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Dust is driving me nuts!!

RichT

RichT

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
I have been getting dust size particles lately and its driving me nuts. I completely cleaned out the sump, and pumps. I'm skimming wet and running all the water from the skimmer side of the sump through filter pad. I've even used some Kent Pro Clear and my water still won't "polish" up. I changed 50g about a week or so ago. There doesn't seem to be a excessive amount of flow on the sand bed either and it doesn't appear to be getting kicked up.
Any help will be appreciated.
 
Phyl

Phyl

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Do you have anything in the sand stirring it up? And are you sure the particles aren't micro bubbles? I'm suffering with MB since I installed the chiller. Hmmm.
 
Phyl

Phyl

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Rich ya know... I think those dust size particles are pretty normal as long as they're not a big distraction from a distance (2-3'). Where did you get your live rock from? My water is never without dust (even when the microbubbles aren't a problem: stemming from the fact that I'm in serious need of a new sump!). It isn't particularly noticable unless you're staring at it up close. My live rock is always spewing something into the tank (though less so lately, hmmm). I can remember John looking at the tank early on and commenting about the stuff in the water. He thought there was something wrong with our setup also. I had asked an LFS about it once and was told that level of "dust" was normal. So how much dust is dust? Does the water look cloudy from a distance?
 
B

Brian

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
I have a similar problem in my 90g FOWLR but I am pretty sure it is microbubbles.
 
RichT

RichT

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
they are definitely particles, sand grain/dust size, tank looks good from 3' - 4' but my eyes always catch the stuff. Im looking for the polished look I had a couple months ago when it first cleared up after I set it up. Hopefully its possible.
 
G

grasshopper

Maybe a powerhead came loose? Not totally off, but if the top suction cup is loose it will change the direction of flow and cause that kind of dust kick up. Other than that, what type of fish do you have? Maybe something is digging?
 
RichT

RichT

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
I have 1 and 1/2 cucumbers. When the big one.......ah...ah....farts :-X it kicks up a small cloud. Is it possible that something, like Kalk, has built up in the return lines and is slowly flaking off?
 
G

grasshopper

I don't think it's kalk because with that much floating around you'd get calcium preceipitation all over everything. What's your Ca level at?

Also, I don't think the cuke creates enough "fart dust" to make it all happen. Have you gone through every piece of equipment and triple checked it to make sure it's where it should be and doing what it should?
 
RichT

RichT

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
yea....I had my whole sump tore down and sparkling clean. There was a lot of sediment that I thought was causing it. Figured that as soon as I did that it would polish up. I guess I'll give the floss more time. I cleaned it last night and added a little more Pro Clear. I have 4 MJ 1200's and a Mag18 for the return. There is a lot of flow so maybe I need to give it more time.

Thanks for the input.
 
G

grasshopper

You do have a lot of flow. I think you're just kicking up sand. I would watch along the sides of the tank and the front and back - see if the water flow is "bouncing" off the side of the tank and moving the sand bed.
 
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