Skimmer question

mikeadams84 · Nov 4, 2014

I have (don't laugh at me, I bought it before I started reading about "real equipment") a seaclone 100 with all the mods except the airstone in the middle. I turned it off for about 2 weeks while clearing my tank of red slime algae, have done 4- 10 gallon water changes on a 60 gallon cube aquarium, cleaned my skimmer til it was spotless, reinstalled it and am still filling my tank with air bubbles and the collection cup is foaming like crazy also. My question is should I just let it run? And will all the air bubbles in the tank hurt my fish? I'll post a couple of pics and hopefully will make it easier to understand this long question lol. Thank you for any help in advance.

gotscreensprinting · Nov 4, 2014

YEAH THE WATER IS VERY FILLED OF BUBBLES

it can hurt corals in a few ways. firstly the polyps can accidentally trap air which can lead to localized die off. secondly in some of the "bushyier" corals the air bubbles can get lodged in the branches and cause physical damage. the biggest and most overlooked issue is that air can become trapped under corals, specifically plating corals and kill them off in the same way that taking them out of water and leaving them in the air would do.

mikeadams84 · Nov 4, 2014

Yeah its filled like crazy, and it's really annoying looking at a cube saltwater snow globe. I don't have any corals yet luckily cause I'm still trying to get all the algae and small issues, like this skimmer problem taken care of.

gotscreensprinting · Nov 4, 2014

Were the skimmer is returning the water is under the water or falling on top if its on top try adding an extension to the return to lessen the bubbles by being in the water and try to put maybe some type of filter there.

Myth 14: Microbubbles are to be avoided.

Many aquarists go to some considerable lengths to baffle sumps and pump flows to prevent small bubbles from being returned into the display tank. It has been suggested that such bubbles represent an irritation to fish, corals and other invertebrates and that they should be avoided. To be honest, I am unsure from where the origin of this perception came. However, it is untrue. Even the name is inaccurate… the prefix "micro" would refer to bubbles too small to see.

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The onslaught of bubbles from this oncoming wave should make it apparent that
corals and coral reefs exist just fine with the presence of air bubbles in the water.
Small bubbles are very common in tumultuous reef environments, and areas where waves break are often dense with both reef life and small bubbles. In addition, in tanks and on reefs, many bubbles of various sizes, including true "microbubbles" are produced by photosynthesis, and this is especially the case in highly illuminated environments. In my own aquaria, a constant rise of bubbles, especially in the afternoon, are produced by various corals and algae in even some of my less-illuminated systems. Larger bubbles frequently get sucked into pump intakes, and are chopped up to even smaller sizes and distributed throughout the tank. I won't even begin to discuss the massive numbers of bubbles produced by various surge devices. These water motion devices have great benefits in aquaria, and even as anecdotal aquarium observations, I have never seen anything disturbed, irritated, or harmed by the rush of bubbles.

Potential: Relatively harmless. Neither bubbles nor the lack of them in a tank is likely to endanger the health or survival of organisms.

Distribution: A patchy, but common belief.

gotscreensprinting · Nov 4, 2014

yeah dont worry about it i have many diffrent corals and from time to time when doing some maitenance bubbles arise but go away quickly.is your skimmer return dumping on top of water

mikeadams84 · Nov 4, 2014

I know this is gonna sound crazy but it's kinda half and half. Here's a pic. Right where it looks like the Jetstream is the skimmer outlet. I'm gonna add a but more water and see if that helps any.

tyler1503 · Nov 4, 2014

The bubbles won't hurt fish or coral at all! They've adapted over millions of years to be able to live in these very common conditions

some species of fish will even voluntarily leave the water to hunt.
Your skimmer is just "breaking in" again because you gave it such a thorough cleaning. It should calm down soon and get back to normal.

gotscreensprinting · Nov 4, 2014

Heres my sump in action my filter sock creates all the bubbles because the return hose for my tank was cut to short.[video=youtube_share;LT1ck9sJLhM]http://youtu.be/LT1ck9sJLhM[/video]

mikeadams84 · Nov 4, 2014

Mine is a hang on back, I don't have a sump, won't have that til February when I get my 180 gal, then gonna turn this cube into a seahorse tank. Since jelly's are so complicated.

gotscreensprinting · Nov 5, 2014

All i can say is my protein skimmer never throws bubbles out like that even if i just cleaned to new.I had a question the pump it has now is the that the pump it came with is there any way to lower the amount being thrown out.Mine does not jet out it pours out threw the tubing???