Skimmer making microbubbles

[shr00m]

my berlin skimmer is making a lot of microbubbles in my tank, i have tried using elbows to make the water go straight into the water, and ive tried with out the elbows, the skimmer is HOT... i have tried different air ratios and all, but still the tank gets microbubbles... i seemed to have cut the amount of bubbles down, but theres still some in there

 

[liquid]

You sure that all your fittings after the skimmer don't have micro-leaks in them? A tiny hole in a fitting can act to pull air into it depending on the flow.

Shane

 

[Anonymous]

What kind of skimmer? Some HOT skimmer has these problem because there is not enough room for the bubble to escape before dumped back into the tank.

I had used a plastic cyliner to contain the bubbles so that they don't go all over the tank. In many incidents, you just have to live with the harmless bubbles...

 

[shr00m]

harmless? i heard they're horrible for live rock. is this wrong? i feel there just isnt room for them to escape its a berlin i made HOT, any suggestions on fixing the problm?

 

[Anonymous]

I guess if you let it accumlate under an umbella-shaped rock, it may not be a good idea. However, they are generally harmless for live rock.

So it is a DIY skimmer? One of the ways to fix this is to slow the velocity of the output down to let the bubble escape. In combination with baffle system (take a look at how AquaC and CPR do it), you can get rid of most of the bubble.

 

[shr00m]

thanks, no its not a DIY, its a red sea berlin classic, but i modified it to be HOT.... thanks for all your input!

 

[Anonymous]

I had a problem with bubble and my skimmer was filling too high...then I realized I had the air intake and output lines crossed and in the wrong connectors. Fixed the problem right away.


Bubble won't hurt anything, unless air gets trapped underneath a rock.

 

[shr00m]

i was wondering what the air line tubes on top of the outlets are for? also, on my intake (down where the water is pumped in) i just have a airline tube going to a air valve, to adjust air input, should i ahv the top airline connections above the outlets connected to something, this is my first skimmer, ive always ran skimmerless.

 

[dhuv]

Initially I had a big problem with all those bubbles with my venturi style skimmer. After my tank has gone through the cycle its a lot better now. I think picking up a lot of crap has helped to break it in. Perhaps you just need to wait a little bit.

 

[buoymarker28]

shr00m -

i just set up the exact same skimmer you did and i have the exact same question about the two small air hose tips at the top of the out flow tubes. Did you ever figure out what they were for?

Also i've got billions of microbubbles in the tank as well. Did you ever get rid of them and if so how?

Thanks

 

[Baianotang]

what ever happens micro-bubbles are not bad for the reef inhabitants,

 

[buoymarker28]

Yeah i know but it makes the water hard to see through. I got stopped simply by putting some filter material under the biomedia chamber. Cleared up in a matter of minutes.

 

[Anonymous]

harmless? i heard they're horrible for live rock. is this wrong? i feel there just isnt room for them to escape its a berlin i made HOT, any suggestions on fixing the problm?

Hey Shroom,
I recently did some research on this because I had a similar problem:
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-01/eb/index.htm

Check out myth 14.
~wings~