Sand storm

C

crny1

Premium member
I have never had this happen in any of my other tanks so I am curious.

My tank has a cloudy look to it and I can see the fine particles in the water column flying around. It is definitely not micro bubbles but I cant figure it out. I have went with a smaller grain aragonite then any other time I have set up a tank. If this is sand particles how long does it "normally" take to settle down? Its driving me nuts! I thought once sand particles got populated with bacteria and such they pretty much settled down. Unless of course you are blasting it with a pump.


Wes
 
How long ago did you set up the tank? Fine aragonite can take a long time to really settle out. One thing you can try is a huge wad of polyfil fiber / filter floss in the skimmer section of your sump if you have one, this will catch a lot of the particles, just don't squeeze it out when you remove it from the sump.
 
Well I am running a filter sock (forgot the microns) on the sump input and I am also running a external canister filter with just floss and polishing pads. This filter has been running for 2 weeks now. The tank is at 2 months old. I would of thought it would of settled out by now.
 
Well I have had the canister off for 2 days now and there is no difference........

Man this is frustrating!
 
Well I would but for some reason I cant get photobucket to come up so I can upload them to it......give me a bit to see if I can get photobucket to load.
 
ok......got them uploaded.

WARNING....the sump area looks bad! LOL

Its a simple sump, input to filter sock, skimmer area and return.

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Sump looks good and clear water. Post picture of tank. Where are your power heads? Is you sand bed moving around? How long has it all been running?
 
Unless your powerheads are directed at the sandbed, I can't imagine it taking 2 months to settle down. Do you have any gobies that are spitting the sand around and keeping the fines in suspension?

Are you positive it's from the sand? Have you checked your calcium....?
Could it possibly be calcium-carbonate precipitation?
 
Ok yes the tank has been up right at 2 months. I am running 2 koralias. I am not 100% positive that it is the sand but I think it is.
I havent dosed anything to the tank. I have done 2 water changes at 10 gallons each. I am using reef cyrstals so I dont think its calcium precipitation.
No goby playin in the sand. Just 2 clowns and a firefish and coral frags. I will try to get a picture of the tank here in a few. I actually have a webcam on the tank and if you look closely at the dark areas of the rock you can see the particulates floating around. I will try to get a pic here in just a minute.
 
Ok....here is the best I could do for pictures. Its hard to photo and in the FTS it looks fine but trust me....it isnt.
Here is a link to my WEB CAM for it
http://sparksreef.zapto.org:4041

Username = public
password = camera

You have to click on single on the top left by support and then when it loads on the left you can change the image size to larger. Then look at the dark Holes of the live rock. You will see the stuff floating around.

You may have to let it load the active x files to be able to see it also.

Here are the pics.

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It never loaded for me and didn't prompt for an activex download. Maybe someone else will have better luck. Aside from not being able to see it, I'm stumped.
 
There's quite a few members out this way, perhaps one of us can swing by when we have free time to check it out and see if we notice anything.
 
I am actually starting to lean towards micro bubbles now...............

I just added a acrylic divider between the skimmer and the return and will look at the tank tomorrow to see if there is a difference. I made the baffle from bottom of the sump to 1 inch below the waterline so hopefully if it is micro bubbles from the skimmer they will dissipate before making it to the return.
 
Well it wasn't tight enough and came loose today.........just cut a new one a little tighter and installed it. Will wait till tomorrow night to judge it.
 
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