If this was your tank, what would you do

[Anonymous]

Here is a pic of the side of my tank.

The topic is bubbles

do you see too many for you to live with in the pic?

Would you just ignore them?

Would you create a bubble trap in the sump?

Would you use a micron sock and deal with cleaning it all the time?

I am having trouble deciding whether to mess with it or not.



BTW it took quite a few pics to get one that actually showed a good representation of what I see looking in the tank.

My tank specs are in the member specification forum.

Thanks for any input

Bryan

 

[Anonymous]

Good lord, yes. You gotta get rid of them bubbles. That would drive me friggin nuts.

A couple of baffles in the sump might do the trick. What are you using for a sump?

Louey

 

[Anonymous]

I have a 20 high for the sump

The water comes down on the right

Goes through three holes in a divider into the center chamber full of live rock

then goes through three holes in the second divider into the last chamber where the return suction is.

The skimmer was not running when this was taken.

How to solve it?

Bryan

 

[Anonymous]

Baffles are the answer, not holes. Install baffles so that all of the water must go over, then under, then back over. 3 or 4 ought to do the job.

Louey

 

[Anonymous]

I was just reading some older posts on this subject and found some by Mountainbiker.

He used a 100 Micron filter sock over his return pipe.

I am wondering how often that would need to be cleaned as it is in a pretty inaccessible location.

Also, there is probably 700 Gallons an hour running through the sump, in case that is important


Bryan

 

[Anonymous]

Do you think I could make some mini baffels and silicone them on to the divider so that the water has to do the up and down thing before going through the holes?

I don't want to drain the sump as I have tons of life on the LR in there. I can take the first divider out and work on it fairly easily though

BRyan

 

[Anonymous]

I don't know how well the silicone will bond underwater. I believe silicone requires 24 hours to set.

Sounds like a new $25 20H may be in order, no?

Louey

 

[Anonymous]

The cost of a new 20 high means naught to me.

In order to get the sump out I have to completely drain the main tank and take off the top of the cabinet.

So, that is not an option

I think I will try the mini baffle thing on the divider. I can take the divider out and weldon some acrylic to make baffles. I might try it this weekend

Thanks for the input

Bryan

 

[Graywolf57]

If the modifying the baffel does not work, try adding a small bucket or length of large diameter pipe. I seen someong have the input to the sump enter a bucket which forced the water and bubbles to flow over the top of the bucket letting most of the bubbles burst there. If you needed more you could use three buckets/pipe of increasing diameters which would achieve the same function as the bubble trap baffels. I think pipe would likely work better as you could adjust the heigth and flow easier.

my .02

 

[Anonymous]

If the modifying the baffel does not work, try adding a small bucket or length of large diameter pipe. I seen someong have the input to the sump enter a bucket which forced the water and bubbles to flow over the top of the bucket letting most of the bubbles burst there. If you needed more you could use three buckets/pipe of increasing diameters which would achieve the same function as the bubble trap baffels. I think pipe would likely work better as you could adjust the heigth and flow easier.

my .02

Hey, great minds think alike huh?

I have the pipes pouring into a piece of 6" PVC pipe. All the water goes over the top of that. That did cut out a ton of bubbles. I don't have room for any bigger and any smaller and the pipes won't fit.

Thanks for the input though

I am trying to draw up a baffle system now that can be attached to my sump divider.

Bryan

 

[jordanphulet]

Make sure all your plumbing joints are tight, could be pullin in air that way

 

[Anonymous]

Tonight I solved the problem.

I don't like the solution though so I still need some more pointers

I put one of the blue filter sponge thingies so that it covered the holes in the last divider in my sump.

So, the water must go through that in order to get to the pump section of the sump.

That cut out almost all of the bubbles, but I do not want to have a piece of sponge in my sump as then I would have to clean it like every day to keep it from getting full of crud.

I am seriously leaning toward making some sort of screen with 100 micron mesh and then forcing the water to go through that.

Any more thoughts out there?

Bryan

 

[Mogo]

I remember having a similar microbubble problem in my new setup. I diddled for a week in my sump with baffles, mesh etc. Then I noticed a little salt creep on one of the return line joints. I didn't glue it properly. It was sucking air.

 

[Anonymous]

What's the problem with bubbles? You guys just think they are 'unsightly' or do they actually harm something?

 

[Anonymous]

What we do is have the pipes drain into a large diameter section of pipe (6") with a flat cap on one end sitting in the sump (like you already have done). Wrapped around the pipe is a very thick piece of DLS/filter material. As the bubbles/water overflows from the 6" pipe, it passes through the filter material before getting to the sump, thus dissipating almost all of the bubbles.

Where are the bubbles coming from? Are you vortexing the overflow?

 

[Modo]

You stated that you could remove the deviders with the holes, right? If that is the case you could replace with solid plexi pieces. Then cut one short for flow over and the other you could brace up with about an inch or so gap for the underflow.

This along with the 6" pipe piece might do the trick. I also agree with checking all your plumbing.

 

[Anonymous]

I have the same problem with my 400g set-up. I have been playing around with 100 micron filter bags stretched over the return pump intake. The 4" x 16" filter bag is stretched over a box made of plastic eggcrate to keep it expanded. It has taken care of most of the bubbles. However, it needs to be removed and cleaned every 3-4 days. This might be a temporary problem since I have never used filter media in the tank before, thus, lots of detrus has accumulated in my sump. Once the detrus gets removed from the system, I might not need to clean the filter bag as often.

 

[Len]

Mike! 8)

 

[Anonymous]

Mike! 8)

"Technically" - ghostofmike :wink:

 

[Anonymous]

What we do is have the pipes drain into a large diameter section of pipe (6") with a flat cap on one end sitting in the sump (like you already have done). Wrapped around the pipe is a very thick piece of DLS/filter material. As the bubbles/water overflows from the 6" pipe, it passes through the filter material before getting to the sump, thus dissipating almost all of the bubbles.

Where are the bubbles coming from? Are you vortexing the overflow?

What does Vortexing the overflow mean?

How often do you have to clean that piece of filter material?

Bryan