At my wits end with micro bubbles

[budboy]

Like the heading sais, I've pretty much did everything I could do, I'm probably missing something, but I've adjusted my ball valves every which way and now I have the water level maitained, but the micro bubbles are just shooting out of my returns. Anybody want to take a crack at it.

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[Rone]

Got a picture of set up?

 

[budboy]

This is my sump

 

[jokersplayground]

You should have a bubble trap after the skimmer section. It looks like your getting more bubbles from the skimmer and from when the water splashes down into the return section.

 

[budboy]

There is a section between skimmer area and return section that my skimmer area pours into, there is also a sponge filter in there and water come from underneath that section to fill return area

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[jamesdong009]

Are there still bubbles even if you shut the skimmer off?

 

[wiz]

Must need a bigger bubble catch. I've never used an external return pump. Could a bad conection be sucking air in?

 

[budboy]

Haven't tried anything, been at work long hrs these last couple days, but is on my list of things to check.

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[Jim Tansey]

Are you aware of the fire hazard with that type power strip?

Jim

 

[JohnK]

As a temporary test, add a couple more gallons of saltwater so the return section isn't so shallow and see what happens.

Second on the caution about that powerstrip. A club member just had a house fire because of one of those. Check this out;
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=584645

 

[wpeterson]

+1 to adding baffles as a bubble trap, which should prevent most micro-bubbles from entering your return chamber.

However, if you have enough microbubbles that can be overwhelmed as well. Where are your microbubbles coming from? Is there something wrong with your skimmer? Do you need some kind of change to the outflow?

 

[reefstarter]

My bet is it is sucking air in like said above . but also as John said a good test is to put some water in sump and see how that goes . may just need a higher water level . hard to say without actually being there

 

[reefkeeper2]

There could also be cavitation with the pipe diameter leading to the pump being too small. I would definitely get that power strip out of there.

 

[reefstarter]

There could also be cavitation with the pipe diameter leading to the pump being too small. I would definitely get that power strip out of there.

Is that 3/4 or 1 inch feeding the pump ? I think he's on to something here

 

[budboy]

Geez, that's not good. Any recommendations on a safe power strip, or should I move this out of the stand, away from most of the moisture.
I got around to doing some fooling around with the tank and for some reason, when I removed 1 of my drain stacks (dorso stack) the micro bubbles stopped, thinking I fixed the problem, cause I noticed my pump had some moisture around the collar I sealed it with marine sealant, than noticed my stack on the table and put it back in the over flow and the bubbles reappeared. I'm going to try some more water,cause it was definitely getting some more flow with no stack.



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[budboy]

Solved bubble problem, thank you.

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[Flame Angel]

So what was your solution?

Solved bubble problem, thank you.

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[budboy]

So what was your solution?

I added a Tru Union ball valve after the pump, and opened the ball valve between sump and pump all the way, feeding the pump all the water it can handle and controlling water on new ball valve, not starving pump for water, which was causing the pump to suck in air and spew it in my tank.

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[Flame Angel]

Thanks for sharing

 

[dannyp02908]

good call. not supposed to control the inlet. Centrifugal pumps need to be flooded. But, you could still have cavitation. not really supposed to have elbows that close to inlet.