[3Twenty5]

Ok so I am taking the insides out of my current sump pictured below. I have a bad microbubble problem no matter what i fo with it. Please give your comments on thenew design. It is a copy of a ETSS Sump, but I added a drip plate box . I am running a mAG12 on this system which pumps to my 65 gallon tank which houses a 1 1/2" Drain. Please give me your suggestions as I want to get it right this time.

ETSS Sump

My Current Sump(Microbubble Problem

New Design

 

[MontanaRocknReefer]

I don't have any answers or comments for you but will be watching this thread closely as I hope to have a sump done for my 80 gallon reef and a bigger tank in the future!

 

[Geoff]

i think this new design should be fine. the baffles are much taller than than the previous sump. as long as the LR stays submerged you should be fine. it should not get exposed to the air. it will act as a nitrate factory. being only a 6" square and 10" tall i do not think it would be worth the trouble to add the LR here.

questions on your old sump. the large square area at the top, what is this for? what are the two bulkheads for. one look like it drains into the larger part of the sump, but the other one i am clueless on. why does that one drain to that side instead of the side where the skimmer is. this to me seems like it would introduce bubbles right before the baffles. and being short baffles, they would not have a chance to remove these bubbles.

hth,

G~

 

[3Twenty5]

Actually the drip plate box will be a 6x6 square, but will be eleveated 1" from the bottom, the overall height of teh tank is 16" and teh baffles wil be 10".

It was a refuge, one of the BH was to drain the refuge into the main sump(after the skimmer chamber) and the other had a upside down 90 in case of a overflow issue. The refuge was filled from the maintank drain since I T'd off the drain into the sump and the refuge area

 

[Geoff]

the water in the 6X6 box will only be as high as the top of the second baffle. this is your limiting factor. if the water level was higher than the baffles would be useless. make sense? so the LR area would only be 9" tall max. not that much LR IMO.

G~

 

[3Twenty5]

Good point, what would you suggest, I am just trying everything imaginable to stop microbubbles short of using a filter sock..

 

[Geoff]

in your old design were you using a sponge? i think the new designs much larger baffle area, along with the sponge will help a lot in controlling the microbubbles. i think the main reason microbubbles were able to make it into the tank was that the water (nearly 1200gph) went through a very small area. the velocity of the water was high. the bubbles did not have time to reach the surface to dissipate. the new baffles are 16" wide and 10" tall. this is a huge decrease in velocity of the water going to the pump. the bubbles should have a greater chance of dissipating before getting to the pump. the spong just insures it that much more.

G~

 

[3Twenty5]

No sponge in teh old design, I tried using some filters but it did not help much. I agree with the small area theory and that is why I got rid of the refuge...I really hope this is the last fix to my 3 month long project..