144G Half Circle Mixed Reef

[JDigital]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

Hi Carmen,

Replacing the pump probably isn't the answer to the microbubbles. I have forgotten what your sump setup is specifically but looking at that last picture there of it, I'm guessing it's something like a 20g and choosing it was probably based on that it can fit in your stand and so on.

The problem is a 20g is a short sump, and short pumps often don't have enough water contact time to shed bubbles by the time it hits the return pump, and thus you end up with microbubbles.

You might see the occasional sump these days that are split down the middle in the long dimension so that water goes down and back, effectively doubling the linear length of the sump .. although the flip side to these designs is that at half the width, water travels twice as fast.

(I'm not suggestion you revamp your sump like this, just sharing it for informational reasons.)

Anyhow. The problem is water speed through the sump.

As an aside this also means replacing the 90's may have a paradoxical effect as this will speed up the sump return and thus increase the speed through the sump.

But here a few things you can try that don't involve a major re-architecture of the sump:

1) A 100micron filter sock. I have to use these myself because of the cube tank arrangement my sump size is limited and without the sock I get *terrible* microbubbles in the main display.

They don't slow the water speed down any, but what they do do (hee hee .. I just said "do do") is contain the splash effect at the point of sump entry so that less bubbles travel onward in your sump. Plus they help polish your water.

2) Also if you have any baffles that create a level drop, these create a weir effect and this can reintroduce bubbles into the water. So raising the water level in downstream section so that the level drop isn't as pronounced can help.

3) Next, how far is the output of your skimmer from the sump return intake? The bubbles could be coming from your skimmer. What I would do (this is another thing I have to do in my sump) is pipe the skimmer output back to the beginning of the sump. This has dual benefits: 1) bubbles have time to be shed, and 2) it creates a slight recirculation effect with the skimmer (ie., the skimmer reskims some of the water it just skimmed) and thus the water exiting the sump back into the main display is theoretically a tiny bit cleaner.

4) Also, there may be a way to repipe the drain pipework from the tank back to the sump so that water slides in an angle rather than crashing straight down into the sump. The goal is to reduce the splashing effect as much as possible of the water entering the sump.

5) If it really gets unbearable, you could try some kind of Herbie style overflow. Herbie systems are the best for no-microbubbles, any tank I do myself from now on will have Herbie overflows. It is possible to get a Herbie overflow in a tank with a single hole drilled, we just need to get creative on the piping. Sphelps had some diagrams posted up a few months ago if you wanted to go looking at details but if this is something you want to consider at some point, maybe we can talk offline a bit and I'll do what I can to help you out on that one.

Good luck!

If I remember right (I did help carry it to her car) its a 40x12x18 or something.. so definitely bigger than a 20G.

An easy fix would be to downgrade your return pump to something less powerful. Slowing the rate at which the water flows through the sump should also help in stopping/reducing any bubbles that may be rolling over your last baffle. I think I only had 5-6x turnover on my 105 with a baffle-less sump w/ Skimmer and never saw a single bubble and my return was 100% hard plumbing. On my 75 I was running 16x turnover with a baffle system and always had some amount of micro-bubbles, just not bad enough to bother me. That is just my opinion though. I am Pro-low-sump-flow. Others disagree and are Pro-High-Flow claiming it provides more filtation and oxygenation, but a skimmer can only process so much water.

Your tank is looking fantastic right now though Carmen. Great photo of the fish.

[Carmen]

Originally Posted by JDigital

If I remember right (I did help carry it to her car) its a 40x12x18 or something.. so definitely bigger than a 20G.

An easy fix would be to downgrade your return pump to something less powerful. Slowing the rate at which the water flows through the sump should also help in stopping/reducing any bubbles that may be rolling over your last baffle. I think I only had 5-6x turnover on my 105 with a baffle-less sump w/ Skimmer and never saw a single bubble and my return was 100% hard plumbing. On my 75 I was running 16x turnover with a baffle system and always had some amount of micro-bubbles, just not bad enough to bother me. That is just my opinion though. I am Pro-low-sump-flow. Others disagree and are Pro-High-Flow claiming it provides more filtation and oxygenation, but a skimmer can only process so much water.

Your tank is looking fantastic right now though Carmen. Great photo of the fish.

Pretty good memory there Josh!

My question as I put to Tony is...then shouldn't the bubbles improve if I turn down the return valves? If I used a less powerful pump, wouldn't that do the same?

Thanks on the compliment! Startin to fill up slowly but surely...
A very easy fish to photograph!! He poses as though he loves it!

[Argentiner]

Tank looks great Carmen. Really starting to fill out. Love that tile fish.

[Carmen]

Originally Posted by Argentiner

Tank looks great Carmen. Really starting to fill out. Love that tile fish.

Thanks Scott!

[Delphinus]

Your feeding does not sound excessive to me. I'm sorry that the nitrates aren't going down.

Are you using RO/DI or tap? I'm actually having some pretty bad nitrate (and for the first time ever) phosphate buildups. I use RO/DI for my SW but I wonder if the membrane is going and maybe it's a spring runoff issue? My FW tank is just raw tapwater and it's off the charts all of a sudden, which you'd think wouldn't be possible with the amount of plants in there (well, now algae ). So I was thinking I might test my source water tomorrow and see if that could be an explanation.

We're on different reservoirs but it stands to reason if spring runoff is starting that both the Elbow and Bow river water systems could be having issues?

Wonder if anyone else is noticing more NO3 and/or PO4 all of a sudden lately?

[Carmen]

Well tank stuff had been put on the back burner for the last week or so. My daughter was very ill and in and out of the Emergency all last week for a severe stomach flu/infection. She was severely dehydrated and required IV and such, however we all survived! What a week! Now I am running around in a panic trying to pack for Mexico tomorrow!

So...the tank issues continue. Nitrates still high..., still bubbly...(But improved since I added a filter sock and raised the sump water level even more), and suddenly a new concern.......yesterday while trying to hook up my new RO/DI unit, the power dies to the tank!!!!!! Ah, OMG! WTF??? No tripped breaker??? Finally found a tripped GFI upstairs that runs in the same circiut???????? So we have no clue why it suddenly tripped or that it was even on the same circuit! (No one was even in the house using power when it tripped!) So.......no time to get an electrician in before we leave but we are concerned that I have overloaded the circuit or something so I have extension cords running all across my basement to disburse the electricity to the tank to different circuits?????????? Electrician will be in to check it out while we are away. (These things always happen right before holidays right!)

Anyway........I shall be sunnin on a beach tomorrow! (and chasin two kids)
The tank saga will continue when I return..............

[Delphinus]

Yikes. What a week. Hope your vacation is awesome. Things will be fine. It is always most hectic just before you go.

How are you measuring your nitrates? Is it possible you're getting bad readings? Have you tried another test kit (borrow one from somewhere/someone maybe?)