Bubbles and Floating Particles?

I'm hoping that someone can help me.

I've been cycling the tank for the last month, so I haven't had a chance to turn on the halides. Now that I have I've been noticing a lot of microbubbles in the tank.

I've eliminated the source to the be skimmer. I next thought it was cavitation from the return pump b/c I had a 90 elbow from the sump to the pump. I eliminated that by re-plumbing the pump. (which now lead to more noise due to the vibration). Then I thought it was air leaking at the double union on the return piping due to the silicon taping.. Thats a no go either...

So I just had the idea to see what happens if I turn everything off and just let things sit. That's when I saw a lot of particulates in the water - just floating - not sinking or rising. I also saw a damn lot of pods.. some actively swimming and a lot on the glass. What I'm also now seeing is bubbles coming from the live rock. The bubbles are various sizes. Some look like O2 bubbles. Looks like the bubbles that form on freshwater plants on super grow mode... But some are skimmer sized bubbles.

Now keep in mind this is happening with everything off. The only thing that can be causing water movement is the livestock (snails and hermits and pods) or the convection from the heat from the halides. (heater is in the sump).

Any ideas what these bubbles are coming from? And what the particles are? I can see these things been irritating when I start stocking, so will they go away or is there something I can do to get rid of it?

Here's the stats.
75g tank / 40g sump / 2x250w Halides / 2x 96w PC Actinics

140lbs of Live rock.
First 55lbs has been in since mid April
Next 85lbs has been in for 2weeks.
- the 85 lb (50lbs Indo rock / 35lbs fiji) both were fresh shipments - fiji had a lot of die off.

Last week (or 1w into curing) I pulled out all of the rock to do a 2nd round of scrubbing and did about 20g water change.

40g Sump has an internal fuge. I've been growing chaeto to min. the spikes.

I also dosed a small amt of phyto to jump start the pods. Plus doing 5g water changes every 3days...

 

Pods are good so don't worry about them. Those are most likely nitrogen bubbles from waste reduction. You may have them while the lights are on for a little while but they should reduce significantly.

Welcome to 3reef BTW.

 

Do you have cyno on the rock? Even small amounts can causes air bubbles to form on the rocks.

 

i had a similar issue. I just added a filter pad that went inplace in the sump just prior to the sump pump inlet ( i run an external pump fed with the inlet hose connected to a bulk head). In my case the micro bubbles were created in my sump. Once they made it to my return pump and then the closed loop pump they were finely chopped bubbles. If i shut all pumps off it would take a long while for them to dissapear. Once i added the filter pad it reduced the bubbles making their way to the pump. Try it but be very diligent at keeping the filter pad cleaned as it can trap a lot of dentrus over time