The cloudiness started to bother me, mostly because I don't know what it is. Originally I thought it was the phyto, but during WC yesterday, there was only a slight yellow tint and that could have been from some substrate vacuuming.
I figure there are 3 causes of turbidity - organic matter (algae/bacteria bloom), microbubbles, or sediment (am I missing any?). The easiest two I could test against was algae/bacteria so I ran activated carbon I had for the last 24 hours and while the water color has improved slightly (it wasn't that bad to begin with), the turbidity overall is still about the same. (Edit: except I might have screwed up and bottomed out my Nitrates... I pulled the carbon and turned off the skimmer which will hopefully get it back before a dino outbreak) This isn't a scientific study, so this is all perceived turbidity rather than measured.
For microbubbles I turned off the skimmer for a few hours and that didn't seem to help - note there is some air bubbles coming off the few remaining diatom blooms at the top of the rock and on the newly added marco ledges but even first thing in the morning it was not very clear.
This leaves sediment as the likely cause. The reef diaper is rated at 200 micron so I am guessing a lot of the very fine particles are making it through. I ordered a pair of 10 micron sock to see if that clears it up, they should arrive tomorrow. With that level of restriction, my guess is that I will have to reduce return flow which will put me at levels where the cheapo 9W UV will become somewhat effective. I will run for 12 hours with the UV off, see if that helps, then run another 12 hours with the UV on and see where it ends up.
My hope is the water will be perfectly clear when I leave town on Thurs afternoon for nobody to enjoy it .
I figure there are 3 causes of turbidity - organic matter (algae/bacteria bloom), microbubbles, or sediment (am I missing any?). The easiest two I could test against was algae/bacteria so I ran activated carbon I had for the last 24 hours and while the water color has improved slightly (it wasn't that bad to begin with), the turbidity overall is still about the same. (Edit: except I might have screwed up and bottomed out my Nitrates... I pulled the carbon and turned off the skimmer which will hopefully get it back before a dino outbreak) This isn't a scientific study, so this is all perceived turbidity rather than measured.
For microbubbles I turned off the skimmer for a few hours and that didn't seem to help - note there is some air bubbles coming off the few remaining diatom blooms at the top of the rock and on the newly added marco ledges but even first thing in the morning it was not very clear.
This leaves sediment as the likely cause. The reef diaper is rated at 200 micron so I am guessing a lot of the very fine particles are making it through. I ordered a pair of 10 micron sock to see if that clears it up, they should arrive tomorrow. With that level of restriction, my guess is that I will have to reduce return flow which will put me at levels where the cheapo 9W UV will become somewhat effective. I will run for 12 hours with the UV off, see if that helps, then run another 12 hours with the UV on and see where it ends up.
My hope is the water will be perfectly clear when I leave town on Thurs afternoon for nobody to enjoy it .
Last edited: