Micro Micro Micro Bubbles!

[RobNJ]

I am having problems with microsbubbles.. My 120 drains into a 29g Sump, I wanted to use a 40 Breeder, however it wouldn't fit into the Glass Cages stand. Anyway even after my Baffles in my sump tiny micro bubbles are making their way to the return pump. I have about 300-350 gph running through my sump.

The bubbles are created from the water coming down the overflow and crashing into the sump.

My drain is all hard PVC, Would using spa flex under the tank be better? I would prefer not to use a Filter Sock.... Any suggestions ?

 

[JohnS_323]

Hi Rob,

First off, Welcome to NJRC!

Can you give a few more details about your set-up? I'm curious about how many baffles you have. Also, does the water draining into the sump go over the first baffle and then under the second (assuming you have at least 2)?

I know there are some things you can do with putting a larger diameter piece of PVC around your drain line but I'm not sure of the particulars. I'm sure someone else will jump in with suggestions.

 

[reefsandrotts]

Had the same problem with my AGA 150 mega flow system.
I solved my problem by extending the intake pipe as close to the bottom of my sup as possable,but leaving room to add a pvc T on the bottom of the pipe.
By splitting my intake flow to the 2 corners of the sump it eliminated my micro bubble problem.
HTH

 

[Phyl]

The most interesting way of draining water that I've seen was in a link that was posted not to long ago for Melev's Reef. The topic was replacing a sump (which you may also find interesting), but the drain idea I'm referring to is in a picture at the bottom of that article.

http://www.melevsreef.com/install_sump.html

In the 4th picture from the bottom he shows a drain line coming down and at the surfact of the water there's a 90* elbow that allows the water to return "parallel" to the water level in the sump. This seems as though it would allow all of the air to accumulate at the top of the horizontal portion, allowing it to rise, while allowing the then bubble free water to fall into the sump. I've thought about doing that on our 65g tank.

We have a simple fuge under there. The water returns to the bottom of the sump (in retrospect probably silly and when we "have time" we may make some changes to that) into a pile of rocks. The rock seems to do a good job at allowing the micro bubbles to come straight up rather than get carried over the baffles. We have an over/under baffle setup in that with mag 9 pushing probably 600g after the head loss, so it should be a similar setup to what you're dealing with.

Hope that helps some!

 

[RobNJ]

Hi Rob,

First off, Welcome to NJRC!

Can you give a few more details about your set-up? I'm curious about how many baffles you have. Also, does the water draining into the sump go over the first baffle and then under the second (assuming you have at least 2)?

I know there are some things you can do with putting a larger diameter piece of PVC around your drain line but I'm not sure of the particulars. I'm sure someone else will jump in with suggestions.

Thanks John!

The biggest problem is that i am using only a 29g as my sump, I had orginally planned to use a 40br however i couldn't get it to fit inside the door of the stand. (This will be fixed this summer when I cut a hole in the side of my stand and create a new side door.

My setup is a glasscages.com 120 with single overflow. 1.5 Drain and 1 inch return.

The sump has 3 chambers.

Chamber 1 Rock rubble tower. This is where my water drain into, i got the idea from Melev site on one of his sump designs. The problem I am having here is i do not have a baffle on this side. I just have a wall holding the rocks.

Second chamber is my g4+ asm skimmer.

3 Baffle bubble trap. If i shine a light into the baffles i can see the microbubbles fighting to float up but are so tiny that they are getting pulled right through.

Third chamber is my return.

The water is crashing into the first chamber causing a ton of bubbles and fizz and foam. I think if I extend the drain to the bottom of the sump and T it off and cover that with rock rubble i might solve this problem.

I know I could always solve this with a filter sock, but I would prefer not to have to deal with possible Nitrate buildup.

 

[Brian]

Hey Rob,

FWIW I have a 15g sump on my 90g with a mag 12, I made a durso type contraption. It's basically a PVC tee with a 90 degree elbow on it.

The drain from my overflow is 1" Pool Hose, this drains into the 2" PVC. This works pretty well in helping with the microbubbles. All the bubbles have to come out of the elbow which is near the bottom of the sump (the PVC tee sits on the bottom) I also have a nice hunk of caulpera in there to help catch the bubbles.

Welcome To The Club!

 

[JohnS_323]

We just tried that elbow 50% above the water line that Phyl posted the link to. We did it with the drain from our fuge and the drain from our main. The fuge has a pretty low flow rate (probably ~300gph) and it works great. On the main it's not a viable option. We're pushing 1200gph through the main and the elbow was bouncing all over the place! I would say if you're only pushing 300-350 through your main, the elbow may work for you.