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Water clarity in Nano-Cube 28g CF Quad


riotact71

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I have a 28 gallon JBJ CF Quad Nano-Cube. I'm having an issue with the water quality. There's little white things floating in the water. The best way to describe it is like looking at a glass of tap water and seeing all the stuff floating in it. I'm running an Eshopps PK 75H protein skimmer and my media basket contains sponge/filter floss in the first compartment, Purigen in the mid compartment, and Chemi-Pure Elite in the bottom compartment. Just took water to LFS for testing today. I didn't get numbers but was told all was good including calcium and phosphates. Livestock includes 5 hermits, 5 nassarius snails, royal gramma, percula clown, yellowtail damsel, and mandarin dragonet. Corals include zoas, torch, open brain, yellow polyps, and a star polyp frag I just got today (which hasn't opened yet, should I be concerned?). 5 gallon water changes conducted weekly. Other than a UV sterilizer, which I ordered today, I don't know what else to do. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

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There's little white things floating in the water. The best way to describe it is like looking at a glass of tap water and seeing all the stuff floating in it.

 

3 things it could be:

 

1.Micro Bubbles- How old is the skimmer? Skimmers do this when they are relatively new it will go away.

2.Calcium precipitate= If calc/alk/mg levels are out of whack it could cause precipitation. Are u dosing?

3.Sand- Is there a strong powerhead that could be blowing sand?

 

From your description it sounds like micro bubbles. If the skimmer is new then that would be it. Try adding some extra filter pad to reduce the bubbles if you want otherwise they will go away when the skimmer breaks in. Lots of people run their skimmers in hot water for a day or so to help limit the bubbles before putting it in the tank.

 

If it is NONE of these 3 things. Carbon will help (you are running CPE though right?) and KZ CoralSnow has been know to clear up water.

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I'd shut the skimmer off for a 4-6 hours and see if it clears up. Probably the easiest way to eliminate that and it should not hurt anything being off for a bit.

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3 things it could be:

 

1.Micro Bubbles- How old is the skimmer? Skimmers do this when they are relatively new it will go away.

2.Calcium precipitate= If calc/alk/mg levels are out of whack it could cause precipitation. Are u dosing?

3.Sand- Is there a strong powerhead that could be blowing sand?

 

From your description it sounds like micro bubbles. If the skimmer is new then that would be it. Try adding some extra filter pad to reduce the bubbles if you want otherwise they will go away when the skimmer breaks in. Lots of people run their skimmers in hot water for a day or so to help limit the bubbles before putting it in the tank.

 

If it is NONE of these 3 things. Carbon will help (you are running CPE though right?) and KZ CoralSnow has been know to clear up water.

 

1. It's not the skimmer. It's matter floating in the water. Skimmer is over a year old.

2. Calcium level was fine according to LFS guy. Didn't test alk/mag levels. I will have to do that. I use Liquid Reef once a week.

3. I didn't think this was the cause but I changed the angle of the powerheads in case you're right.

 

I am running CPE and Purigen. No straight carbon. I will look into the KZ Coral Snow.

 

Thank you

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I'm getting the same thing on my 2 month old 16 gallon. Turn off the pumps do you see those white things swimming around? I do - water has been cloudy for about 2 days so far.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Do you have a real active hermit crabs? I notice my hermit crabs are getting down to scraping the LR and when they do, they look like little snow blowers sending white particles up in the water column.

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I've come to the conclusion it's just stuff being stirred up from the sandbed by the powerheads. I've tried changing the direction of the water flow but I'm still having issues. It sucks because besides the little things floating in the water, the water is crystal clear.

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Red Sea Reefer

Regardless of the source if it's some soft of detris from the sand bed being disturbed or what not the small amount of filter floss in your media basket can't handle it.

 

I recently switch from a media basket to a fluval 306 canister filter. I run BRS carbon/GFO/purigan/sea chem matrix, plus have lots of sponges with a layer of 100 micron filter sock material. If anything my water is to clear. I can cloud it from a heavy feeding and the filter will clear it in a couple hours.

 

My nitrates have been cut down by 75% from when I was running the media basket. I have also been doseing microbacter 7 for almost 1 week.

 

I would say you just need to up your filtration. The fluval 306 is super easy to maintain. I got mine on amazon for $118 shipped.

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Red Sea Reefer
Do not switch your filtration to a canister filter.

 

Do you know anything about the fluval 306? Have you used it? If you clean a canister filter weekly there will be NO problems with it. Plenty of people run reefs sucsessfully canister filter including Randy Farley Holmes on RC. Do not be afraid of something you don't know about. Research it.

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No need to research something I know about. Really? Canister filters have been around for a long time now.

 

The problem with the canister is what you already stated, needs to be cleaned every week. The majority will not do that and I don't see why you would want to add more maintenance to your system. You got it that's great just giving the OP the other side of this piece of equipment.

 

lol RC

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Red Sea Reefer

Takes me less than 10 minutes to clean my canister. This months TOTM uses a canister so they do work. If you are a lazy reefer a canister would not be a good option. For me it works MUCH better than a media basket. I was just relaying to the OP other filtration options to clear the water. There are several ways to run a successful reef.

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