I NEED SKIMMER HELP!! - MRC - MR-2 - Below Water Return

[fluidimagery]

I'm driving myself insane here...

I have a MRC - MR2 using a single beckett on a Blueline 55 pump. I got everything hooked up today. Unfortunately due to the height of the stand and the water level in the sump, the return for the skimmer had to be under water.

I was able to use the skimmer with the blueline 55 turned down to about 75% and not have the skimmer flooding with clean water.

The issue now is massive amount of microbubbles. :banghead: I'm trying to think of a way to rig up a filter sock, but it makes it very difficult being that the return is under water. Any help would be awesome!

Pics:

Still dry:

 

[jackson6745]

IME Forget about the refugium, add a bigger sump, or change skimmers. You cant have the bubbles from a beckett hitting your macros. It's pointless. You can use the refugium area to add more baffles.

 

[PalmTree]

I agree with rich. There is a return mod I saw somewhere (don't remember where) in which you add a T to the skimmer out put so that the water shoots straight down inton the sump. The upper portion of the T has a cap with a hole on it. I've never used it before but it may help you out. You might be able to add a filter sock to the output side after performing the mod. Either way you will still have some bubbles to deal with. I like your plumbing job by the way! :teeth:

 

[SlamaJama]

wat about using a 90 deg elbo and turn it down...

 

[fluidimagery]

I got the skimmer working perfectly tonight. Well...so far so good.

What I did was hook a 100 micron filter sock to the return with a drawstring. Of course I'll have to keep on top of cleaning it, but for now I couldn't be happier.

I'm able to turn the blueline 55 all the way up and just tune the air intake to create the skim I want. I'm sure some more adjusting will need to be done since it's only been running for about 7 hours.

Thanks for all the help.

 

[PalmTree]

Nice Glad to hear it all worked!!

 

[fluidimagery]

ME TOO! Thanks again for the suggestion, I was leaning towards it last night but was afraid of the consistency. Fingers Crossed

 

[Alex]

fluidimagery if you are still interested this fellow reefer has a solution to your problem

http://www.steve68.com/other.htm

 

[fluidimagery]

Thanks, I'll try out the filter sock for now and see how often I need to clean it.

 

[PalmTree]

Do you have pics of your fix?