Water surface

I have a hydor 420 and an aquaclear running on my 15g.

The one side with the koralia is clear, the other side of my tank isn't always clear. The filter causes enough flow in the tank but not on the surface?

Is there anything I can do to fix this?

 

Sounds like you need a surface skimmer.

 

I have a similar situation going. I have a small cube that was cycle live rock to seed my larger setup once i got it running. at first i just had a Koralia with a HOB filter, but I had the same problem so I removed the HOB and went ahead and set up a 2 Little fishes Phosban 150 reactor with carbon. The trick that solved my problem was flip the powerhead intake close to the surface, and keep the output high as well to increase surface agitation. I keep my power head low to help keep things from settling on bottom. (over head shows placement)

In this image you can see the intake for the power head is pretty close to the surface. You have to REALLY watch your water level and its best if you maintain an auto top off. Aside from the parameter reasons, If you do what I've done and your water level drops to low you'll start sucking air. (look very closely and and can see a small vortex starting to form between water level and power head intake. Water level drops too low and instant micro bubbles flood the tank.

 

Whats weird is it only happens sometimes like after water changes and sometimes its clear.
My ph is pretty close to the top and faces the top...gonna have to play around with it.
Would love to just run a skimmer and ditch the filter but then how would I run carbon, floss, phos

 

Ditch the floss, buy a two little fishes phosban 150 reactor and a maxijet 1200. You can tumble carbon or GFO through the reactor. At this point, I would consider getting the tank drilled now, or, glued a piece of hard plastic to the back to create "chambers" like a biocube or all in one tank.

 

You don't want to tumble carbon. That will create dust, and carbon dust has been linked to HLLE.

 

Its impossible to reconstruct the tank without taking it down plus I am personally not crazy with the idea of glueing compartments to the tank...for me that just screams disaster in the future with leaks.

 

Thank you for the info, it was late and I meant tumble pellets, carbon and GFO shouldn't be tumbled in a reactor or at all.

 

Fair enough, I'd be scared to do it myself too. If I had to I'd let a friend take all the rock and live stock and then drain it and have a "pro" do it.

 

Va reef, totally agree. I'd be too worried to do it myself.

We changed the ph direction and its clearing things up.

Can you believe not a single store had a surface skimmer!
Thanks for all the wonderful info everyone