Microbubbles with a Mag7

[Squadir]

Anyone ever had issues with a Mag7 creating micro bubbles?
I am officially frustrated trying to figure out where these micro bubbles are coming from. I have taken the return plumbing apart and sealed all joints with a bead of silicone, added suction cups to the bottom of the pump (which lowered the pump noise drastically BTW), dropped the output level in the tank in case it was causing a vortex, added a piece of hose about 12" from the pump to the pvc, removed the hose, cleaned the pump, I checked with a super bright light to see if there is any bubbles from the skimmer reaching to the return pump section in the sump...... I think my next step is to do over the return pipe with 1" (down from 1.25") and see if that helps....

Other than the annoying cloudy look it creates, the constant flow of micro bubbles gets salt spray on my center brace and that is a pain to clean every 2-3 days.

Anyone have any ideas? Please feel free to shoot them my way, I'm all ears at this point.

 

[ReefMadScientist]

Any pictures? I surrounded my return pump with a wall of bubble mesh. It calms and stabilizes the water before it enters the return pump.

 

[Squadir]

I'll get a pic up later when I get home (its really messy in there though lol) but the return pump section is pretty calm, not much turbulence in there at all.
this is basically how its set up.

 

[ReefMadScientist]

Between the 2nd and 3rd sections, between the baffles, do you have bubble mesh?

 

[Squadir]

yeah there is bubble mesh between the last 2 baffles (black porous foam right?)

 

[jasonb87]

What about the 90's in the plumbing?
I run flex hose for my return.

 

[Squadir]

guess I can try running 45's instead of the 90's when I do over the plumbing.

 

[oldsaint]

If you're not seeing bubbles in the return area of the sump then I would suspect the pump maybe sucking air, something is stuck in the impeller or return plumbing, leak in the return line sucking air, or return line in tank is causing a vortex.

 

[AZDesertRat]

Any valves on the discharge? How is the suction plumbed, are there any fittings, valves, sponges or foams? How long has the system been up? I find microbubbles are pretty common with a new system and after a month or two they disappear and everything seasons or ages with a little slime coat.

 

[Squadir]

there aren't any valves on the discharge, there are 2 unions along the line but nothing else. tank is up little over a year. the suction has nothing except a prefilter to prevent snails from entering and the mag is submersed in the middle of the return section in the sump.