Cloudy water! Micro bubbles! New member! First post! Help!

[wclowman]

I have a 60 gallon rimless with a sump and reef octopus diablo 160. Everything has been fine until last week and the new system has been running for about two months now. A week ago I had what looks like clouds of bubbles in the tank. So much that you can barely see the back of the tank. Water test are perfect. I tried filter material in the sump and a filter sock over the skimmer out and also over the return line back into the tank. Still cloud like bubbles. Radion pro light and ecotech vortech pump. Also the tank is full of real reef rock. You know the made made stuff. I even tried different water levels in the sump. Only a couple of corals are in the tank. I've had a saltwater tank since the early 90's and never seen anything like this. I know my skimmer is not quite broken in, but it shouldn't be like this. The only thing left is to change the water, that's my next plan. Please help! Any advice is welcome.

 

[Bubbles_B]

your return pump may have a bubble in it. zplace a pic of your sump so we can see where exactly the problem may lie.

 

[The Candy Shop]

Tap off your water!
Maybe needs more water in the sump.
Bubbles in the return inlet indicates you need more water!

 

[wclowman]

Cloudy Water!

Sorry for not responding earlier. So this is what I did. I turned the skimmer off and I still had the cloudy water. I made a big water change yesterday and it cleared up quite a bit. At this point I'm not even sure it's bubbles, looks like clouds. The only thing I can even come up with, is maybe my cleaning lady sprayed something near the tank. I seem to remember it happen after they came almost two weeks ago and until then my water was perfectly clear. I'm really not sure, I thought if that was the case the tank would have acted differently. Like a total crash. Corals and pods seemed to be a little irritated, but thats it. Sad thing is that I ordered some corals online two weeks ago before this happen and they come today. You think it's to much to do another water change before I put them in? Water tests are all fine. Also I thought if that was the case the carbon would have taken care of it. Most of it is gone with the water change and I took the carbon and pads off of every thing. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Reefing Madness]

I'd do a 50% WC. Try and get a good volume outta there. If it clears up a bit wait 2 days and do it again, this should clear you up. Possibly throw some Chemipure or Purigen in there for a week or so to help you out.
Your carbon would only have taken care of the problem if it wasn't already full, it will only take in so much, then it will leach it back into the system.
Oh, on a side note, I couldn't even see your water line in your sump, so the theory about the water being low, might have something there. Also, when you turn off your skimmer if it were bubbles in the tank, they would not have cleared up in a few minutes. Micro bubbles would take some time to disipate.

 

[wclowman]

Thanks I will try that. In the sump the water is about 2 inches or more above the pump and I have a water top off system. I also added water to bring the level up too 4 plus. Nothing changed. Skimmer was off for more than 24 hours. As of now the water is fairly clear and I'm going to do another water change very soon. Thanks for your help