Micro Bubble-PALOOZA

garydm

Reefing newb
Man Im infected with them......there has been a ton of time spint trying everything known to man to get the bubbles under control
here are some pics from my phone of the set up(note: its only temp. on the front)
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Ive tried without the filter sponge and with it and I cat get the bubbles to go away there EVERY WHERE..........the overflow seems to be pulling a ton of water and dropping a ton in the tank....The only thing I havnt tried is to plumb the overflow with a smaller diameter pipe
 
I would say it doesnt look like any are in your DT. and the baffles are doing what they are supposed to.

YOu are going to get lots of bubbles where a large quantity of water is falling into another quantity of water at a rapid rate.
 
I agree with BJ. Everything looks like it's working as it should. As long as there are no bubbles in the section where the returm pump is, your fine.
 
well Im still getting them in my tank though......Im also wondering if I can get rid of the filter sponge on the pump and the overflow.......If I can what can I replace them with so my overflow doesnt have a huge whirlpool and a sucking noise when I take it off
 
I don't use any filter media or sponges anywhere in my system.
How long has this sump setup been running? It's takes time for the pipes to build up a layer of bacteria insdie which will help stop the bubbles.
Where are the microbubbles coming from? Is the return pump shooting them out?
 
the question i would like an answer to is how does the water get from the fuge and sand area to the return pump, its not going over that baffel, so i cant figure it.....
 
I have holes drilled in the baffel......The first pick is with the sponge off and it creates a whirlpool and makes a loud sucking noise that never ends......and yes its just now getting set up so I new I was going to get bubbles on the plastic but the overflow is spitting bubbles and theres some being made in the overflow baffle as well see the next to the last pick where the water comes over the divider and hits the sponge
Thanks for the help
 
yea i gotta do that, cause i'm starting to receive complaints about the noise...

the one part of it that i'm not super sure of is what size hole to drill in the top cap... some say 1/8 inch, some say larger....
 
yea, i was hoping to get a good starting point, but i guess part of what defines the hole size is the volume of water flowing, and thats hard to predict, so....

one article i read was talking about drilling the hole on the side and then using the cap as a rotary control for the size of the hole... thoughts?
 
yea i gotta do that, cause i'm starting to receive complaints about the noise...

the one part of it that i'm not super sure of is what size hole to drill in the top cap... some say 1/8 inch, some say larger....

I'd go with 1/4 or 3/8.That way you know its getting enough air.
 
I used a HOB overflow on my 50 and 75. This made them dead silent...and it's a pretty cheap fix. Plastic cup and piece of airline.

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Well...it's a plastic dixie cup with a hole in the top for a short piece of airline. I used a small piece of eggcrate against the side of the overflow to wedge the cup against to hold it in place. It's wedged between the end of the HOB, the side and the opposite side with the eggcrate. Depending on how wide your overflow is and size of the cup, you may not need the eggcrate. The airline only sticks thru the top about 1/4". It let's the air in, but since the overflow pipe is cover by the cup, there is virtually no sound. The lip of the cup sat about 1" below the surface of the water.
 
ahh ok, so if there were no airline then the cup would draw up a vacume and suck the water up, and into the pipe, but with the airline, air can get in, and thus act kinda like a muffler.. i like it.. simple, easy, and as long as the cup dosent fall down and block off the drain, pretty safe...

i'll have to try that this weekend.

oh, and just for reference, i think i have the same overflow as pictured at the top of this thread...
 
well just bought some rock for my fuge and switched the calaupra for some cheato for safty sake........all bubbles are at bay and Im going to try thr dixie cup trick
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yea, the dixi cup trick helped with my overflow noise, but its not the end all be all solution.. but then again i just did mine with a cut off water bottle so......

what kinda calurpa did you have? cause thats all i have for now, and i'm not having any issues...
 
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