Stuff suspended in my water...

[madmax7774]

As many of you know, I have been fighting to reduce all the crap that is floating around in my tank. I thought it was a combination of sand and microbubbles, but I am realizing it more than that.

To combat the sandstorm issue, I laid down a 1" thick bed of crushed coral over the top of my sand bed. This prevents the currents from blowing the sand around in a sandstorm. Doing this cured maybe 15% of the stuff in suspension in the water. Next I tackled part of the microbubble source by baffling my sump, which has cured about another 15% of the problem.

Next I completely sealed up the anti-siphon hole in my return which as cured maybe another 20% of the problem.

So all in all my problem is about 50% better.

There is still a ton of crap in suspension floating around. I never had this level of stuff in my old 75G, and I am running out of idea's on how to fix it. I think that one possible source is a fine layer of silt that has been kicking around in my sump, from when I added a DSB/ refuge to the sump after baffling. Anyone have any good ideas on how to get this silt layer out of the sump? I almost need to come up with some sort of way to vacuum it out of there.

I tried running a filter sock on my drain line into the sump, but it didn't seem to make a real noticeable difference, so I gave up on it after a month. Has anyone ever tried to use a maxijet with a long tube on the intake as a sort of vacuum system, and then run the output side into a filter sock to catch the silt that gets sucked up? Well, that's my idea anyhow, and I'll let you know how it goes.

On another note, is this something that running ozone would help to clear up? Just curious.

John

[inedukated]

I went to the local fabric store and purchased pillow stuffing for $3 (non toxic, of course) and placed a few wads of it in the sump section just before the return. I figured this would provide good mechanical filtration and reduce microbubbles. Within two days, it was completely green/brown (usually white) form all the gunk it removed.

I swapped it out, and kept doing this for about 2 weeks until it seemed that there was nothing floating around in the tank.

 

 

Worked for me, so maybe it's worth a shot?

[rioreef]

I have a DSB in my refugium portion of the sump. I suggest keeping the flow into this section low. My Chaeto has always been growing good and the micro life is abound. The only time I get any suspended material from here is when I rotate the Chaeto.

[jason the filter freak]

I'm sure some one is gonna make fun of my here for bringing up cannister filters. But a more or less cheap fix, at least in comparison to what most people spend on their tanks is... a cannister filter. You can run it with the sponges removed, and stuff all the media trays with filterfloss (dirt cheap) at almost any store selling fish. You can leave it run on your tank for short periods of time to clear up dust storms and if you hook up a hose to the intake, and leave the out hanging in your tank or directed into your sump, you can use it as an extremely effective powered gravel vac, with out loosing any water. Fluval, Renas, cascades can all be found used fairly cheaply on this site/RC/Craigslist (from people who arent trying to actually make money) Cheap is around say 20-50$ or what I found worked well on my 55 every time I'd shift things around, is a aquaclear HOB stuffed with filter floss. ... just my .02

[dandy7200]

Get a smaller micron filter sock. I assume you were running a 100 micron, try a 25 micron and don't use the maxijet, just let gravity pull it from the tank from your overflows.