microbubbles

[Shellyfish]

At what point will my 9011 stop producing so many microbubbles? It's been running for 2 weeks now.

 

[rvitko]

How is it installed? In tank or in sump? Where are the bubbles being emitted from?

 

[Shellyfish]

It is in the tank, and to be honest I'm not sure where the bubbles are coming from, I can't seem to find a source, they are just everywhere in the tank.

 

[rvitko]

There are a lot of possible causes, they could be reduced by closing the front shutter on the skimmer.

If they get worse as the day progresses I would suspect oxygen saturation (longer the lights are on the more bubbles are produced.

If they are constant, I would double check the KH and be sure it is not too high, any stress coat, vitamin or colloid additive can also cause this.

They should diminish further, but at 2 weeks there should be far fewer than there were the first day. If not I might suspect one of the causes above.

 

[Shellyfish]

I'm pretty sure the bubbles are coming from the bottom of the unit, will closing the front shutter still help? And how do I do that?

 

[rvitko]

In the front of the skimmer is an intake grate, there is a small rectangular sliding piece that can be moved to the right to cover the intake. Closing this forces the skimmer to recirculate more of the water, the flow through drops and the emission of microbubbles drop.

 

[rvitko]

Correction, door is on the right and slides to the left.

 

[Shellyfish]

Ok, I did what you said and it seems to have helped with the bubbles, but now it's not producing very much skimmate? Not sure why it should be broken in by now right?

 

[rvitko]

That is normal, the door fully closed means the skimmer recirculates 80% of the water inside, it becomes a passive skimmer, it removes waste that diffuses in by osmosis, it will remove almost as much but does so slowly instead of in quick bursts when the waste is immediately present like it would when the door is fully open and it is only recirculating about 20% of the water.