White particles floating in my tank!!! FRUSTRATED

jfagan1969 · Sep 16, 2015

Have been looking at board for a while and my frustration with my tank is now at an all time high!

I have a 120 gal combination reef and fish. Sump, protein skimmer.

I have done many different things trying to get my water to be clear. I have millions of little white particles floating in the tank and they are driving me crazy! I have just enough knowledge about the hobby to be dangerous.

The tank has been set up for a year now and the livestock is healthy (would love some advice on getting my corals to grow a bit faster!) but I would really love a solution to my water clarity problem.

Any suggestions folks?

StevenBell · Sep 16, 2015

Have you considered pushing flow towards the overflow?

DeniseAndy · Sep 16, 2015

Are you sure they are particles and not microbubbles? Microbubbles will make your water look cloudy and like things are floating around. Very annoying.

The bubbles come from water turbulence, so check that you are not getting bubbles from your protein skimmer, any power heads or pumps. Make sure you have not external pumps with an air leak. Does your return bounce off the water at all or have any signs of air coming with the water? Do you have baffles in the sump to trap the bubbles and reduce them?

When I first had my tanks running, always fight microbubbles.

melypr1985 · Sep 16, 2015

try running a filter sock in your sump. If its white particles then have the overflow empty into the sock, If it's micro bubbles from say the skimmer then put the filter sock over where the water exits the skimmer to catch the bubbles. Make sure to change these socks out often- rinse and reuse.

ryarnall3772 · Sep 16, 2015

I have the same setup and had the same situation (I think)..I changed the water surface flow more to the overflow. .and fixed the bubbles in my sump..skimmed what I could..was a clear/white slime..stuck to everything it touched so it was easy to skim..my tank has only been running for about a month