Microbubbles in my main tank........any ideas?

[Jason]

in my new tank, there are a ton of bubbles in the main and in the sump.

the tank is a 72 gallon reef ready bow front.
the sump is a 20H aquarium that has about 10 gallons of water in it.
the return pump is a mag 7 and it's hard plumbed to the main tank.

when the water comes out of the overflow into the sump it goes into a little trashcan that has holes drilled throughout the botom and then into the sump. The trashcan sticks into the water about 2.5 inches and hangs on the aquarium, It has filter pads in it. there is no splash plate so the water runs directly onto a filter pad and then into the sump. The holes in the trash can are completely submerged.

the water runs through the sump where there is about 25lbs of LR then returns to main.

any ideas on what is causing the bubbles? The tank is 1 week old so I am not to terribly concerned about it, but t is a probem i would like to fix before I start adding livestock.

thanks in advance for any help!~

 

[seaham358]

Is the pump sucking air? Watch the pump and see it may get a tornado type suction going and suck some air once in a while. If this happens then the water needs to be deeper. The over flows from the tank do they go into the sump water? If not IMO the should stick down into the water. On both of my tanks I run the returns down to the bottom of the sump with elbows on them, this helps the bubbles go up.

 

[Jason]

Nah the pump isn't sucking air except for the bubbles that are in the sump......


Now a little more about having the overflow tube go all the way to the bottom of the tank...... My tubing doesn't go into the water, It spills water onto some pads and then drains into the water.......... I bet that is what's causing it.

I did notice that their were bubbles in the overflow tube going into the sump, is that something that I need to worry about or not?


So...... ..... I guess I will try to do my overflow plumbing how you have yours and see if that works..... all the way down and then elbow them back up or just at a 90deg angle? Also, are they hard plumbed or soft plumbed?

 

[seaham358]

hard plumbed... I have a 90 elbow on the end and it shoots the bubbles out into the sump giving them time to raise up and out of the sump. My buddy has a set up like yours and he has them into the water inside a bucket with pads also. Not sure if he has elbows or not but IMO they should be under the water.. It s good place to start..

 

[Jason]

thanks a lot!!!

 

[mentallylost]

Are either of you using a bubble trap in your sumps? I've seen them in a few DIY sumps, and was wondering if they really work.

 

[gilraen]

I have bubbles too, nothing is sucking air and my 90 degree elbows are under water...

 

[Jason]

Ok so I tried the hardplumbing thing and it actually made it worse.... to bad I guess. I did, however, raise the water level about 6" and there was a DRASTIC reducton in the bubbles.....they are almost gone...... I've got a couple months to troubleshoot it so I'm not freaking out to bad about it right now.

So what of these bubble traps?

 

[gooyferret]

Well i made a bubble trap in my sump and it wont work with microbubbles that are made from the protein skimmer the water flow just forces them right through the bubble trap and into the pump chamber for returns. I have been using a polypad to stop the bubbles from entering but its going to get expensive.