water cloudy (micro bubbles)

[hulklilgt]

ok so my tank has been pretty cloudy for past week or so (mabye). i could never really figure it out (being new to the hobby), so as i was over looking my sump i noticed that there where little bubble in there. then the light bulb kicked in so i looked up sump and seen that the all have some kinda of a bubble trap. mine dont have any. so i am trying to figure out how i can go about to get rid of these pain in the a** micro bubble that are making my tank look like crap. i put a square filter pad in front of the return pump seems that work a little but not very much (only been in for about an hour tho) here is a pic of my sump so u guys can see what i am working with.

 

[hulklilgt]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/66979120@N03/6098413375/in/photostream

 

[j_rizzo]

bubble baffles

bubble baffles

The majority of the sumps you see online are made from acrylic, and have smooth sides to attatch acrylic baffles to. Judging by your sump setup, you may have some luck cutting some plexiglass as wide as your sump and gluing them to the sides.
You would need to separate your skimmer side and your return side with 3 baffles, the first one sealed to the bottom of the sump and stopping roughly an inch or so from the top. (or where you want your waterline to remain steady on the skimmer compartment side), the second should have about a 1" gap at the bottom of your sump and go all the way to the top, and the third should be the same as the first one sealed at the bottom with a gap at the top.
This in effect should force any micro bubbles to rise to the top of the first chamber and dissipate before the water goes down into the second chamber as bubbles cannot move downward on their own.
This site has some awesome info on DIY sumps and such

http://www.melevsreef.com/29g/sump/design.html

Hope that helps!

 

[Percula9]

Are the bubbles coming from the skimmer? If they are, place a filter sock on the skimmers return. This willtop the problem.

 

[hulklilgt]

I originally had bubbles coming from there but got round foam and covered that. The piece of filter pad I have put in front of the return line has seemed to work going to get a zip tie and zip tie it to the bulk head of my return.