jasonrusso
2500 Club Member
- Joined
- Apr 21, 2014
- Messages
- 3,335
- Reaction score
- 2,455
- Location
- Haverhill, MA
- What state or country do you live in
- Massachusetts
So my new 210 Aqueon has been running for about a week and a half, and I am having a battle with microbubbles. I upgraded to the 210 from a 150. I bought a Reef Octopus XS 200 4 years ago when I upgraded to the 150. Since then, I have always noticed that the skimmer puts out some microbubbles into the sump. I am using 2 Eheim 1262 pumps as returns. I also have an old Oceanic reef sump with a bubble wall built in before the return chamber.
Now that I have the 210, I think I have a more efficient return system so the sump is seeing a lot more water flow. With the 150, the bubbles wouldn't make it through the bubble wall, but that is not the case with this set-up. I fixed some issues I found already. I am using the megaflow returns and the siphon break was causing a venturi which I fixed, but I am sure that my bubble issue is coming from the skimmer. I can see the bubbles in the sump.
At one point, I was getting bursts of bubbles from the returns. I could see the bubbles swirling around under the screens on the Eheims. I removed the screens thinking that maybe there is a low pressure zone under the cover due to the restriction, but now the bubbles are just getting directly injected into the tank.
Now, when I first bought the skimmer, the return is above the water level in the sump so it was VERY noisy. I added a 90 degree elbow to put the output under the water level to quiet it down. Is this the issue?? Will this stop after the tank breaks in? Maybe it's because I stirred up everything and all the glass and plumbing is new? The skimmer is 4 years old so it is broken in.
Now that I have the 210, I think I have a more efficient return system so the sump is seeing a lot more water flow. With the 150, the bubbles wouldn't make it through the bubble wall, but that is not the case with this set-up. I fixed some issues I found already. I am using the megaflow returns and the siphon break was causing a venturi which I fixed, but I am sure that my bubble issue is coming from the skimmer. I can see the bubbles in the sump.
At one point, I was getting bursts of bubbles from the returns. I could see the bubbles swirling around under the screens on the Eheims. I removed the screens thinking that maybe there is a low pressure zone under the cover due to the restriction, but now the bubbles are just getting directly injected into the tank.
Now, when I first bought the skimmer, the return is above the water level in the sump so it was VERY noisy. I added a 90 degree elbow to put the output under the water level to quiet it down. Is this the issue?? Will this stop after the tank breaks in? Maybe it's because I stirred up everything and all the glass and plumbing is new? The skimmer is 4 years old so it is broken in.
