white specs of sand in water & flow rate question

[n8n]

Good Afternoon, i've had my tank(s) up for about a year, on my second tank (the second one has been up a few months).  Anyways I noticed my tank always has some junk kinda floating around in it, (its not bubbles) its more like maybe small specs of sand/dust.   When I goto TLF their tanks always look more "crystal clear" than mine.

 

So... what how do I get my water clarity upto the next level?  Now I know TLF usually does not have substrate, and I have a diamond goby, and a "dragon" gobie constantly sifting around my sandbed.   

 

Most of the sand is the "Special" grade 1.25 to 1.95.  The sand bed is different heights at different areas (depending on how the gobie decides to pile it up for a given day).  one side of the tank might be 4" deep, while a few spots I can see the glass on the bottom because of a maroon clown hosting a long tenticle has pushed it all away.

 

Anyways I have a 210g tank 5 feet wide about 30" deep and 27"ish tall.   I run active carbon in a canister I change it out every two weeks. I also run filter socks all the time.  I have a Lifereef skimmer.

 

Flow wise, I have 4 "wav" / neptune power heads. all the powerheads are in the top 1/4 of the tank, none of them should be actively disturbing the sandbed.  They are rated for 4000gph,  two of them ramp up and down and peak at 50% (2000gph), other two are set at much lower settings, I think one around 10% (200gph?) and the other 20% (400gph)?   All the fish/nyms etc really seem to like the way the flow is setup but I still have the "junk" in the water.

 

The return pump on the 210g is a DC-6000 (around 1500gph)  on the 2nd highest setting which seems like it works but I keep thinking maybe I need more return pump to get the water going through the filter sock more.  

 

The drains are bean animal 1".  so i'm pretty sure the drains can handle way more flow but I don't know if they would really help with getting tank more crystal clear.

 

The skimmer is lifereef 30" with mezzei venturi with a mag-18 (~1500 gph). 

 

It kinda looks like sand particles just swirling around, any tips would be awesome.     I also run GFO & Biopellet, but biopellet output is connected directly to the skimmer input.

 

Thank You

 

-Nathan

Edited November 22, 2015 by n8n

[Origami]

If you're sure that these are particulate in nature (and not microbubbles), then you should be able to filter the particles mechanically. What size filter socks are you using now? Have you considered going smaller on the pore-size? It's not beyond reason, though, to think that your gobies are stirring up sand and that this may be a battle that you won't win. However, you may be able to filter out the small particles as they're kicked up over time.