Micro and nano bubble tank treatment

nuxx · Mar 16, 2017

Cruz_Arias said:
No apologies needed.

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/micro...l?sku=210099&gclid=CNLisrSL2tICFQGraQodJlkFOg

Ordered a few

What exactly am I trying to achieve with the valves?

Cruz_Arias · Mar 16, 2017

nuxx said:
Ordered a few

What exactly am I trying to achieve with the valves?

The steady control of very fine bubble production... this requires air volume control while maintaining pressure internal to the wooden air diffuser.

l8_apex_it · Mar 16, 2017

nuxx said:
Which needle valves are you buying?

Guess I need two

Getting some spray at the top of the tank

I will be using this one. It has very fine control. The other ones drive me crazy as they are hard to get fine control.

Cruz_Arias · Mar 16, 2017

l8_apex_it said:
I will be using this one. It has very fine control. The other ones drive me crazy as they are hard to get fine control.

Very very nice!

l8_apex_it · Mar 17, 2017

I started using two of those flow valves on my tisbe pod culture and it is SO much easier to control.

Cruz_Arias · Mar 17, 2017

l8_apex_it said:
I started using two of those flow valves on my tisbe pod culture and it is SO much easier to control.

How are the bubbles? Easier to control the bubble density as well?

l8_apex_it · Mar 18, 2017

Cruz_Arias said:
How are the bubbles? Easier to control the bubble density as well?

For my Tisbe culture it is alot easier. I just installed this needle valve on my bubbler. I have two air stones and separate needle valves on each. One airstone was easy to control the bubble size. The other airstone, not so. So I now need to try airstones other than the Lees.

Suggestions for airstones? I've seen others mention Oceanic.?

Cruz_Arias · Mar 19, 2017

l8_apex_it said:
For my Tisbe culture it is alot easier. I just installed this needle valve on my bubbler. I have two air stones and separate needle valves on each. One airstone was easy to control the bubble size. The other airstone, not so. So I now need to try airstones other than the Lees.

Suggestions for airstones? I've seen others mention Oceanic.?

Yes, we use Oceanic, Sanders, and some custom ones done by some friends.

ruppertb · Mar 22, 2017

I have a foam prefilter on the front of my return pump, would this stop the bubbles and make this not effective, otherwise i can try the in tank on vortech method. If i were to do that do you guys suggest zip ties to hold it to the vortech? thanks

Cruz_Arias · Mar 22, 2017

ruppertb said:
I have a foam prefilter on the front of my return pump, would this stop the bubbles and make this not effective, otherwise i can try the in tank on vortech method. If i were to do that do you guys suggest zip ties to hold it to the vortech? thanks

What are the foam prefilters on the return pumps supposed to filter out?

crs751 · Mar 22, 2017

Does using this method tend to reduce pH? I started this process a couple of weeks ago and my pH runs below 8. Doesn't seem to affect the tank. Just curious.

Cruz_Arias · Mar 22, 2017

crs751 said:
Does using this method tend to reduce pH? I started this process a couple of weeks ago and my pH runs below 8. Doesn't seem to affect the tank. Just curious.

Where are you drawing in fresh air to the air pump?
Fresh, low co2 air is very important.
Can you show us where you have everything located?

Thanks!

ruppertb · Mar 22, 2017

Cruz_Arias said:
What are the foam prefilters on the return pumps supposed to filter out?

Just so i dont have pieces of cheato sucked up into my return and into reactors. I have my return T off to 3 reactors (carbo, gfo, purigen) also, not sure if the bubbles with have negative effects if they get into the chambers.

Cruz_Arias · Mar 22, 2017

ruppertb said:
Just so i dont have pieces of cheato sucked up into my return and into reactors. I have my return T off to 3 reactors (carbo, gfo, purigen) also, not sure if the bubbles with have negative effects if they get into the chambers.

Earlier in this thread and many others in other bubblung threads, there were others with reactors and they have removed their prefoam bubble blockers with no issues.

With the prefoam filters, you'll keep all bubbles from ever teaching the DT.

Cruz_Arias · Mar 22, 2017

crs751 said:
Does using this method tend to reduce pH? I started this process a couple of weeks ago and my pH runs below 8. Doesn't seem to affect the tank. Just curious.

With low co2 air, and an Alk @ 8.8, you should see your pH @ around 8.2 to 8.4

crs751 · Mar 22, 2017

My air pump is about 4 feet above the display tank. It doesn't draw air from outside the house

ruppertb · Mar 22, 2017

ok so I guess I will try the in tank method and see how well it works at least until I get get a seperate pump on my reactors and move my cheato to seperate area.

1) So should I zip tie the airline to the wetside vortech?
2) would it make a difference if I placed it on a vortech near the bottom of my tank vs the top of my tank.

rob.makowski · Mar 23, 2017

Cruz_Arias said:
That is the premise and that is the correct assumption...

When you narrow a channel (reduce the cross sectional area of a channel), the velocity of the fluid increases.
Be aware that the level will slightly increase in the previous section (skimmer or refugium) but as water pressure increases with height, it will stabilize with the increase in flow based on pressure differential.

So I finally got some of that poret foam from Swiss tropicals. Cut it to length, and placed it between my baffles, and turn the air pump on. I instantly saw that many more bubbles were getting pulled into the return pump. Checked the display, and there were good amount of tiny bubbles. So I turned off the air pump and came back a few hours later to an overflowing skimmer. Something in the foam caused my skimmer to not skim at all. I have since removed the foam and my skimmer is now back to normal function.

So at this point I have no idea what to do.

msderganc · Mar 24, 2017

Just FYI - I bought the Coralife Luft pump and it's not so quiet. I'm seeing about 62db right next to the pump. I read that the Eheim air pumps are roughly 1odb quieter (high 40s, low 50s) which is half as loud as the Coralife. I figured I'd post this in case anyone else has an extremely quiet system (and wants to keep it that way).

Cruz_Arias · Apr 1, 2017

rob.makowski said:
So I finally got some of that poret foam from Swiss tropicals. Cut it to length, and placed it between my baffles, and turn the air pump on. I instantly saw that many more bubbles were getting pulled into the return pump. Checked the display, and there were good amount of tiny bubbles. So I turned off the air pump and came back a few hours later to an overflowing skimmer. Something in the foam caused my skimmer to not skim at all. I have since removed the foam and my skimmer is now back to normal function.

So at this point I have no idea what to do.

You just needed to give it a little time to break in again.
We also notice when we feed pellet food, the foam head breaks on the skimmer as well.
If you'd like, break in the new sponge by soaking it in a 5 gallon bucket with some RO water...