A green tank with little bubbles, Help please!

[Mad_drama]

Problem 1

Hello all, I’m having some new tank issues. My 450 has been running for almost a month know, I noticed a lot of hair algae over the past week or so (which should be normal). I woke up this morning and the entire tank was green. I can’t even see to the rear of the tank. Did the hair algae go sexual? I have a skimmer, but it only handles up to a 250 Gallon tank I’m running around 600 Gallons water volume. I’m running charcoal and I will cut my light hours back. I don’t have the money to by a larger skimmer, at least not for another month or two.


Problem 2

My sump is located in the basement, when the water is returned to the tank upstairs I get lots of little bubbles. How do I get rid of the bubbles? I attempted to build a skimmer using the return bubbles but it didn’t work out.


My hardware

450 Gallon acrylic
32 gallon Rubbermaid sump
125 Gallon tank (plumbed into same system
5 inch sand bed in the 125 and the 450, 400 pds of live rock in the 450 only
The sump and the 125 are located in the basement.

All opinions please!!

 

[AWD]

I feel your pain. A similar thing happened to my tank. The difference was my tank didn't have any visible hair algae. I cleared up the "green water" with carbon and a big water change. I now have a problem with hair algae. I lost most all of my snails, so that could be a problem. I've never had a problem with phosphates or nitrates. My conclusion is that the algae got REAL excited one night. How to fix or prevent it. Well, I'm still working on that one. If you make any new conlusions I would like to hear them.

 

[esmithiii]

Sounds like an algae bloom to me. Wait it out. The same thing happened to my 180 and it calmed down after a week or two.

One of the advantages that I have is that I travel during the week. This keeps me from screwing around to much in my tank and from trying to fix every problem. It also keeps me from worrying too much. Give it time and it will pass.

Ernie

 

[esmithiii]

I forgot to add that to get rid of the bubbles, you will need baffles or some other type of barrier to keep air bubbles coming from your overflow (line coming down into the basement) from being sucked up into your return pump. A sponge works well, but what worked for me was rearranging the overflow lines and the intake for the pump so that the bubbles have time to rise to the surface before they are sucked in.

Also, if your intake for the pump is too close to the surface of your sump then a vortex can form which will also suck air.

Try re-orienting your incoming lines and where your return pump is situated.

Ernie