Overflow Help Needed. Way to many bubbles.

[Eagle_Steve]

OK, so where to begin lol. Being as my tank is fishless ATM due to all of them in QT, I was thinking of things that bug me about my current setup. The bubbles in the fuge really annoy me, so I want to get rid of them. Tank is a 60" 125 with a 50g sump (man i need to update my build thread lol). The tank is an older tank and in hind sight I should have redid the overflows to a ghost or something when I resealed it. But here I am with a ton of bubbles in my sump, no fish so I can take my time and bring water down if I need to. The corals should be fine with gyres and MP 40.

Tank drains now are 2x dursos with 1.5" pipe to bulkhead, then steps to 1" all the ay to the sock holders.

Return is 1.5" to a tee that has another t on it stepping down to 2x 1" with gate valves for my reactors and then does the same for 1.5" to 2x 1" pipe with each 1" driving a return. I did try to illustrate it below, but missed the t's and such.

I am looking into options to eliminate the air bubbles (they do not make it past the fuge), so I can remove the cover over the fuge. Harvesting cheato every week sucks, as a ton has to be done to remove the cover. I have tried all hole sizes in the dursos, reverse durso in the sump, and about every other option I have seen online. Still bubbles and still salt creep with no cover.

Being as my tank is already drilled, full of rock, full of coral, I am looking for some help with what to with the 4 holes I currently have.

Below is a current rough sketch in paint of my setup from top and below. All help/Input is greatly appreciated.


Top View of overflows and bulkheads

Bottom view with stuff missing like t's and such.

 

[Eagle_Steve]

I have been looking at options and this is option 1.

 

[Eagle_Steve]

Option 2

 

[Eagle_Steve]

Option 3

 

[Eagle_Steve]

Option 4

 

[Eagle_Steve]

Just thought of this as an option.

We will call it option 5 lol.

Do something in the sump for the return to drain into, water overflows out of it containing the bubbles to a small area where a small cover would shield from the bubble pops.

 

[Eagle_Steve]

No one has any input?

 

[lapin]

Do something in the sump for the return to drain into, water overflows out of it containing the bubbles to a small area where a small cover would shield from the bubble pops.

My sump has the drains going into a first chamber that is split into 2 sections. The second half of the split has the socks. 1st part overflows into the socks. I have no bubbles coming out of the socks

 

[Flippers4pups]

Sock should help a ton.

 

[Eagle_Steve]

Sock should help a ton.

I have socks in there now and the bubbling is like a skimmer lol. Big bubbles sit and pop throwing spray everywhere.

Looking for an old powerhead for a friend, I found the old overflows from when I acquired the tank and they are now soaking in vinegar. The ones in there now are a kit and I may have cut them to short looking at the old ones. That may be my issue, as the tank is now setup almost how it was when the previous owner had it. It never did this before with 10x turnover, drain and pump wise. I know my pump is capable of maxing the returns out, but even at lowest speed there are still bubbles. Being at 8x with flow test it should be fine, unless the gyres and mp 40 are causing this. I can’t see that though as it does it with them off as well.

Task tomorrow is scrub the old overflow pipes, install them, and see what happens. I may also redo under my stand. The sump is centered now with small shelves on each side. Really not enough room on each side for much. It would also be a good time to put my APEX in and clean up the underneath some. So slide the sump over, change some of the piping to accommodate, install APEX and pray for less huge bubbles lol.

I only need it to work till the new year dang it. Living room remodel will be done and a much larger tank will be replacing this one and this one will become the sump.

 

[Flippers4pups]

I have socks in there now and the bubbling is like a skimmer lol. Big bubbles sit and pop throwing spray everywhere.

Looking for an old powerhead for a friend, I found the old overflows from when I acquired the tank and they are now soaking in vinegar. The ones in there now are a kit and I may have cut them to short looking at the old ones. That may be my issue, as the tank is now setup almost how it was when the previous owner had it. It never did this before with 10x turnover, drain and pump wise. I know my pump is capable of maxing the returns out, but even at lowest speed there are still bubbles. Being at 8x with flow test it should be fine, unless the gyres and mp 40 are causing this. I can’t see that though as it does it with them off as well.

Task tomorrow is scrub the old overflow pipes, install them, and see what happens. I may also redo under my stand. The sump is centered now with small shelves on each side. Really not enough room on each side for much. It would also be a good time to put my APEX in and clean up the underneath some. So slide the sump over, change some of the piping to accommodate, install APEX and pray for less huge bubbles lol.

I only need it to work till the new year dang it. Living room remodel will be done and a much larger tank will be replacing this one and this one will become the sump.

Tupperware container turned into “bubble buster”. Won’t contain all the bubbles though.

 

[Eagle_Steve]

That’s a good idea if the original pipes don’t ease it some. My bubble traps stop all bubbles just fine. None into skimmer chamber and none from skimmer chamber to return. So all else fails I will try that for sure.

Like I said, just to the new year lol.