Micro Bubbles - PROBLEM

Ok so i drilled a hole at the very top of the return line right above the water line so no water would siphon back into the sump due to power failure ext. Anyways, all of the tiny little OBNOXIOUS (and big bubbles) from my skimmer, when released in the tank from the little hole in the return, are automatically going to the top of the tank. The problem is that my lights are soaked by now. the microbubbles are making a mess of my sump and something has to be done. My lights are soaked and dripping saltwater because all the bubbles are popping all over the surface of the water and making an absolute mess. I bought a filter sock but obviously theres nothing it can really do because its only on the overflow line right in the sump. What should i do? this is out of hand

 

unplug the lights and dry them out. the hole should be drilled right below the water line. if it is drilled above the WL it is going to splash water all over everything

You are going to have a little bit of syphoning but what you are trying to accomplish is the amount.

 

I didnt intend on it being over the water line, its half under and half over. Ill try to raise the water line a little more but i didnt think it would matter because everyone on here told me nothing would come out of it. Anyways, the lights are fully protected, not a chance water even got in the housing but i will definately clean them off. Any suggestions on how to stop the bubbles?

 

Congratulations on your new tank. You have my sympathy as well. My tank is plagued by microbubbles too.

There are a few areas where bubbles could be entering your system. Likely sources are where water enters your overflows, enters your drains, enters your sump, or exits your skimmer. Other possibilities are that your return pump is entrainig air or that there is a small pinhole in one of your plumbing joints that is entraining air via a venturi effect. If you can figure out the place or places that the bubbles are entering your system it will go a long way towards getting an effective solution.

 

Im not sure if it was a misunderstanding or not but water will come out as you have seen. Water will take the path of least resistance and if there is a bigger hole down the line the majority of the water will go there. I would need to see a picture of your setup before I could try and help pinpoint the area where the bubbles may be coming from.

 

thanks for the quick responses, and thanks GTS for the sympathy Sorry i wasnt clear, but the bubbles are coming 100% from the skimmer. Its obnoxious the amount of bubbles coming out of it, it looks like theres an airstone in the return like coming out of the skimmer just obliterating my tank with bubbles. For a temporary, very ghetto looking setup, i put one of my huge filter socks on the return of the skimmer. That stopped the bubbles there but now i gotta figure out a permanent solution. It looks pretty silly having 2 HUGE filter socks in a 5 gallon sump ;D But im going to let the system run for an hour or so and see if my tank clears and theres any bubbles anymore. thanks again for the replys, k+

 

CHeck out puffergirls thread re the problems she had with putting a filter sock on her skimmer output but if your skimmer is working OK so far, you're hopefully in the clear. Another solution is to but some baffles in your sump. Mark Levinson's site Melevsreef.com - What is a Sump? does a good job of covering this,
"A bubble trap is a narrow section within the sump that is made up of three baffles. The center one is higher than the two outer ones. The bubble trap should be located after the area that contains the most bubbles. Normally, that would be where the water enters the sump and your protein skimmer is located. Microbubbles abound in this zone, so the bubble trap would be set up next, to prevent these from continuing through to the refugium and/or return section. If you have a refugium next, you'll need one more baffle between the refugium and the return section. All four baffles should be the same height in this setup. "

 

I just watched your video (looks good btw) and could not really tell if there is a divider between the return pump and where the skimmer is. If there is not you may be able to put one in there and leave it off the bottom about 1" or so so that the water in the skimmer has to go under it to get to your return pump. the bubbles should in theory float up and pop before getting to the return pump