Bubbles

I have a new 90 gal high tank. I believe the brand of wet/dry I have is a reefmaster 100. The return from the tank goes directly into a chamber in the wet/dry through a pipe that takes the return water to the bottom of the chamber, and in the chamber are bio balls. Then the flow goes into my refugium, then into the sump where it's returned to the tank.

THE PROBLEM. The contents of the return is half water and half bubbles. So many bubbles that they make it all the way to the return pump and back into the tank.

I've tried everything to get rid of the problem. Raising the stand pipe. Lowering it. Checking all pipes for air leaks. Adding sponges to dampen flow. Turning off the protein skimmer, you name it I've tried it. Got to the point that I had an employee from the store that I got the setup from come to the house and he was here for over 3 hours trying to get rid of the problem. Nothing worked. So we replaced the stand pipe, return hose sponges, relocated the unit itself. No idea where the bubbles are coming from and why they are so strong. If you can solve this problem, you will have bested many.

Please help!!!

 

I have the same sump... I like it. I had to modify mine as the SeaStorm 150 PS and ehiem 1260 didn't share space well. I had a few bubbles at first, but it runs clear now.

Also, I removed about half the bio balls, I found that got rid of a lot of bubbles in the refugium. Have not had a problem with bubbles making it to the return tho...

Few things to check, forgive me if you've already done any/all this:

Make sure the skimmer outlet pipe goes into the slot/hole on the second baffle and spills into the sponge area.

Make sure the water level is correct so that water is not allowed to bypass the sponge via previously mentioned PS return hole.

Check to see if the pump intake is sucking a vortex of air into it, as the return area water level is a little low on these sumps IMHO - I drilled mine and put a bulkhead on for an external pump, with a elbow inside to suck water off the bottom.

are you trapping air in the return lines when you turn the pump off? Usually the air jets out into the DT and makes a bubble storm in my tank for 2-3 minutes after turning the return pump back on.

Are there any points on your return where the line is higher than the outlets that could trap air, and slowly feed it into the water stream?

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I dunno, that's about all I can think of. Like I said, I'm happy with mine, it's not perfect but the need was a priority, and it's not bad for the price.

good luck.

-Doug