White dots.

[IcantTHINKofONE]

Ok my tank finally cleared up from the southdown cloud. I can see the back glass but it seems that there is lots of stuff floating around violently. Some of it looks like tiny strings and some of it looks like baby powder. What is it? What can I do to remove it? very unsightly. Thanx!

 

[wombat1]

It'll settle down eventually, give it a couple of days. That baby powder sized dust is just the right sized grain for the animals that will live in your sand bed. It will settle onto your LR also but can be squirted off with a turkey baster. I've heard suggestions of using a PH to filter out the dust...but the dust is the reason SD is so desirable. Rob Toonen did a particle size analysis of SD and found it was pretty close to the ideal range for a living sandbed.

 

[wombat1]

Oops forgot about the strings! ??? Might be from an animal... Do you have LR in your tank yet? I have little tube worms that make "cobwebs" all over my tank, and their sticky strings sometimes float around the tank.

 

[IcantTHINKofONE]

wombat, about the strings, i do have live rock and a friends entire existing sandbed was moved to mine so there is tons of life. I find the strings stuck on the glass too. Sorta like cobwebs as you said. But about the dots: Most of my sand has settled, how come this one hasn't? I thought it had all settled actually. It is not the finer particles, it is in between. Some are actually larger sized. I guess I'll wait it out some more.

 

[wombat1]

Interesting, do they have air bubbles attached?? Usually the grains will settle FASTER if they're already coated with bacteria. Air bubbles that escape from my DSB always have a couple grains attached that fall after rising to the surface. How long has it been since you dumped the sand in??

 

[IcantTHINKofONE]

The sand was down before the water. The newer sand (existing DSB from friend) was dumped in a week or so ago. The white "powder" seems to travel in to the main tank through the returns (2 1" sea swirls).