caseyjones
02/10/2008, 04:34 PM
I work for a fish wholesaler and I am having problems with a pump on one of our systems. It's roughly 3,000 gallons. All the water from the tanks drain into sumps. There are 2, one horsepower pumps that pump the water from the sumps into 2 , 8' tall fluidized beds from the bottom. The water then overflows the towers into an 8' protein skimmer. From there the water is gravity fed through a 1200w U.V sterilizer before being fed back to the tanks. The skimmer doesn't do much since this is a freshwater system, except add much needed oxygen. The problem is that one of the fluidized beds has lot's of little bubbles and it is clear that one of the pumps is responisble. (I can see through the clear top) This is a recent problem and the system ran bubble free for 4 years. I have re-tefloned every fitting I could. My guess is that the pumping is cavitating but I don't hear the telltale sound that sounds like rocks stuck in the impeller. I noticed today however that if I close the valves after the pump and apply some back pressure the bubbles seem to stop, but so does the flow to the system. Anyone still with me on this, lol? Anyone have any idea's other than change the pump and see what happens?