Microbubbles driving me mad.

Meneer,

More basic question. Do you have baffles in your sump? My previous system had tons of microbubbles because I failed to include baffles. I upgraded my sump to include baffles and the bubbles disappeared. My new system has baffles and it's perfect!

-E
 
Baffles, in my opinion is a waste of valuable space.

If you get your return pump sucking in bubbles, then you got one of 2 things wrong.


  1. Water level in return chamber is a lot lower than DSB, and creates a waterfall effect that pulls in bubbles underwater for return pump to suck it in.
  2. Flow across DSB is way to strong. Bubbles from overflow into first chamber or escaping from skimmer travels across DSB and do not have time to escape the water column and bursting at the surface before it reach the end of the DSB. Not talking about bubbles that are ONTOP of the water surface and are able to travel across. These bubbles will not go into the water in the return chamber, unless the waterfall effect comes into play.
Baffles are generally about 25mm, so 3 of them plus glass thickness reduce your possible space for DSB by at least 90mm to 100mm. And on a lot of DSB designs, that is significant percentage of their DSB chamber.
 
RiaanP - Sure, my flow through the sump is only 2500L/H and my baffles are 10mm apart. Depends on the flow would depend on the baffle space required (obviously)
 
yes, the biggest culprit is the return chamber level being too low. But take into account before you raise the level to 10 to 30mm below DSB level. Make sure your extra overflow can still be handled in case Eiskom stirkes you with their Power of Darkness.
 
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No, I took out the baffles. Only have 1 side baffle panel where return comes in.

Mine is fixed now.

I installed a 1800l/h pond pump of which I have 2, so I thought I would try it.

Bubbles are just about gone now.

Yes, the pumps have ceramic shafts - I don't know the brand at all. It says HT.
 
Hey Meneer, 1st of all, I ran the tank with a 4800l/h return pump, problem free .... Add a filter sock on the overflow an bye bye loud noise an micro bubbles...... Last chamber should run 10ml under dsb, nutin more or u will get more bubbles, as for the drilled return, try an lift outlet high as possible for surface distortion, an also, there is no syphon break so hence lifting her else water wil jus run an run an run, causing extreme flooding..... Hope u cum right, bbm me for further info
 
It is fixed now. With the bigger pump I had heavy bubble problems, which I could only solve with filter material.

I will be going away for a week and a half soon, so i do not want to go the sock route - scared of clogging etc.

Also with the heavier flow I had, I had a canyon forming on the overflow side of my dsb.

Thanx anyway.
 
Yip @JsPLAYn.
your sump is wider, 450mm, so just that allows you already to have a higher volume return pump. And that is why a 4800L/h pump could be ok.

Also on a 700L display, 3 to 5 times turnover is 2100 to 3500L/h excluding head height loss. So 4800 could be just a bit over what's needed, but it should be OK.

Although I use the turnover rate calculation again in the above, it is not actually correct to use it on all sumps. Sumps 300, 450 and 600mm wide need different return pumps. Even if the display is exactly the same volume. 600mm wide sump needs pumps double the rating compared to 300mm wide. It is about the flow rate across the DSB, how fast does the water travel across the DSB. Do the detritus and DOC have time to settle down, but not too much as to smother the sand? So its a fine balance. I still need to find the correct answer myself. Yes a filter sock will help, but I need my live in the DSB fed as well. I got Tube anemones, loads of bristle worms, copepods and Babelonion Whelk snails amongst other things living there. So I do not like a filter sock.

On my big tank I had an issue with exactly this. And using 2 * 3000L/h return pumps gave better results. That display volume wise was not far off from your setup JsPLAYn. And my sump is 600mm wide. Using one 3000L/h return pump with the turnover formula, means my pump rating should be between 2250 and 3750 (3 to 5). With headloss, I should be on target. But I had too much settlement on the DSB. Added another 3000L/h pump, so theoretical I'm on overkill, solved my settlement issues. Did not help with power consumption...
 
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Cool, understand. As long as the discussion helps you.
 
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