Good Marine Service Tech in Area?

[LarryS]

Hello All:

Just attended my first meeting at MARS this past week. Enjoyed meeting several folks and the interesting Nano discussion.

I have been trying to set up a 45 gal Reef tank. Currently installing a 14 gal sump/refugium with Mag 9.5 pump and Euro Reef CS5-2 Skimmer. Just when I thought I had everything worked out, in goes the salt water and, voila, excessive microbubbles. The problem stems in part from lots of bubbling of the water draining in to the sump. I am running out of time to deal with this.

Does anyone know of a good Marine/Reef service/maintenance person in the area who I could hire to get the sump/fuge setup working properly? I am in the Fair Oaks area.

Any comments appreciated.

[user48953]

Don't pay someone for this problem; it's pretty easy to fix.. you probably just have to add baffles in your sump (primarly after the skimmer) in order to reduce the bubbles..

try to channel the water flow first under, over, then down to your return pump..

i don't think from the overflow matters too much since it's going to the skimmer anyways, so i have my overflow feeding into a small but tall plastic box that sits on the bottom of the sump.. it has a few pieces of rumble rock at the bottom.. water flows in, bubbles and partial foams in the box, then overflows the sides and down to the the sump's waterline

i have a cs8-2 in a DIY 30g tank with a builtin refugium and hardly see any bubbles.. in fact, when i was redoing the plumbing, i stuck a bak-pak2 on the main tank temporarily and it actually put out more bubbles!

hope this helps..

[CaptiveReefSystems]

LarryS, Please check you PM.

[TJG]

I Live in Fair Oaks I would be more then happy to help anyway I can.

[thereefgeek]

Larry, was the salt completely disolved, and did the bubbles stop after the water settled down? follow xdroccax's suggestion and silicone some plexi baffles into the sump (you'll have to empty and dry it out real well). Also, make sure the drain line is submerged into the water standing in the sump. You can PM me if you need some help.

[user48953]

Originally posted by thereefgeek
follow xdroccax's suggestion and silicone some plexi baffles into the sump (you'll have to empty and dry it out real well). Also, make sure the drain line is submerged into the water standing in the sump.

my original (2) baffle placements didn't work too well and created a lot of bubbles in the display tank, so i was testing with more baffles and different placements with the system running.. turns out that the baffles don't have to be 100% sealed, just enough so they stay in place.. my sump (now) only has 1 baffles that is completely sealed (b/c it separates the DSB from the skimmer) with AGA silicone, the 3 other baffles are just siliconed above the water line.. they were done while the sump was running!.. just had to make sure the area to be glued was dry before applying the silicone..

and my drain line goes about 4 inches below the water line and has a 45 degree elbow at the end.. found the elbow separates the air a little better than now having anything there.

[LarryS]

Hi All:

Thanks for everyone's reply. Nice to have a community here.

Xdroccax, Rich: I've added a diagram of my setup to this post for you to see, as I didn't advise in my prior post that, due to space limitations in the cabinet, my sump/refugium consists of 2 connected boxes.

How would you recommend adding baffles with this setup? Immediately after the water enters into the refugium area?


Rich, the salt has dissolved and the water enters into the sump below water level. By the way, I've used elbows at the end of the drain, and played with numerous configurations, nothing stops the microbubbles which I can clearly see infused in the sump water.

Let me know what you think after looking at my diagram. Thanks

[LarryS]

By the way, the water level in the sump which houses the protein skimmer is just at 8". The manufacturer recommends water level between 6" - 8" for optimum skimming. There is no height left in the cabinet to raise the skimmer any higher. Will the baffles cause a water backup and raise the water level where the skimmer is located to higher than recommended levels?

[user48953]

Here are my recommendations for adding baffles.. it's not to scale, but i've added comments as to what the important sizes should be..

for your drain, the easiest thing to do is to use a tall glass vase.. you just need something that will contain the air bubbles from the drain to a small area and not all over your sump.. just make it tall because it will cause a spillover and give bubbles more time to dissolve..

you can raise your sump's waterline for your skimmer by using the baffle.. the waterline will follow the height of the first baffle after the connector pipe (see diagram)..

based upon your sump sizes, you can pick up 1/4" (or smaller) scrap acrylic sheets from Tap Plastics for free or almost nothing.. i use a table saw to cut 1/4" acrylic; didn't have to change the blade, just used the same one the saw came with.. everything else, i use the score and snap method to cut acrylic..

[LarryS]

xdroccax:

Thanks for your continuing interest. I will try your suggestions and see what happens.