My nemesis - micro bubbles

[chef_pinky]

So my tank has been up and running now for 4 months, slowly adding fish, haven’t added any corals yet as I have just added LED’s and am trying to work on this micro bubble issue...

In my refugium I am have a 1” drain pipe with a filter sock attached, a super reef octopus 3000 skimmer, a media bag of carbon, rubble rock and some life sand, chaeto, and my return pump is a Jaebo DCT-12000 (3170GPH, I run it at full speed with 4’ of head on it)

Here are some pictures of my sump set up

And here are the picture of the wonderful micro bubbles... anyone know what I should to to stop this annoyance?

 

[NinnJinn]

Are you able to increase the water level in the return area of the sump?

 

[NinnJinn]

Depending on the size of your DT and the size of your sump you may have to slow down the return pump a little.

With my DT and sump I am a total capacity of around 155 gallons and I have my return pump turned down to about 1300 gallons an hour and water depth in my return is roughly 6in.

If the water level goes below 5in I start getting microbubbles in the DT

 

[chef_pinky]

Depending on the size of your DT and the size of your sump you may have to slow down the return pump a little.

With my DT and sump I am a total capacity of around 155 gallons and I have my return pump turned down to about 1300 gallons an hour and water depth in my return is roughly 6in.

If the water level goes below 5in I start getting microbubbles in the DT

I will try that now, my DT is 150 gallons, and sump is roughly 35 gallons. I will top my tank off to get the water in the rerun pump area higher and see how that reacts. I have a controller on my pump so I will lower return to roughly 2000gph and see if that helps as well. Thank you!

 

[NinnJinn]

You're welcome!

If that doesn't work please post back as I'm sure other members will chime in with suggestions.

 

[NinnJinn]

I will try that now, my DT is 150 gallons, and sump is roughly 35 gallons. I will top my tank off to get the water in the rerun pump area higher and see how that reacts. I have a controller on my pump so I will lower return to roughly 2000gph and see if that helps as well. Thank you!

Good luck!
Just a suggestion you might want to slow the pump down before you add water to the sump and also be sure after adding the extra water your sump is able to handle the Overflow in case of a power failure.

 

[chef_pinky]

Good luck!
Just a suggestion you might want to slow the pump down before you add water to the sump and also be sure after adding the extra water your sump is able to handle the Overflow in case of a power failure.

That’s how I did it, my sump can handle another 15 gallons with power failure, tested that out a long time ago haha. Not new to the hobby, just haven’t had a tank set up in about 5 years. So much has changed.

 

[NinnJinn]

That’s how I did it, my sump can handle another 15 gallons with power failure, tested that out a long time ago haha. Not new to the hobby, just haven’t had a tank set up in about 5 years. So much has changed.

Ah. Ok. Well in that case then welcome back to the Hobby!