Micro Bubbles

Ok. I know that I have been through this once before with everyone on the forum. I thought that I had fixed it but I obvioulsy have not.

I have a 20gal sump, the water flows into the first section though a large filter bag, then over a divider. I have some foam on the other side so the water doesn't fall like a water fall causing bubbles. Then in that section, there is the protien skimmer. The protein skimmer has foam on the exhaust pipe to stop micro bubbles. Then it goes through a bubble trap and returned to the main tank (75gal with LR fish and coral). However, I look into the tank and it looks milky from all the bubbles. Can anyone help me make this water crystal clear.

I'm going crazy.

There really is no reason that there should still be bubbles in the water.

Here are my pics of my sump.

Huh, it looks like there aren't any bubbles in the sump... So that means there's not many places they could be getting in. Do you have powerheads in the display tank? And if so do they have inlet strainers? Also, where do the sump returns outlet into the aquarium?

I do have a power head in the main tank. I have a Hydor Koralea 4, 1200gph. That does not have a strainer on it though. The main return from the sump comes out in the top, middle of the tank. I have a splitter on it so there is two outlest directing the water flow in different directions. I aslo am really not sure if I have a real micro bubble problem. There are a lot of little bubbles floating around in the tank. The water is not milky because of it though. It just looks a little crapy because of all the bubbles floating around. I do know that if you have it right that it should be absolutely pure crystal clear water with zero bubbles. I do not have this. I really think that the problem is with the skimmer. I still do not think that I have it running properly.

I am not sure how the pump is supposed to be positioned on the skimmer. I put is at a 45 dergee angle and the water at the bottom of the skimmmer wil then clear out of bubbles. In other words, the bubbles are only in the top 2/3 of the skimmer column. BUT, I can't seem to get the foam to come over the top into the cup at this position. When I change the pump so that it is verticle, intake on the bottom, the foam will come over the top into the cup but the entire column inside the skimmer will be all bubbles all the way to the bottom, which then spits them out the exhaust pipe. Maybe you could help me with the skimmer setup. Is the foam supposed to be coming over the top or is it not?

Thanks.

The place where water stops and bubbles really start foaming (what I call the air-water interface) should be an inch or so below the level of the inner rim of the collection cup. That way bubbles should build and eventually pop right over the edge of that inner rim. You may have to adjust the height of the outlet riser tube to adjust where the air-water interface is. Lifting the riser tube raises the interface and vice versa.

FYI, completely eliminating bubbles from a seawater system is EXCEPTIONALLY hard. You may just be splitting hairs here... In that picture (without seeing a closeup), the skimmer looks like its operating the way it should

SkiFletch said:

The place where water stops and bubbles really start foaming (what I call the air-water interface) should be an inch or so below the level of the inner rim of the collection cup. That way bubbles should build and eventually pop right over the edge of that inner rim. You may have to adjust the height of the outlet riser tube to adjust where the air-water interface is. Lifting the riser tube raises the interface and vice versa.

FYI, completely eliminating bubbles from a seawater system is EXCEPTIONALLY hard. You may just be splitting hairs here... In that picture (without seeing a closeup), the skimmer looks like its operating the way it should

Click to expand...

Thanks Ski, this actually is a very big help to me. That is actually right where the bubble are popping. I guess that the amount of bubbles that I have in my tank is ok. I will continue to try to get rid of them completely, however, I guess that everything in actuality is ok.

Thanks for your help. I will keep you posted.

Thanks again Ski