Floating Particles - how to solve?

[Glorfindel]

Hey Guys,

I have set up a 75G tank which I bought from someone who had it going for about five years.

The tank has about 75lbs of Marshall Island LR and a DSB which I starting from scratch - got rid of his old sand. The setup has a Tunze Stream with controller that I have set on 50% and 100% switching every 3 seconds. I also put about a 4inch DSB in the sump and placed of few live rocks in there as well. I also have a pretty nice sized growth of cheatomorpha in the sump.

He was using bioballs which I removed because they did not seem necessary and I want to keep the nitrates down. The system has an MR3 skimmer which I have not hooked up yet - he had not used it in 4months - and the tank was doing very well. I am going to hook it up but I am still struggling to figure out how. The system also has a Kaulkreactor which I have also not hooked up.

The livestock are all doing very well. There is a nice sized chevron tang how seems to love to eat the algae off the rocks even more than the snails. That is a bonus. The is Flamehawk with a ton of personality that doesnââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢t seem to be interested in eating the cleaner shrimp that is in the tank,

The problem that I am most concerned about - there is quite a large amount of white particles that are floating in the tank. How can I get this out of the tank. I have allot of flow and dont seem to be kicking up anything from the DSB. Can someone give me some good advice on how to get all of the debris out of the water?

Thanks in advance!

 

[dchao]

[welcome]
A nice setup you got there! I think the white particles are just sand kicked up by the Tunze Streamer.

Or it could be calcium precipitation, what's you alk and calcium levels?

 

[Glorfindel]

Honestly - these are the two tests that I have yet to do. I have the Salifert test kits for both which he gave me - but the color strips to read your results are missing in both kits. So I should say that I did both tests only to discover that I had no means of reading the results. I am going to pick up new kits today.

 

[petermai]

the pipe from your overflow...before it enters the sump, attach a diatom bag and this will collect all of the precipitate in your water. hope that helps.

 

[TekCat]

It could be microbubbles or fine sand particles. If it is microbubbles, then they could be introduced via sump or plumbing. If it is sand, then give it time before bacteria clumps fine sand grains together.

 

[examiner]

Salifert alk and calcium test kits don't use color strips. You may have everything there already. Check in the Salifert forum for instructions, I think Habib has posted them before.

 

[dchao]

Glorfindel:

Two simple tests:

1) Turn the Tunze off for a few minutes -> sand related

2) Turn the return pump off for a few minutes -> microbubbles related

Does it have any effect on the the particles?

 

[Glorfindel]

I shut off the Tunze and that did not make any difference. I shut off the sump and I thought it made a huge difference. What I realized is that it did not actually make a difference at all. The particles were still there - they were just much more apparent when the flow of the tank was whirling them around. The Tunze kicked back on and I could instantly see this.

I guess I will try to do a 50% water change tomorrow and see if it helps at all.

I will also test the calcium and alk levels later tonight.

 

[dchao]

Don't forget to pick up a pH test kit too.