micro bubble help

[nitrofish]

ive had a problem with these tiny bubbles coming from the returns on my tank into the main display. anyone know any tricks on eliminating these?

 

[cujo6984]

a little more info about your setup would be needed do you have a sump what type of return how much flow what type of skimmer some pics would be helpful also

 

[nitrofish]

its a 180gal, with a sump. I don't see any bubles in the sump so it leads me to belive its coming from somewhere else. posibly sucking air in thru the linelock. my pump is a Iwaki MD40RLXT

 

[stingythingy45]

My guess is that you have some joint or connection that is working like a venturi.Look for any saltcreep at joints/connections.One way to help locate it is to block the return briefly and then look for any drips.Do you have anti siphon holes in your return?You could have lock line joint that is cracked.

 

[alpha0r]

Check where the inlet pipe connects to the pump. I had a mag 7 that shot tons of bubbles on my closed loop and this spot was the problem.

 

[Ray]

do you have this pump throttled back with a valve? if so where is the valve? I have seen this when the valve is before the pump and not open all the way

 

[JohnK]

Another thing to check for is if the outlets are close to the surface they can create a vortex (or something?) that will pull in air from the surface. To check, try just angling the loc line down a bit farther and see if that changes the bubble problem. (if this does turn out to be the problem, be careful to ensure that there is still a siphon break somehow after you lower the outputs)

 

[nitrofish]

I don't have the pump throtled down, but I think I may know where its coming from. their was a lot of salt creep at the threaded base of my line lock. I think tonite i will disasemble it and add a pipe thread sealer to the threads.

 

[nitrofish]

found it. it wasn't the line loc, I tryed that first and it didn't help so i had to go down to the pump intake (which happened to be a little loose) coated the threads with pipe sealent and now I have zero bubles! yay.

now does anyone know if the bits of pipe sealent floating in my tank will cause any problems?