Experience with HOB Refugium??

little_tuna

Reefing newb
I have had my Cpr Aquafuge for a few weeks now so im pretty sure it passed its "break in" period because im not getting any more micro bubbles anymore. However, im still getting big bubbles from the refturn tube pulling air down with it. These big bubbles are popping at the surface and getting salt all over my light. So much that i have to clean it every day or so. I have seen a lot of people complaining about this so im curious if anyone has any experience with these or the cpr Bak Paks (they seem to have this problem too).

Anyone have experience with these products or and DIY ideas??

They sell these Bubble Eliminators for the refugiums
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And these Bubble traps for the Bak Paks but im assuming they will work for the refugiums as well
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I have a hob fuge, I got mine from aquatraders. The return line on mine has a 90 degree elbow I keep my water line at the top of the return pipe. not quite under water not really out of the water. I do get some bubbles but not enough to complain about. My tank is topless and the the fixture is suspended from the ceiling so I probably have more room so less salt creep. When I was running a top to help prevent bubble I used a piece of foam in the return line and it did help. However you will have to clean that foam every other day if you dont you can get build up that will clog the return and you will end up with water on the floor. Hope this helps.
 
Oh the bubble trap for the bak pak didnt work for me. I had one and tried it just couldnt get it to fit. I would try a sock or filter foam like for a power head just keep a eye on it.
 
I've got a CPR Aquafuge on my 50 gallon. It produced large sized bubbles for about a month or so after I set it up, but I never had a problem with the bubbles popping and getting salt on my lights (and my lights only sit about 4 inches above my tank). I just turned the outlet toward the back of my tank so that the bubbles would hit the back wall. Now the chaeto in my CPR has grown out of control. The chaeto covers the majority of the return pipe (but still lets water out just fine); however, now I no longer have a bubble problem. I don't know if that's thanks to the chaeto-coverage or just that the system finally has broken in.
 
Thank you all for replying :D

I took your advice and pointed the return tube towards the back of the tank. I had it facing out because it gave my tank a lot of flow and surface agitation but it also sent the bubbles straight towards my light. I even had bubbles splashing up and over the front of my tank. So now its facing the back of the tank and it seems to control the bubbles much better. The only thing is that the bubbles are popping over on to the refugium and making a mess back there. But since the bubbles are grouped up in the corner now, I made this acrylic cut out to keep them from splashing out of the tank. Itll be much easier to clean this than to clean everything else and it saves me money so i dont have to buy one of those bubble eliminators that I keep reading bad reviews about

Hopefully this will work well
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Nope. didnt work. After a while the bubbles begin to float outside the shield.

I can either make a wall around the border of it to keep the bubbles from floating away or i can make my own bubble trap box like the one above.

Im going to try making a bubble trap box and ill let you all know how it goes
 
Ok so heres my replica. We'll see how it works out when it drys tomorrow and i get a sponge for it. Oh and any ideas on what kind of sponge i should use???

I'll also need to make something to hold it up with

IMG00337-20110504-1208.jpg
 
Nice work! Smart idea! Like, Biff said, any sponge from Petco/Petsmart/whatever should work fine. I don't know about how to hang it, though...

Also, I have egg crate covering the top of my tank, and I think that when the bubbles rose and popped they must have just splashed the egg crate and never made it to my lights. So if the bubble trap fails (I hope I'm not jinxing it :shock:), maybe putting a cover on your tank like egg crate or DIY screen tops would work.
 
Ok so here it is and its working like a charm. It keeps all my bubbles trapped right in the container.

IMG00344-20110505-0031.jpg

I have it temporary rigged with some clips and a rubber band but ill make something better later on. Ill also be adding a top to it to keep down the popping bubbles in there.

IMG00339-20110504-2351.jpg

The only bubbles making their way through the bottom are the micro bubbles but thatll stop when i get the sponge in there.

So im pretty happy with it :mrgreen:
 
I figured out the problem!!!
First thing first. The box i made worked, however, give it a few days and the sponge gets clogged and the water and bubbles overflow over the top of the box. So it didnt work which caused me to search and search the web. I first started to see some Aquafuges with a knob to adjust the flow rate of the pump. Then i stumbled upon this picture..

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Notice where the water level is on the return pipe
Well here is where my water level is
IMG00353-20110508-1617.jpg


So i ran a test and cut off some of the flow of my pump with my hand over the pump intake causing the return water level to set where the first picture is above and guess what.

NO BUBBLES!!! :bounce: :^: :bounce:

On the cpr website they recommend turning the return pipe like this to allow the air to escape but i also found that it works with no bubbles either way. So i did that and slowed the flow with my hand and heres the results

IMG00357-20110508-1621.jpg


I bought this aquafuge used and they gave me a Maxijet 1200, Sooo i guess what i need to get is either a pump with a slower gph rate or a knob to control it like this one..
CPR04401-1_02.jpg
 
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Yeah i know, im so relieved. I have been searching the web for weeks only to find soo many people with this same problem and no solution.

But now we know, its all in the flow :mrgreen:
 
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