the LR store he was on top the sand crusising. I don't know I just like him.

Rachel

 

[electrikat]

You cannot sift out the salt. It is no longer solid.You can put some kind of netting or sponge at the outflow if you want but be sure to clean it daily so it doesn't clog and cause a backup.

 

[Scatcat]

Noone else has had this problem? Urrgggg I'm so frusterated with it. Everytime something moves in my tank it stirs up these particles and there we go again. Not to mention my water pump flow working it's own magic.

Rachel

 

[electrikat]

What size tank, what substrate, and how old is the setup? Sand will do that at first but usually binds up somewhat after a few months of detritus and algae growth.

 

[Phyl]

If you have live rock you will always have spew in the water column. Things like spaghetti worms and clams and crabs and whatnot spew "dust" particles into the water column. I wrote this very same post about a 4 months ago. Turns out it is perfectly normal! You'll never sift it all out, but you will get used to it!

As for the sand sifting starfish you should only ever see them if they're hungry so if you're seeing him that's a really bad sign. They need a mature sand bed, large tank and even then are usually doomed to death. You might try to find out if he'll eat anything other than the sand sifting stuff and try to feed him.

Good luck.

 

[Scatcat]

This is most defiantly a concern of mine I'm thinking of seeing if I can put some shrimp infront of mine to see if he'll eat it. When I bought his we was the only sand sifting star fish on the top of the sand.

Rachel

 

[Scatcat]

It's 24 gal and it's about 2 months old. I'm not sure about the substate. Maybe you are right I need to give it more time.

Rachel

 

[electrikat]

Substrate is the sand or cc on the bottom. Which do you have. Is it fine like sand or course more like gravel.

 

[Thumper]

Well in a new set up this is going to be the case. Untill the tank matures and everything settles down your going to have particles floating around not to mention if you have lr you will never IMO have bath tub clear water, My tank always has stuff floating around for the most part, This is on reason I'm going to go BB in a couple months, Good Luck.

 

[Scatcat]

Oh Ok I have LS on the bottom of my tank. There is 25 lbs in a 24 ga tank.

Rachel

 

[30_gallon_guy]

maybe it was bad quality sand that had some substances is like small particles of wood that look like sand mixed in with the rest.
but if it makes you feel any better iv got some of my own but im pretty sure its excrememtn from the snails. dont worry too much about it unless its causeing serious problems for the entire system.
iv learned that every slight problem will either go away in time and solve itself, or some slight adjustment in your system fixxes it and as long as your corals are alive keep on top of your water chemistry not the mehanical mixxtures within, and as long as your corals are alive chilax. (this doesnt work for fresh)
hope this helps
Aleks