• Why not take a moment to introduce yourself to our members?

Dagwood

Reefer
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Two issues I am currently having with my new set up are heat and micro bubbles. The water temp is 82 to 83 degrees with the heaters unplugged. I am using an Orbit 48 inch light on a 144 gallon half circle tank. The light has two 150 watt MHL and four 48 inch blue actinic lights and six white LED moon lights. I am running a 30 inch long sump and refugium with a 1270 GPH pump. I also have a XP3 canister with a UV sterilizer plumbed in. The lights are on from 10 AM (actinics) to 10 PM and the MHL come on from 12 PM to 8 PM. The moon lights come on at 10 PM. I was told my heat issue is from the lighting. I really do not want to puchase a chiller as I do not have the space under my system for it and my budget is blown.

Reference the micro bubbles, they are about the size of grains of sand and do not affect the clearity of my water. They do collect on things then work thier way to the surface. They are being introduced through the returns from the sump. I have used a filter sock (100 micron) and poly fiber in the sump to reduce them. This has caused the circulation to slow down. My tank has two returns 3/4 inch each that is split off a 1 inch tube from my pump. The drains are two 1 inch 1/4 in size and are reduced down to two 1 inch tubes that drain into the sump. The sump is home made sectioned off into a return area, refugium area a micro bubble trap bulk head with a second bulk head that forces the water under the bulk head before entering the pump/outflow area. I have lots of bubbles from when the water enteres the return for the sump and carry all the way through the sump/refugium back to the pump return area.

Two questions....I live in the northwest, next month should be the hottest of the year for us. What water temperature is too hot and will the micro bubbles hurt anything? If not I can live with them if I have too.

Thanks for listening and I look forward to any suggestions.
 

bleedingthought

Advanced Reefer
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Fans are your friends. Your fixture has fans to cool the bulbs, right? Try setting up a fan blowing over the water on your sump. Also, make sure the temperature in the room that the tank is in is low enough (air conditioning). Cut down your MH to about 4 hours a day to see how it goes. You don't need them on for 8 hours anyways. What is your temperature in the tank 30 minutes before your actinics come on? How about 30 minutes before your MHs are on?

The amount of flow you're pushing through the sump is probably the reason why you're getting bubbles. Try to tone it down and see if it helps. Baffles help but if your flow is too much than the bubbles might just carry on through.

I have my tank at about 81. 83 isn't so bad but if you think your tank will get even hotter (84, 85) is when you need to to watch out. This is pretty recent discussion about temperature: http://www.reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.p ... light=temp

Micro bubbles can damage certain things like sponges and suck. If it's very minimal, it might only damage your view. :wink:

HTH
 

Bugout

New Reefer
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Hey dagwood is your pump a low heat transfer external pump? I bought a 180 gal. reef ready used and the sump and pumpcame with the tank. The problem was that the pump was not made for aquarium use and transfered way to much heat not to mention it sounded like a 747. I also used fans on the sump without a top on it for evaporative cooling this worked well.
 

Sponsor Reefs

We're a FREE website, and we exist because of hobbyists like YOU who help us run this community.

Click here to sponsor $10:


Top