Cloudy water - a little trick

[BigTom]

Hi all,

Ever since my last rescape, I've had real issues with perpetually cloudy water caused by extremely fine dust from sand that I forgot to wash.

In the past couple of months I've tried 90% water changes and any number of possible remedies... different filter flosses/wools including JBL symec micro, purigen and as a last resort Seachem Clarity flocculant. None of which worked in the slightest.

However, I then stumbled across these 1 micron 'filter socks' on ebay - I can't link to them but they're the big 18" socks designed for cleaning vegetable oil and biodiesel. Worth a shot, I thought.

Well they arrived on Saturday, and with a little bit of chopping and brute force I now have one entirely encasing the media basket in my filter - impossible for any water to get through the filter without passing through the sock.

And within two days my water is much, much clearer. Not quite gin-clear yet, but getting there. So I figured I'd put this thread up for anyone else that might be struggling with similar issues. You might need a little ingenuity to get them to fit in your filter (or just attach one to your filter outlet if you don't mind the sight of it), and you do loose a certain amount of flow, but definitely worth it.

48 hour before and after comparison -



Hope that helps someone,

Cheers,
Tom

[Raithan Ellis]

Perfect timing...

Just setup another tank last night, I knew better, but have gotten too lazy in my years to bother washing the play sand since it said "pre-rinsed and screened". Used to run a Diatom filter which was great, but no longer have it.

Just ordered 2 of the 4x14, figured I can cut them down to size if they are too tall.

Thank you!

[BigTom]

Ah excellent, glad to be of use.

[Diana]

That is a great difference!
Be sure to clean that sock regularly. At 1 micron it will plug up really fast.

[BigTom]

No kidding Diana!

Here's the sock this morning, after 3 days use -



Going to tweak the setup to include a prefilter I think.

[Diana]

That would be a really good idea. The more media you can set up before the 1 micron fabric the longer it will last between cleaning.

[Richardblack]

are you still using the sock? how often do you need to clean it?

[The Dude]

Perfect timing. I just set up a tank with CarribSea cichlid sand and I love how it looks, but after adding 3 Cory's yesterday, the sand is constantly clouding the water. I also didn't rinse it since I didn't have anything fine enough. I also happen to be setting up a biodiesel setup at my other place in Tennessee so it would probably benefit me to buy in bulk!

[ChadRamsey]

great idea and that is one beautiful tank you have there Tom

[Freeasabird]

Originally Posted by The Dude

Perfect timing. I just set up a tank with CarribSea cichlid sand and I love how it looks, but after adding 3 Cory's yesterday, the sand is constantly clouding the water. I also didn't rinse it since I didn't have anything fine enough. I also happen to be setting up a biodiesel setup at my other place in Tennessee so it would probably benefit me to buy in bulk!

The way I washed my sand was to put about 25 pounds at a time into a 5 gallon bucket, then attach a rigid 'arm' for watering planters to the end of your garden hose. Turn your water in full blast and jam the planter arm down to the bottom of the bucket for a couple minutes till the overflow water runs clean. You'll know it's done because you can see down to the bottom. After doing that I had zero issues with dusty sand.