Micro bubbles!

nfrench2100

nfrench2100

New member
I just recently (2 days ago) started to get my diatom bloom. My skimmer was dialed in JUST like I liked it. Had a nice dry skim going. Yesterday I bought 15lbs of more LR and put it in yesterday evening. Get my water levels back to the EXACT same level, plug my skimmer back in, AND MAAAN! This thing was kicking some serious butt. Acted almost as if it was going to over flow! But it didn't.

So I put my collection cup back on and can BARELY lower it to even meet the overflow hole that enters the return chamber. Needless to say, the micro bubbles have little to no time now to diffuse before they enter back to the tank. I've tried tweaking air flow, positioning of collection cup etc... I'm emptying my collection cup like once an hour now, as opposed to the once a week as of yesterday.

Is there any reason my skimmer is working so hard now as opposed to what it was prior to adding more LR? Will it ever stop!? Please tell me it will level back out!

I've tried uploading pics of the tank and microbubbles but for some reason it keeps saying upload failed when I try to post ANY new pics.
 
Normal..
Any changes to the water (surface tension due to chemical interaction,etc...) can/will cause the skimmer to behave differently..
That will go away after a bit and it will go back to "normal"..

Skimmers often produce quite a few "microbubbles" when they are "new" and that can take a bit of time to go away too.. (break in time,etc..)
But your issue is because of the rock addition messing with the water some..
 
mcgyvr said:
Normal..
Any changes to the water (surface tension due to chemical interaction,etc...) can/will cause the skimmer to behave differently..
That will go away after a bit and it will go back to "normal"..

Skimmers often produce quite a few "microbubbles" when they are "new" and that can take a bit of time to go away too.. (break in time,etc..)
But your issue is because of the rock addition messing with the water some..
Click to expand...
How did I know you were gonna be the first to chime in lol. Thanks Macgyvr! Always helpful
 
mcgyvr said:
Normal..
Any changes to the water (surface tension due to chemical interaction,etc...) can/will cause the skimmer to behave differently..
That will go away after a bit and it will go back to "normal"..

Skimmers often produce quite a few "microbubbles" when they are "new" and that can take a bit of time to go away too.. (break in time,etc..)
But your issue is because of the rock addition messing with the water some..
Click to expand...
4 days later.... Microbubbles still here, only worse. Diatom bloom in full effect. I'm off work today, and woke up this morning to the microbubbles so bad, that I unplugged my skimmer lol. I've even been looking at alternate means of filtration today because I'm over the microbubbles!!! Feel like it's never going to let up. I've tried tweaking the skimmer in every way possible and nothing helps. Any suggestions besides to wait??
 
Is this a hang-on-tank type skimmer? There are bubble catching devices you can install on the outflow of the skimmer. They consist of a sponge and something to hold the sponge, basically.
 
nereefpat said:
Is this a hang-on-tank type skimmer? There are bubble catching devices you can install on the outflow of the skimmer. They consist of a sponge and something to hold the sponge, basically.
Click to expand...
Yea it's a HOB ReefOctopus BH100F. I'm almost positive that model was discontinued, as I can NEVER find any information on it. So where might I be able to find that part
 
mcgyvr said:
It can take days/weeks for a skimmer to fully break in..
But some just are more "bubbly" than others.. I've never had that one so I can't comment on it specifically..

Quick google search shows that one seems to always be plagued with microbubbles so much they actually sell this too..http://www.coralvue.com/reef-octopus-hob-micro-bubble-stopper
to try to break them up when they hit the water..
Click to expand...
It was broke in pretty well and running perfect when I started out and had the 15lbs LR. But the moment I added 15 more lbs LR it's just been going berserk! I checked out the link to the bubble stopper and that is the exact same return that is on my skimmer,
So that one should work. I'm about to swing by LFS to get CUC. I will check with them and see if they have one lying around
 
mcgyvr said:
It can take days/weeks for a skimmer to fully break in..
But some just are more "bubbly" than others.. I've never had that one so I can't comment on it specifically..

Quick google search shows that one seems to always be plagued with microbubbles so much they actually sell this too..http://www.coralvue.com/reef-octopus-hob-micro-bubble-stopper
to try to break them up when they hit the water..
Click to expand...
It was broke in pretty well and running perfect when I started out and had the 15lbs LR. But the moment I added 15 more lbs LR it's just been going berserk! I checked out the link to the bubble stopper and that is the exact same return that is on my skimmer,
So that one should work. I'm about to swing by LFS to get CUC. I will check with them and see if they have one lying around
 
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