Problems

[tclark828]

My tank has been set up for a few weeks, live rock is cycled and ready to go, and all water tests come back ok. A few days ago i decided to add refugium mud into my refugium and nothing has been the same since. There are tiny white particles coming out of my return from the pump, and have no idea what they could be. They almost look like a single grain of salt, but there are so many that the entire tank is cloudy and looks horrible. Ive shut the system off for several hours, took the pump apart and cleaned it, but it hasnt helped. The only thing i can think of is that the refugium mud is somehow getting stirred up and then moving into the next chamber where the pump is. This is only a guess however. Does anyone have any ideas of what this could be and how to fix it?
Thanks
Tom

 

[sickboy]

I do not know for sure, but it sounds like your diagnosis is accurate. Do you have a piece of sponge between chambers?

 

[tclark828]

no i do not.... the water overflows from the chamber with the mud directly into the chamber with the pump, kind of like a spillway....i added water to the system so that the water doesnt pour over, and that stopped almost all of the particles. Im guessing i should put some sort of sponge in the spillway to catch all of these particles?

 

[doc308]

for what it's worth, that helped my water clarity.

 

[tclark828]

I put a piece of sponge and it helped drastically, but you can still see quite a bit of white particles if you look closely in the main tank. Would putting live rock on top of the mud help it from being stirred up, or does this defeat the whole purpose of the mud. I'm really unsure what the mud is exactly for to be honest.

 

[snakeblitz33]

Sounds like some mechanical filtration media should help quite a bit. See if it settles down in the next few days. If your having a lot of problems, remove the mud and do a water change.