question about water clarity in my Aquapod 24 gal

[JonnyJ]

ok so i have been battling to get my water clear. i think it just got progressively worse over the past month.. their seems to be a ton of particles floating everywhere!

i have a very fine sand bed about 3inches and im not sure if thats the reason.

the back chamber is set as around a 2 inch overflow only at the top with 2 poly pads for the water to run through... i originally only used filter floss and it didnt seem to be maintaining the clarity so i upped and bought the intank poly pad filters...i started with 1 and didnt clear up so i bumped it up to two pads to see if it could clear it up and haven't had any success. it really doesnt seem like its clearing up at all.... ive included some pictures on my flow and how the rear chambers look. can anyone give me any advice?

i dont have a skimmer and plan on getting one within a week or so. would that be the only way to fix this?

the water runs through 2 polypad filters from intank
then a bag of chemipure thats around a month and a half old[could this cause anything?]
then some live rock rubble.

heres some pictures - i included the flow, the back chambers and a picture that may show what i mean by particles.


could i shut off all pumps for like a period of time and see if it settles as a test?

thanks for the help! and if anyones in si that wants to come by and give it a look to help me figure this out im in tottenville town.

the particles look very large in this picture only because the iphone cant get a good shot and it smeared it, they appear like very fine micro bubbles or fine sand. im leaning more towards particles because they are at the waters surface as well

 

[SevTT]

This looks like a very new tank, is it? IF so, the amount of particulates will go down as algal and bacterial films coat everything, and as worms and such in the substrate help hold it down.

 

[vladnyc]

It really depends on what the particles are.

If they are air bubbles there are many simple mechanical solution to stop that.
If they are protein particles then skimmer will take them right out.
If it is sand you need to reposition whatever current is kicking it up.

Do this. Shut off your pump for a second. What happens to the particles? Do they float or sink? Do they dissipate or stay intact?

 

[JonnyJ]

Thanks for the good advice!!


just for reference i Have a mj1200 set up for the main pump and a mj900 in the same left rear chamber, and i also have a koralia 1 in the tank


As a trial i did what you said and shut it all off and they just go away over time for the most part, some rising some falling and some dissapearing etc.......so i think its a little of everything.

to much current being the main culprit. must be a combination and the rock work causing some sort of effect thats raising the sand

then i went to do a few more trials

i shut off the mj900 only - which is a secondary pump i added and the problem has substantially reduced. not perfectly fixed but much much better.

 

[vladnyc]

If you are set on keeping all that flow, see if you can make some sort of ghetto baffle system out of pads in a chamber after the pumps. If it works, cut some acrylic strips to make something more permanent. Also try taking all the pads out and see if that works. Maybe all that flow being forced through the small pores of the pads are causing micro bubbles.