clear water?

[Melonbob]

How do people end up with these ultra clear tanks? I mean I see my lfs display tank, and also pictures around here, and the water looks almost polished its so clean. I have suspended particles and my water never looks that nice. It not uggo or anything, I just wish I had that sparkling look.

 

[reeffreak]

If your having fine particles in the water then run some floss or sponge filter to get rid of it.Make sure your clean it weekly.It will help to keep micro bubbles to a minimum also.

 

[Melonbob]

floss? Sponge Filter? I'm assuming my lfs will know what you are talking about, also, do I just put this stuff in my HOB filter and skimmer on the outlet? I do have microbubbles too, calmed down after the skimmer ran for a few weeks, but still quite a bit

 

[Rcpilot]

Micro bubbles don't hurt any of your fish or animals. They may contribute to it looking cloudy, but they don't hurt the tank inhabitants.

See Myth #14 and subsequent picture of the ocean.
Mything the Point, Part Three: Conclusion - Reefkeeping.com

I think the use of a good skimmer and some carbon is about all thats needed. Carbon really polishes the water and gives it that sparkley look.

Take some water out of your tank and put in a clear glass jar. Take that to a window and let light shine through it. Is it clear, or yellow?

Make sure you are doing water changes every week with fresh RO water.

I just toss a media bag full of carbon into the return section of my refugium. It's very passive, because the water isn't FORCED through the carbon, but it works okay. I also run Phosban in that same compartment.

 

[reeffreak]

Sponge filter and floss is just a type of mechanical filter pads that remove fine particles.Your HOB filter has that in it already.Running some kind of mechanical filtration,carbon and keeping micro bubbles from entering the DT is all you can do.

 

[Melonbob]

Is more carbon better? the filter pads that I have have very little carbon in them (biowheel 350) can I add anything to the skimmer to cut on the bubbles (remora pro)

 

[yote]

The carbon thats in those pads is pretty much useless.But you can lay some in the bottom of the filter.I'd recommend Chemi-Pure Elite.

 

[Doc]

for my HOB on my 90, I did not get a wheel style filter, I am not a fan as they get clogged, and that wheel thing just limits what I can put in it to improve the HOB usefulness. I spruced up a boring whisper filter HOB. I have two rated for 60 gallons each, for my 90. I kept the black sponge thing (mechanical filtration) in the compartments but tossed away the white carbon filled pad. those things seemed to cost a fortune and get used up in two days, only to get clogged with algae inside of four days.

I replaced those white things with two media bags, one of each side of the filter (the 60 gallon HOB has two chambers). I put one media bag with carbon pellets and the other with phosguard. So, with the two filters, I have two bags of carbon and 2 of phosguard. my tank water seems to be pretty clear and my parameters are spot on

-Doc