Too much Oxygen!

[mojoreef]

Sorry I missed you drB. the basic problem is that thier is not enough room in your sump for the bubble to be dissapated, so maybe to large of a pump on the return. thier are alot of tricks that can be used to play around. the use of a filter sock is one for sure just make sure you dont fall asleep and changing them out and cleaning them constantly (every couple of days). I personally run 5 micron socks but only for a certain ammount fo time per month. You can also create a sleeve for the drain line. Have the drain line slip into a larger pipe that would be glued to the bottom of the sump, this would create another baffle with out having to do one. You can also introduce another baffle, or reduce your pump size going back to the tank, that would give it more time to get rid of the bubbles.

Having the water splash down onto rocks can come with a little problem to, what you end up doing with this is creating an enviroment for the growth of nitrifing bacteria. the result will be ntrates introduced into the tank.

hope it helps

Mike

 

[Dr B]

Mike,
I totally got the micro bubble problem we talked about under control.
I mean what is making the water so milky?

I did fill the tank with instant ocean a few hours ago and it is really milky now... I had salt in it the first time and maybe it was just the salt that never cleared up, because it doesnt seem to be clearing up now anymore either....
Any of you guys have milky water from IO and does it go away after a while?
thx

 

[iamjosh]

Maybe try getting a bunch of plants & macro algea and just stick it in the sump see what that does.. might save wasting all the salt and RO/DI Water.. couldn't hurt much.

-j

 

[nemoisfound]

jsut wondering if you have new sand in your new tank? my water was a little cloudy when i didnt wash my sand really good. it went away though. good luck!

 

[Dr B]

Yea im not gonna ditch the water again....
I plan to get my rock in and stuff in a couple days.

Its weird im having so many water probs tho....
I did mix the salt in the tank, but i have a ton of flow through there... like 11000gph in a 180. Weird how its still milky, my old tank is setup next to it sitting there crystal clear!
Frusterating.

 

[kevinpo]

Did you use the same from the same bucket in your other tank (the one that is clear)? I had 4-5 buckets of I.O. that mixed up milky. They were all replaced. Mix some of the salt in a glass of tap water and a glass of RO/DI they both should be clear in 1-2 min.

If you think you are having micro bubble problems turn off all your pumps for a few min the water should quickly clear if not then it's not micro bubbles.

HTH,
Kevin

 

[Dr B]

No sand in the tank, its barebottom.

Different IO buckets from both times...
Ill see if it mixes up clear tomorrow....

The first time i left everything off for like 6 hours and it didnt clear up at all....

I mean is it possible for air to mix up into the water in little tiny particles and be hard to dissipate? I mean smaller micro bubbles than we can actually percieve?
Grrrr, so annoying.

 

[Dr B]

I was going through some threads... and i know the cloudy IO water has been attributed to bad batches with high alk. I tested alk and it was 9.6dkh
So i dont think it is a bad batch, but why didnt it mix up right and will it ever?

 

[nemoisfound]

dr. b, maybe talk to a RO/DI expert? they should have the answer. Micro bubbles clear when all pumps are turned off. sorry about the problem, Must be fustrating!

 

[mattseattle]

the only time i have had cloudy water like what you've described was once I was using IO and I added a WM buffer to it to bring up the alk a little more. as soon as i dumped it in the entire batch of water became cloudy and i left it for 2 days thinking it would clear but it didn't. i dumped the entire batch and just did the IO and it was clear that time. i don't know what could be causing the cloudiness. have you tried using the same batch of IO and just mixing it with some RO/DI water in a jug or something to see if it does the same thing? that'd narrow it down to whether it's the IO mix or something in your tank.

 

[Scooterman]

Yea, I get cloudy IO when first mixing but it usually clears. If you have everything off and it still is cloudy then we need to figure out what is going on. I want to ask this again just to make sure: When you fill the tank with Just RO/DI water, everything OFF, Is it clear?

 

[nemoisfound]

yup, clean and clear!

 

[Dr B]

when everything was off and it was just RO/DI it was perfectly clear and sparkly.

Now that the salt is in there... it is insanely cloudy. I think this is what made the big cloudy effect the first time too is the salt.

 

[Scooterman]

Change your salt, either send it back to IO or try that new Oceanic salt, they say it is nice.

 

[mattseattle]

did you try what i mentioned? take the same batch of salt and mix it with Ro/di in a jug or another container and see if it does the same thing? no sense to keep going through this - it's a simple test.

 

[Dr B]

I havent had the chance yet to try that out... I am going to tonight and ill let ya know.

Another thing i have heard is that there are particles in salts that may not necessarily disolve. And being that my tank has nothing in it for it to settle(not even sand) and i have so much flow that it isnt clearing up properly.
I am going to setup my rock tomorrow i think. I dont want to throw out more water and salt.

 

[Scooterman]

Keep us posted, this can be intresting experience, I'd like to know the culprit!

 

[mojoreef]

Just let it run for a bit Dr B. remember the carbonate in the salt mix has to mix with co2 from the surrounding air to form. the way you mixed it in is problibly just making it take a little longer then usual. give it a couple of days.


Mike

 

[mikey b]

"THIS ONE TIME AT BAND CAMP"

I purchased a bucket of instant ocean Brand New and it would not mix. I tried to mix 20 gal. with R/O water the first time and I wasnt sure if I messed something up because the water was cloudy and the power head, heater, and the bottom of my mixing tub was covered in chalky residue. I dumped it out and tried it again and had the same problem. I asked one of the guys at saltwater city if he knew what the problem was and he told me that in all his years he had never had that problem. I took the bucket of salt back to the place I purchased it from and exchanged it for a bucket of kent marine, IT MIXED UP GREAT.I was later informed by the dealer that Instant Ocean might have a bad batch of salt going around...

 

[Scooterman]

Last two 200g buckets of IO has mixed slightly milky each time, top to bottom, consistently, little residue but clears up. I've gotten in the habit of using a sock filter to remove everything before putting it into my tank.