I Hate Bubbles

[Reefland]

Ok, heres the deal, I've got the bubble plague in my tank. Yup you guessed it, those tiny little micro bubbles. What kind of options do I have to get rid of them?

Current application:
75gal
20gal sump with 3 baffles; under, over, under (tried it reverse too)
Mag 18 return, running about 75% capacity.

The final section of the sump is bubble free for the most part so am I looking at some type of small leak in my return plumbing? I can not see any drips anywhere; how big of a leak would there have to be to cause all these air bubbles through the return? Occasionally I can see a burst of tiny bubbles come from the return.

What has worked for you to rid the darn little bubbles?

Scott Z.

[stang69]

Sounds to me like your sucking air too. I would go through and reseal joints if at all possiable. The air leak doesnt have to be big at all.


Jeff

[Reefland]

I guess my hold up for not doing that is because there are NO visible water drips indicating a leak. If there is any type of hole, wouldn't water escape it?

Scott Z.

[deano]

Will I have been hanging around your board for years now but seeing that I could no longer look with joining I went ahead and joined. So now that I am a member I might as well contribute.

The reason you have no noticable leaks is that the vacumm caused by the water drawing in the air will not let water leak out. Try shuting down the pump but block the line from draining back into your sump, you might find the leak this way. But I bet you wont. Most of these kind of air leaks need the water rushing past the hole to causing a vacumm which draws the air in. I agree with Jeff reseal all your joints. If you used PVC just take the PVC glue and run it around the joints this should take care of it. You shouldn't need to take anything apart. It also has been my experiance that until the water lines get a little film built up inside of them that you will get some micro bubbles but over time these will subside. I think the film smooths out the water flow. So that it the air isn't tore out of the water as it travels though the piping.

Have Fun!
Dean

[Reefland]

I am glad you joined our discussions.

I think the wait is the approach I am going to take as of now. I tried to reseal all of the joints again (it's tough when it's all together) and I am still getting the bubbles. I done a lot of reading on the subject today and a lot of people state that after the system runs for a while, the bubbles seem to stop. It has been running for about 5 days now (off and on) so we'll give it a bit and see what happens.

Thanks for the feedback,
Scott Z.

[stang69]

He put into words what I couldnt I didnt know exactly how to explain it HOpe it works


Jeff

[Reefland]

Well, after resealing all of the joints and reducing the flow a bit, I am now bubble free. I will allow it to run like this and increase the flow "after it's broken in" to see what I get. I hope to be able to up the flow back into the tank from the sump.

Scott Z.