Tiny little particles...

[GatorDrew]

Alright, so my tank is really starting to annoy me now. When I first established the tank I had tiny little particles in the water. I thought it was part of the setup process, since this was my first SW tank. However, it's been about 4 weeks now and I still don't have CRYSTAL clear water (similar to my FW tanks). I have a 90G w/ 130ish pounds of LR. There is a panther grouper, lion fish, and green wolf eel. I have about 6 turbo snails, four sand shifting snails, and some type of crab for the cleaning crew.

There is an overflow box w/ wet dry and a protein skimmer.

I don't know what else to do. They don't seem like little air bubbles... but I guess they could be...?

Let me know what else to look for.

Thanks,
Andrew

PS: Ammonia, Nitrates, and Nitrites are practically perfect.

 

[lando]

What type of substrate do you have? Filtration right now?

 

[GatorDrew]

I have Live Sand.

Filtration? Well, the wet/dry has the typical blue/white pad and bio balls. I put a chemi-pure pad on top of the blue/white pad.

 

[Hara]

Have you tried turning off the protein skimmer for awhile and see if the water clears up? That will rule out micro bubbles. I would suspect particulate matter from the chemi pur. You might want to take out the pads, rinse them well and put them back in again too.

 

[Seepu]

I have a snowflake eel, and a CB that are always in and out of the rockwork. They are FOREVER kicking up debris and sand that gets whirled around in the water column. I try clean my prefilter pad every couple of days, and this does help some... but all in all, I am resigned to it... till I can catch that durn eel!

 

[GatorDrew]

Have you tried turning off the protein skimmer for awhile and see if the water clears up? That will rule out micro bubbles. I would suspect particulate matter from the chemi pur. You might want to take out the pads, rinse them well and put them back in again too.

Well, I had the problem before I had the protein skimmer. I was hoping the protein skimmer would get rid of the tiny particles so I could get that "crystal clear" water...

EDIT:
After further review from some friends, the water appears to be a little cloudy and has some micro bubbles. I don't think it's caused by the protein skimmer though... because, as said, it's been around before the skimmer.[/b]

 

[Maurice2]

I have a setup identical to yours and I had the same problem - microscopic particles making the water a little milky. I solved it with a canister mechanical filter (http://www.eheim.com/classic.htm) which takes/feeds from the sump. I filled it half with those small ceramic balls and half with that cotton-wool-like stuff they sell for filtering FW tanks.

The pump in it sometimes creates tiny bubbles, so I run it on a timer 12 hours a day outside viewing times.

As most of the filtering happens in the sump filter, I only need to change the cotton-wool once a month.