bubbles from drain are crazy

my drain has massize amount of bubbles coming out of it. so much that they go over and under my baffles in my sump then spit back into the tank.
ive tried a filter sock which stops it a little bit but not completely. if i run floss in the baffles it just backs it up and can keep up with the flow. sponge does the same thing.

any way to cut down on these bubbles??
my sump style is drain/return/refugium
overflow is the standard durso stand pipe

 

maybe if you can post a pic of your sump - we can see the design/layout/spacing of your baffles and go from there . . .

 

I had the same issue at first. I turned my ball valves on my drain & return to 1 o'clock to cut my flow since I had rapids in my sump/refuge. It works well. Take a look at my thread to see. I also have some LR rubble to break up the current in my refuge side.

 

Here ya go.
these are right when i set the tank up.
the power strip has been relocated so dont worry lol

 

WOW!!! Looks like you got a beckett injector in there!!!!

This is going to be pure speculation as its tough to tell without being there.

Your design looks like you are pushing the limits of your 1" (or is it 3/4" even!?!) drain line.
Given you want constant volume what you want to do is reduce your flow velocity.
One simple way to do this is to increase the size of your pipe.
If it's not prohibitively difficult, try going to 1.5" or 2" drain line. This should give you the same volume with a lower velocity which will hopefully mean less turbulence.

Given your design you cannot use the floss or sponges because they restrict flow. It would also be difficult to add a mechanical section to your sump for the addition of some filter pads (similar to filter socks but generally with more area to allow for more flow) because of your skimmer and you want to keep "dirty" water going to the skimmer.

This is why I think you should attempt to increase the diameter of your pipe as it seems you are maxing out the flow velocity given that size pipe.

Remember, a 1" line will flow a maximum of about 1000 GPH with Gravity. The closer you get to this max the faster the water will travel, and the more turbulent it will become before it leaves the pipe, especially in a hard-pipe system with fittings as compared to a flex-pipe system with few fittings.

Hopefully this is of some help. Let me know if I can help you some more as I might not be the best fish guy here but I am a plumber by profession and might be able to offer some more insight!

Best of luck to you!!!

 

I should also add that it looks like you sump is put together nicely, with the correct (or at least close to it) spacing on the baffles. In your main bubble trap, how high above the bottom is the middle baffle? I did 1" spacing between the baffles and between the middle baffle and the bottom I also did 1" and I do not have any issues with micro bubbles in the tank.

 

thanks for the info m-ocean. i did 1 inch between the baffles and 1 inch from the bottom on the middle baffle. the bubbles are so intense that they go right under that center baffle.

if i cut the pipe after the ball valve and make it bigger will that help at all you think??
its 1 inch pipe btw

 

what i did was put my overflow tube into a 3" pvc tube that has drilled holes in the bottom side walls. the tube sticks out 3-4" out of the water. in the top of the tube i stuck filter floss simply to avoid salt spray from bubles popping. the is just a very simple preliminary bubble trap, but it works for me!

 

Hmmm that sounds like a good idea!

 

What kind of filter sock did you try? A good micron sock should do the trick