Particles are Driving Me Insane!!!

nly04 · Mar 30, 2016

Oceansize said:
You've probably already thought of this, but could it be one of your fish? A goby would be an obvious reason, but even my clown has taken to stirring the sand with its tail from time to time.

I have a pair of leopard wrasses they stir up a little bit but I notice particles all day long in my tank.

aereaus · Mar 30, 2016

Innovative marine makes the best filter socks IMO -- red seas are a bit finer but they clog super easy and I am not a fan of the finish. Eshopps and deep blue were comparable but i feel innovative marine socks are a good blend of the two.

Busa1340 · Mar 30, 2016

Don't know if this was mentioned but you can try microbubble scrubbing. The tiny bubbles should grab some of the fine stuff and push it over into the sock than skimmer.

Reeferdude500 · Mar 30, 2016

Brandon McHenry said:
Hi guys,
I figured this would be the best thread to help me solve my problem. So I have a 150 gallon SPS tank and I am having issues with particles floating throughout my display tank. I know for sure they are not bubbles because I have already shut the system down to see if they disappear and they do not. They are very fine in size and are white, tan and occasionally I see a darker orange/brown particle floating around. Ive got 2 MP40QD set on 100% Nutrient Transport mode to try to help flush it into the overflows. Both overflows feed into a brand new 200 micron filter sock into my sump. Inside my sump I have my carbon and gfo mesh bags, my skimmer and my return pumps with the filter sponge recently put back on to my MagDrive (never used to run it but I'm hoping this helps filter the particles out). No matter what I try I can't seem to get these particles to go away. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

Any baffles in the sump? Could u post pictures of the sump?

McMullen · Mar 30, 2016

@Busa1340, you beat me to the punch!

I was gonna say, you should start "micro scrubbing." Everyone is doing it!

nly04 · Mar 31, 2016

McMullen said:
@Busa1340, you beat me to the punch!

I was gonna say, you should start "micro scrubbing." Everyone is doing it!

I am new to this hobby. what is micro scrubbing?

Feltman · Mar 31, 2016

nly04 said:
I am new to this hobby. what is micro scrubbing?

Very contraversial subject haha.
Basically injecting micro bubbles into your display to help flush out all the bad stuff. (Obviously there is more to it, id recomend some reasearch). There are plenty of success stories on here. Unfortunately it has no scientific studies yet and the true effects to some organism are really unknown outside what people have observed on here.

DMan · Mar 31, 2016

It was already mentioned a bit, but my guess is something in your system is stirring up the sandbed. A goby, hermits, a pistol shrimp, any type of sand sifting creatures really would cause this.
Could it be some precipitation. How are you dosing calcium. Any precip on the pumps or heaters.

Hunter S Thompson · Mar 31, 2016

You could try some BioMagnet Clarifier. Even if it only solves it temporarily it might help you figure out where it's coming from.

coral tarracino · Mar 31, 2016

CRYSTAL REEF !

Ashish Patel · Jun 28, 2017

i am having the same problem recently on my 3 month old SpS reef.. I believe its copepod and their larve producing at a alarming rate.. I have a fuge below and while the micron helps some it still does not go away enough to make me want to change the sock every other day. I am considering putting a sponge on the return pump but the negative in this is I rather not completely stop all the beneficial copepod to enter the system. Then again by now I am sure they are reproducing in the tank aswell! UHHH