Floating Particulates In My Tank

[reeferkeifer]

Anyone have any tips on why I would have bits of solid particulate floating around the water? And I am not talking about the small oxygen bubbles floating around from all the water movement or after feeding time when the skimmer goes down a bit, but during regular operation hours when the skimmer is working well. To me, I feel the skimmer should be catching all that stuff. Now I know that it may take some time or all the particles to go down into the sump but I am just wondering and asking what other peoples experiences have been. Could my 3 socks be bad/old, does the size of the hole on top of the inlet pipe matter? It's not super bad but I am a little OCD about water being clear and I have seen tanks with super clear water. Like I said, just curious.

 

[acroholic]

ReeferKeifer;991594 wrote: Anyone have any tips on why I would have bits of solid particulate floating around the water? And I am not talking about the small oxygen bubbles floating around from all the water movement or after feeding time when the skimmer goes down a bit, but during regular operation hours when the skimmer is working well. To me, I feel the skimmer should be catching all that stuff. Now I know that it may take some time or all the particles to go down into the sump but I am just wondering and asking what other peoples experiences have been. Could my 3 socks be bad/old, does the size of the hole on top of the inlet pipe matter? It's not super bad but I am a little OCD about water being clear and I have seen tanks with super clear water. Like I said, just curious.

Maybe you have a spawning event in the tank.

 

[jennm]

Nothing will get every bit of particulate out. You can go with a finer micron filter sock but it will clog up fast.

Could be food, could be poop, could be something spawned... or any/all of the above and more.

Keep in mind that corals can feed on particles like that. If you've ever kicked up your substrate while vacuuming (you should vacuum your substrate, that's where gravity will put the particles eventually...) corals will go into a feeding frenzy in turbid water.

Try not to worry about it too much. A skimmer is more for dissolved organics than particles. Mechanical filtration like a sock or filter pad is what strains particles out.

Jenn