Help with skimmer

domination2580 · Apr 5, 2016

I bought a coral life 65g skimmer. I can't get it to stop sending millions of micro bubbles into my tank, I've messed with the flow in the pump, and the control. Always micro bubbles...it's making my tank look like crap.

Kershaw · Apr 5, 2016

Some times a new skimmer can do that. While it brakes in. I had the there bigger skimmer. It worked well but very sensitive. How long has it Been running? And do you have a bubble trap. You can try running carbon pad in bubble trap until they go away. My reef octopus will give me micro bubbles when I change filter socks for about an hour then goes away

Kershaw · Apr 5, 2016

Also what level of water is it in? I used to have mine around 9" but if I remember on those you can cut the hose on skimmer to raise pump

mcarroll · Apr 6, 2016

domination2580 said:
I bought a coral life 65g skimmer. I can't get it to stop sending millions of micro bubbles into my tank, I've messed with the flow in the pump, and the control. Always micro bubbles...it's making my tank look like crap.

If this is an in-sump skimmer, then 1) I agree with @Kershaw that it's just breaking in - if it's really too bad to be patient, maybe try with the air off for a day to a week and see if things go any better after the skimmer has had more time in the tank, and 2) you might be running too much flow through your sump if the vast majority of those bubbles don't have time to rise and dissipate before the return pump gets em.

Assuming you have a 50 gallon tank just for the sake of discussion, you'd need no more than 2x (100 gph) to 4x (200 gph) of actual flow through the sump. (I.e. not the pump or drain's rating - but the results from measuring the flow by hand or closely estimating flow with a head-loss calculator that will account for all or most of your plumbing.

Assuming I'm right on #2 (you tell me), even if the skimmer is just breaking in, changing this flow rate could eliminate the problem in the display immediately.