Opinions on bubbles/solutions

psusocr

Active member
Hi all,

So im finally getting very sick of the micro bubbles in my tank..There are plenty of bubble traps in my sump and the bubbles are nowere near my return line/last chamber, they are occuring somewere in the return lines on the way up or out of my returns. Any suggestins to fix this? I have plenty of valves and unions on the lines, could it be them? should i take them off and re-tighten them one by one?

Any suggestions? thanks!
 
I had a similar issue with a ton of micro bubbles in the tank for months. I finally just went through everything to find out it was in the closed loop. For your situation, without knowing the exact layout: Is the return pump internal or external? What's the length of the return line & how many unions/valves? My guess is you have just a small amount of an air pocket in the return line or in the pump itself. The bubbles in the sump are going in little by little to keep that pocket alive with some feeding up into your main tank steadily. Just redoing everything to make certain there are no leaks and no air pockets may be your best bet. Pain in the rear to do, but in the end you'd know 100% it is or isn't that.
 
could be pump cavitation or leak in plumbing leading to the pump if its external.is your intake restricted in any way leading to pump
 
Pump is external.. There's nothing blocking/restricting the pump intake at all, but tomorrow I will rip it all apart. From my sump into my pump it's only about 4 inches of pipe. But I'm going to take the pump apart and clean it while I'm at at. Other than that it must be air into my piping somewhere . Although I have realized my return lines come over the top of my overflow( a notch is cut out for the locline) but there is still a section exposed to air. So maybe it is somehow getting air on the very last leg out of the locline but I find it hard to believe.
 
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Ok so i took my pump apart, cleaned it up, everything is great. I re-pipe doped all of my unions and valves on my return lines, everything is tightned properly and glued securly and STILL BUBBLES.

I know its not bubbles in my sump since my return line on my frag tank ( pumps are in same chamber) has no bubbles at all.

My thought: I have my return lines coming up over my overflow box into the DT with notches cut out of the overflow box's to sit in. The locline on both return lines are exposed to air almost completly until it enters the tank. Can this be where air is getting sucked in at( im assuming it has to be)? if so what are my options?

I guess i could plumb a 90 downward into the DT then extend the locline out of it so it is completely covered with water right? although it will look ugly, it should be the solution correct?
 
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Well i tore my plumbing apart and re-plumbed everything and still bubbles. Now on the other hand i just added a second pump and have some wicked flow through my tank so now i know the bubbles are coming from my sump. I will be adding a nice bubble trap to solve this problem and hopefully this works.
 
well let me know how it goes, i did the same thing u did tore everything down and reglued everything .And that helped out alot , just a few bubbles but not totally clear ... im thinking about a filter sock . Not sure yet ..
 
will do,

I run three filter socks it doesnt matter with how much water have moving through my sump at this point i think..
 
well my pipe going to the sump is 1 1/2 and a 1 inch back out from pump with a mp60 in a 75 gal i wanted a high turn rate for sps. not sure if thats good or not , .
 
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