Particles floating in water after water changes ?

[baba.aqua]

Biocube 32 Gallon - no skimmer just media, mechanical and chemical filters in the back chamber


— Everytime I do a water change, the water shifts the sand around and there’s always a bunch of little particles floating around.

FYI I do vacuum my sand once a week.

Am I doing something wrong?

How do I get it extra clean??

I have a poly filter in between chamber 2 and 3.

 

[Evil1]

That’s perfectly normal. It’s all the good stuff in your sand that gets swirled around when replacing the water. Try to be a little more gentle when putting water back in. As far as vacuuming the sand, I never do. Once again I believe by doing so you’re disturbing all the good bacteria in the substrate and this can cause a tank to crash. Get yourself a suitable clean up crew in proportion to your tank size.

 

[Red_Beard]

Totally normal. Anytime the sandbed gets stirred up it will do that. You can get the particles out faster and limit how many there are if you run filter socks or filter floss. Poly pads will catch some too, but it has a little bigger pores and wont catch as much.
Tank looks really good too btw, really young though. When you get more growth, coral, algae, filter feeders etc, they will help manage particulates too.

 

[Jtuvey]

Are you adding fresh mixed salt water right after mixing it? If so it’s not an issue but it could explain the floating particles.

Even though some salt mix instructions state you can mix and put right in the tank, it’s best to mix it the keep it stirring in the container a couple hours with a flow pump and heater to ensure it is completely mixed.

If that’s not the issue I would look into Reef Snow. I use it about once a week and it clears my water. It binds to the proteins and gets pulled out by the filter and skimmer. I had to use it a couple of weeks before I noticed a difference but it really does clear up the water.

 

[BryanM]

Biocube 32 Gallon - no skimmer just media, mechanical and chemical filters in the back chamber


— Everytime I do a water change, the water shifts the sand around and there’s always a bunch of little particles floating around.

FYI I do vacuum my sand once a week.

Am I doing something wrong?

How do I get it extra clean??

I have a poly filter in between chamber 2 and 3.

Assuming you're adding water directly to the display, you could try pouring it over a plate to help diffuse it in to teh tank more, but pretty normal IMO as well.

 

[baba.aqua]

since I’ve got all you lovely people on this thread, my LFS sold me two live rocks from the copper treated tank… an I have been battling the copper situation for three weeks, I just found out where it came from and took it out 9 days ago. I’ve done like 2, 25-30 percent water changes since than. Last I checked I’m at 0.10 copper.

Any tricks or hacks to get it out faster??

 

[BryanM]

my LFS sold me two live rocks from the copper treated tank

I dont have an answer, but I'd be mad. Dangit!

 

[Red_Beard]

since I’ve got all you lovely people on this thread, my LFS sold me two live rocks from the copper treated tank… an I have been battling the copper situation for three weeks, I just found out where it came from and took it out 9 days ago. I’ve done like 2, 25-30 percent water changes since than. Last I checked I’m at 0.10 copper.

Any tricks or hacks to get it out faster??

Ohh no! Once copper gets into the rock it can leach it out for a long long time. You may be better of to chuck it and start with clean ones. Cuprisorb will pull it from the water though, to answer that question.

 

[baba.aqua]

Would it have infected my other live rock even though I took out the contaminated ones ?

 

[KrisReef]

Would it have infected my other live rock even though I took out the contaminated ones ?

Slightly, but the low numbers are not a huge worry ime. Just get some cuprisorb running and it will slowly recover.

You can also use cuprisorb in a bucket with the dirty copper rocks and clean them up if you want?

 

[baba.aqua]

Just pour it in with out a mesh bag ?

 

[KrisReef]

Just pour it in with out a mesh bag ?

It would work with out the bag, better with circulation to move the copper ions about but it might be a problem if it gets into the circulation pump?
But it can be accomplished in a bucket as well as in the Dr. the bag in either situation helps remove the media with the copper once it has adsorbed the copper ions from solution.

 

[baba.aqua]

How about when I add coral??