Couple of general questions

[UFGator]

Hi folks,
Two questions:

1. My tank is filled with tiny bubbles from the pump pumping water back into the tank from the sump. Any way to "cure" this problem?

2. My Wife is complaining about salt "dust" all over the house from the aquarium. I think the culpret must be the hood fans. Does anyone use a filter on the hood fans to keep "stuff" from being blown about?

Joel

[Junkzoo]

Joel, don't have a answer to question #1
but for #2 i use a piece of air conditioner filter material, cut to fit and sandwiched between the fan and the canopy,,,,seems to help,and also cuts some of the light coming through the fan opening ,hope this helps,,,

Jeff(a conch in a prior life )

[dbman]

Gator - maybe if you could tell us a little more about your pump / return setup... is the pump pulling in water that already has bubbles in it (from skimmer, etc?) or is it maybe sucking air down into its intake from the surface of your sump? Possibly your piping from sump to the pump is overly restrictive and is allowing the pump to cavitate.

As far as salt goes I dunno on that one... I've never had salt dust escape the vicinity of my tank with or without fans. But if you're drawing airborne salt/water vapor out through your fans a filter would certainly help to get rid of it.

[Doug1]

good point on the bubbles in the sump, have you got a problem with them there?
Salt dust all over??????????????? I get salt creep on my sump and stuff but not outside the tank

[UFGator]

dbman/doug,

I have 2 protein skimmers in a small (5 gallon) sump. The water level on the sump is low because if I turn the pumps off the water in the overflow will pretty much fill up the sump. The water is not low enough for the pump to be sucking any air. I'm sure their are tiny bubbles from the skimmers, but it doesn't look like their are enough of them to cause this problem. The pump is screwed down into the base so there should be no cavitation causing the bubbles. I guess there are some bubbles in the water from the skimmer, but I didn't think it was as much as is being put in the aquarium...

Joel

[Doug1]

Couple suggestions, can you increase the sump size, to say a 10? Over/under baffles will help with the bubbles. Check the return line for slight air leaks