Crystal clear please.

[akopley]

How do i make my water crystal clear. I have an 18 watt uv and an excelent skimmer but i still see particles floating in the water. Should i try carbon? Is there any other way to get rid of all the free floating stuff?

[Randall_James]

There are a number of cartridge filters designed to "polish" your water. Also, DE (diatomaceous earth) are pretty darn efficient and are pretty easy to recharge.

The paper cartridge type work well and can be reused many times (bleached and vinegar cleaned).

[leveldrummer]

carbon may help, but it depends on what it is, are you sure you arent getting micro bubbles from something? or is an animal stirring the sand up?

[sabbath]

Do you have enough flow in the DP. To get it to the filter faster...

[SaltyDr]

Do you use a filter sock?

[akopley]

Good flow, no carbon or filter sock. I'll read up on cartridge filters.

[bkwudzjeep]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10510427#post10510427 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Randall_James
There are a number of cartridge filters designed to "polish" your water. Also, DE (diatomaceous earth) are pretty darn efficient and are pretty easy to recharge.

The paper cartridge type work well and can be reused many times (bleached and vinegar cleaned).

Is that the same DE used for pools? How do you use and recharge it?

akopley: I have used carbon and filter socks with good results.

[Randall_James]

same stuff... and they charge the same basic way, get water running through the assembled unit, dump a charge of DE into the incoming water stream and away you go..

These are not meant to run all the time but only to polish the water. They have some advantages over cartridge systems but all the same they have disadvantages too. I think initial cost is one of the problems.

Carbon is not really a filter in the same sense. It removes toxic compounds and compounds that "discolor" your water.

It is not going to remove particulate matter in the same way a filter designed to remove "visible" particles is.

[der_wille_zur_macht]

I'd like to echo the microbubble comment. Be SURE that's not your problem before trying anything.

What do you have for substrate? If you have anything fine, it will be pretty much impossible to keep it 100% out of the water column.

I'd recommend starting with a very large and very fine filter sock on your drain line into the sump. It's definitely the cheapest option. Be sure to clean/replace it often to keep it from accumulating detritus - twice a week or so.

The problem with the diatom filter is that it's something you have to keep remembering to do, you can't really leave them on 100% of the time. Mechanical filters (i.e. with "paper" elements) are basically the same thing as the filter sock, so it might not do much more than you'd get from that.

Another thought would be ozone - it'll help clear up anything biological that's floating around, though your UV is already working in that direction.

[rick s]

Also, do you have any fish that sift through your sand? My purple psuedochromis likes to move sand around on occassion. When he does, the whole tank looks cloudy for awhile.

[Randall_James]

should try a pistol shrimp... they can trash the water column in about 25 seconds and do so about 10 times a day, guess they have nothing better to do :)

[seapug]

Aqua clear makes a little attachment called a QuickFilter that you can connect to their powerheads. Has a filter pad in it that is good for polishing water. There is also a plastic cartridge in it that you can put carbon in for double duty. I run one in my sump every so often to pull out particulate stuff. Just be sure to replace the filter pad after a week or so. They really collect a lot of crap.

[Iguana79]

Want to do the same thing, Except I like little thing floating in my water (Makes it look like the real ocean) I just have a color tint to my water. What do you guys think about this?

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Product/Prod_Display.cfm?pcatid=3596&N=2004+22777

I know you can build your own, but for that much, what the heck.

[slider162]

I would start out with a filter sock and go from there. I second the pistol shrimp comment, they make a mess. I have the magnum 350 and it sits in my garage. It works well, but you need to clean the filter in bleach ever few days so maintenance was a pain.

[Mavrk]

Like slider said, try the sock first.

After the sand storm than ensued when I added extra sand to my tank, the sand finally settled but the water was still a little cloudy. I put my 200 micron sock on the overflow, and it became crystal clear within hours.

If that doesn't work a canister with a polisher will do the trick, but that costs more (although canisters are good to have around anyway for a QT and occasional polishing).

[der_wille_zur_macht]

Keep in mind that the vast majority of technology we use to create crystal-clear water is also going to destroy some amount of beneficial life. Even a UV unit is going to burn off some phyto that your clams and corals might have fed from.

Take a look at photos of a real reef, and look closely - there's almost always a storm of "reef snow" in the water. 'Pods, plankton, phyto, dead stuff, sand, etc. This is the natural habitat our livestock comes from!

[sabbath]

I only run a foam prefilter ( clean twice a wk ) on my skimmer and carbon and my system stays really clear.

When I have had gobys or blue leged crabs... There was noticeably more stuff floating around.

[busybee04]

I've added chaeto to the sump and my tank water has been crystal clear since then.

[Drock169]

I find that its my hermit crabs that are responsible for most of the snow in my water column.