Yet, another micro bubble issue...

The people that have read my posts knows that I was never happy with the turnover and flow that my weir overflow was providing.

What was bothering me the most, was that the water was so still in the sump that a nasty film will form up on the top, so I finally upgraded my CPR weir to an eshopps with the J tube and dual bulkhead drains. Right after the upgrade, I was able to dial my magdrive 9.5 (950 gph) to about 3/4 of it's capacity and to see a more water movement in the sump, to where the film has dissipated completely and I'm really happy about this. With the CPR weir overflow I had my mag drive 9.5 dialed back to probably around 10 or 15%.. and there was absolutely nothing restricting the flow from the weir to the sump, nothing, nada, zip.... nothing!

The issue came right after the upgrade when my skimmer started putting a lot of micro bubbles. I have an eshopps PSK-200 that has been working like crazy, producing tons of skimmate. So I know the skimmer works right when the flow through the sump isn't much, but I never expected that by increasing the flow in the sump will bring micro-bubbles. I tried raising and lowering the skimmers' dept and adjusting the water level with the knob without any luck.

I do have a filter sock stashed somewhere, but I would rather not use this in the skimmer's output since I don't want to trap any pods the skimmer may catch.

Why is this happening? Has anyone had this experience before? How do I stop it?

As always, thanks in advance for your help, 3reefers!

Please, let me know if I'm missing any crucial information needed for a proper advice. My tank is 55 gallons the sump is a 30 gallon long, with fuge, skimmer and return chambers. The skimmer and return chambers are separated with a bubble trap that has the regular 3 glass panels configuration as bubble trap.

- Mag.

 

never heard of increased flow effecting the skimmer like that before? maybe its acting up because it is pulling more junk out than usual because you have the increased flow? or more likely, your increased flow doesnt let the bubbles come to the surface and dissipate fast enough and they then make it to your DT. I would put money on the second one being your case

 

Thanks for the advice, Dingo.

I'm willing to slow down the return pump again. I'll try to dial it back to the minimum flow I need so that film doesn't come back.

The thing is, that my skimmer doesn't seem to be producing any skimmate since I upgraded, regardless of how do I adjust the water volume in it.

A very curious thing is that my skimmer didn't use to put any micro bubbles at all on the output section. Only a few big bubbles that will come to the top and burst quickly, but now, there are a lot of micro bubbles. I just thoroughly cleaned it today, including the pump and all the pipes inside with RO water... I'll let you know if decreasing the flow helps.

Ideally, I would like to maintain the good flow. So if there are more ideas out there, please let me hear them. Maybe something got damaged in the skimmer?

- Mag.

 

Might be the fact that you have a new overflow. It needs time to get the manufacturing residues out of it. Similar to a new skimmer needing time to break in before it really starts to work. I have a feeling that the new "parts" are causing the issues, and in time, will subside.

 

I hope so. Usually anything new I added would cause a diatom bloom, but the skimmer never quit working for me.

I dialed my return all the way down to where I used to have it before upgrading the overflow and I still have the same issue. I'm starting to suspect that the overflow upgrade and the skimmer not foaming up enough are just mere coincidence.
It's been doing this for about a week now and micro bubbles are still coming to the display tank.

I contacted eshopps in their forum and I'm waiting on their veredict. I hope I don't need any new parts. I already had to mess with the pin wheel impeller assembly and ordered a new one, but it's not just like the one in the pump I have. Trying to swap that one too.

- Mag.