9010 microbubbles

[whosinpower]

Newbie here.
Purchased a tunze 9010 doc skimmer for a 90 gallon tank and had a sump custom made to fit into a store bought stand. The initial area for the skimmer was too turbulent (where overflow drains), so moved it to another chamber where the water is quieter.

2 days after installing liverock, skimmer was working well, skimming enough that I had to clean out cup every day.

Turned off the skimmer to do a water change. When I turned it back on it was making a rattling noise and not producing foam. Turned it off, took it out of the sump and rechecked everything. All seemed appropriate, the bottom plate,etc, so put it back in, and it began to work again.

Now we are at day 8 - skimmer produces foam, but if I turn up the air to get the foam to rise to the top, it empties very clear watery skimmate.....looks like plain old water. Note - this is day 8 of a cycling tank using uncured liverock. And, sadly, we are getting tons of microbubbles that were not there before. Microbubbles coming out of top hole where water drains out of....and microbubbles coming out of pipe with sponge(I expected some there, but not as much as I am getting.

I did make one other change. In one area of sump, we have a chamber for mechanical filtration. I had a clump of aquarium floss. It was getting very dirty, so I took that out and replaced it with a piece of filtration foam. (like those aquaclear foam pads) That was 2 days ago, and we have had lots of microbubbles since.

Can you advise me? By the way, the mechanical filtration chamber comes before the skimmer chamber - not after.

 

[tony098]

Just want to tag along as I am having a similar problem. Skimmer was working fine in sump for a month, then I needed to move it a few inches and decided to clean it. Pour tap water in the skimmer body and rinse slightly. Put everything back and got ton of microbubbles. After 3 days, the microbubbles are gone but still not getting any skimmate. The blue air screw is open all the way but the foam is only half way in the cup. Can't get the foam to rise to the top. I haven't gotten any skimmate in 3 days whereas I usually got half cup every 3 days.

Is my 9010 going through break in again because I clean the skimmer body?

 

[rvitko]

Turn down the airflow so the skimmate is darker, the airflow generally should be set at 3-4 turns. The microbubbles will subside in time.

Tony, I suspect the air hose is a bit loose where it connects to the pump.

 

[Blair]

I notice on my 9005 skimmer that when I clean it out or when I add fresh carbon the microbubbles increase and the skimmer output drops to zero. Maybe when you added the new filter pad it has a carbon layer that is sucking up your organics... not sure why it increases the microbubbles though

Blair

 

[rvitko]

The change in surface tension creates the microubbles.

 

[whosinpower]

That is a possibility - but I think I got it figured out.

At first, I turned the skimmer off to see where the microbubbles were originating from....and I was getting quite a few from the overflow. I ended up turning down the return pump a bit to quell the microbubbles. When I had this dialled in, I turned on the skimmer again....and guess what? Very few microbubbles. Within an hour, the skimmer was skimming like a champ again and the water is microbubble free. As recommended - I turned down the airflow, so cup does not flood with clear water.

I had forgotten that I cranked up the return pump up to give more flow to the tank - but it is a bit too much for the sump because even with the baffles - there is not enough time for the microbubbles to work their way to the top.

And I am wondering if the microbubbles in the water before the skimmer would cause it to expell allot of microbubbles instead of skimming.

This is all new to me, as this is the first salt water tank I have set up - so setting up a skimmer, the sump, the plumbing - all of it is a foreign language!