Carbon won't help with "dust particles". Carbon removes yellowing of the water, and other dissolved organics.

Do you have filter pads, sponges, or socks in the sump? Are you sure the "dust particles" aren't microbubbles coming from the sump?

I have a filter sock in my sump, then protein skimmer, green filter and then my return pump. Majority of the "dust particles" have disappeared now. I have cleaned my sock more frequently and fine tuned my skimmer. I'm hoping the carbon will reduce the yellow tinge. I confirmed the particles in the DT were not micro bubbles and no micro bubbles being formed in the sump. :wink:

Great! Vacuuming the sand during waterchanges helps too, and if your tank can support one, a sand sifting fish can really help too. :)

I started off 4-5 years ago using the BRS recommended amount of carbon.
I scaled it back to only 100ml for my 115g system.
Lately I've not been using any. My water is staying clear with a large sock, nitrogen dosing, and very little to no use of GFO.
Still tweaking the nitrogen addition, but haven't used carbon in at least 2-3 months.
My tank is mixed corals.

Gregzz, what kind of skimmer are you running? Within 2 days of my carbon bag in the sump, the water is looking nice and clear. That being said cleaning the filter sock more frequently and my finicky skimmer has helped!

Greg uses a Skimz skimmer that's older than..... old. Check out his thread here.

Thanks for the link to the re-build. That was an awesome read and nice to to see the progression.

what about filter pads between baffles in the sump.

I had nothing but a Phosban bag there until recently. had an issue with my kid dumping some medicated water in the sump, and have since added a bunch of other filters to counter the effect the meds may have on my beneficial bacteria.

does any one have any experience and feedback to share on nitrate and phosphate removing pads, or a polyfilter?

i've recently added two small bags of carbon, poly filter, chemipure, nitrate and phosphate filter pads, cuprisorb. (probably overkill but the water looks good). what effect may this have on my fish (one clown) and inverts. there is also a filter sock and a BM nac 3.5 skimmer.

water polish via small canister filter
 

I purchased one of these...
Only use it when I'm turkey basting my rocks,,, and when they're are lots of crap floating around..

works great !!!


http://www.jlaquatics.com/dry-goods/...ng-filter.html

is that because you don't have a sump. I guess I am just trying to understand why someone wouldn't just add filtration to their sump.