Lots of "Dust" in water column

[Sartium]

Hi gang, I am relatively new to the hobby and new to Reef2Reef. My tank went up in December 2014 so it's a little over 10 months old at this point. All the tech specs on my tank are listed below... The major problem I keep having is lots of what I'm calling "Dust" in my tank, this seems to happen for a couple of days about once a week. I have not been able to figure out what the root cause is. I don't even have to do anything to clear it up other than wait a day or two but I would really like to know what the cause would be. Here is a video I shot yesterday, if you play it in HD you can really get a sense for the size of the particles floating around in the tank. The fish seem to breath heaving while this is happening but other thank that it doesn't seem to harm the tank I just hate to see it floating around.


90 gal standard tank with corner overflow
Trigger systems Ruby 36S sump - I run a single filter sock (you can see it in the video)
Fuge has Caeto and just live rock rubble in the bottom, no mud
There are two bags of Cemi-Pure blue between the 2nd and 3rd chaimbers
Vertex Omega 150 skimmer
Finnex 300W titanium heater controlled by Apex
Danner Aqua-Mag 12 return pump (Ball valve is closed down about half to control flow)
BRS Reactor running BRS GFO using an MJ-1200 pump to feed the reactor (it sits in the return chamber)
Two Hydor Koralia 1500's they are controlled by an Apex to oscillate back and forth on a 10 minute cycle
Lights are a Maxspect R420R 320watt 15000k 4' LED

I keep the Parameters pretty clean
Ammonia NO2 and NO3 all undetectable with API test kit
PH cycles 8.1 to 7.9 day to night - Monitored with Apex controller
Alkalinity 11.1 dKH - RedSea Kit
Calcium 450 ppm- RedSea Kit
Magnesium 1400- RedSea Kit
I keep the temp between 77.5 and 78
Salinity is at 1.024

Any help is greatly appreciated, thanks!

 

[143MPCo]

I've had this happen in my systems from time to time, it's either my yellow wrasse digging itself into the sand bed or my clam got annoyed by something and slammed shut kicking up all kinds of stuff, I run a 50-micron socks and the issues clears on it own quicky.

They shouldn't be harmful; they're likely detritus ("dust/dirt"), they float around and are skimmed off by the over-flow. It's also been suggested that particles have some fat molecules and why they seem to accumulate at the water's surface.

 

[twilliard]

How are you dosing your tank?
Precipitation ?

 

[Sartium]

@twilliard I does BRS 2 part nightly about 15mL each, I do see the AK precipitate a bit when I add it to the tank but that is normally gone after 5 minutes.

@143MPCo I run the BRS 200 micron sock, do you keep the 50 microns in your tank all the time or just when you want some extra scrubbing?

 

[143MPCo]

@143MPCo I run the BRS 200 micron sock, do you keep the 50 microns in your tank all the time or just when you want some extra scrubbing?[/QUOTE]

nope not all the time, only when I see the need arises or when I have friends and family over for dinner.

 

[twilliard]

I am suspecting calcium overdose if you are dosing equal amounts at 15Ml in a 90 daily.

 

[Sartium]

"when I have friends and family over for dinner" LOL I like that, where do you find the 50 micron socks? I did a quick google search and nothing is jumping out at me.

Thanks for the quick replies BTW I am new to these forums and this has been very helpful!

 

[twilliard]

Oh missed that!
Welcome to R2R

 

[Naiad]

What live stock do you have?

 

[143MPCo]

"when I have friends and family over for dinner" LOL I like that, where do you find the 50 micron socks? I did a quick google search and nothing is jumping out at me.

Thanks for the quick replies BTW I am new to these forums and this has been very helpful!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Pentek-PO50...4f98bee&pid=100005&rk=1&rkt=6&sd=321789496913

 

[143MPCo]

Welcome to R2R

+1, welcome to reef2reef!!

 

[Sartium]

@Naiad I have 2 Ocellaris
1 Blue/Green Chromis
1 Bangai Cardnial
1 Scopas Tang
1 Lemonpeel Angel
1 Green Mandarin
1 Cleaner Shrmip
1 Harlequin Shrimp
Various snails and hermits
1 small fighting conch
Medium Toadstool
Medium Zenia Rock
Medium Frogspawn Colony
Small branching hammer frag
Small green chalice with red eyes (not sure on the name)
Medium green plate
Small Maxima Clam (its up on the rock though not in the sand)
Very small SPS frag I just picked up I think its a green Stylophora

I need some color in my tank other thank green

 

[Naiad]

I would suggest getting a filter sock and the next few times you do a water change using a turkey baster to blast stuff off the rock. I bet most of this is being disturbed off the rockwork.

 

[Sartium]

Thanks for all the replies sounds like nothing to be afraid of really, I was a little worried it might be Ich floating around in the reproduction cycle but if it just looks like particles and detritus I can deal with that.

 

[Robertchrisroph]

I have this problem sometimes. do you have central air and heat? when this happens I need to change my filter there, due to I open my top to the fish tank to cool off with fan when it gets hot. so when I keep a closed system with top on tank and sump I have no problems. I hope my problem helps you

 

[Sartium]

@Robertchrisroph Mhh that makes a lot of sense, I never thought that it might be dust coming from outside the tank, we do have a central H-Vac system and its a brand new house so its very air tight (sucks for my PH levels I get really high CO2 in the house) now that I think of it my wife was running the vacuum last night when I got home from work. I don't have any lids on my tank at all its just an open top. I bet that has a lot to do with it, I run cheap filters on the furnace I will try some lower micron filters on the furnace.

Now how to tell my wife the house is too dusty for my fish hmmm...

 

[Naiad]

DON'T tell her, just DON'T lol.

 

[ATB USA]

Welcome