microbubbles from SWC 300A? Help!

[Woja222]

Does anyone know of a trick to get the SWC 300a skimmer not to dump tons of microbubbles into the sump? I just put my 300 gallon tank up yesterday and fired everything up but the skimmer iss filling the entire system with microbubbles! I tried the skimmer in 11, 9, and 7 inches of water and no difference...is there something im doing wrong?

[SKurj]

Might go away as the skimmer breaks in...

[Woja222]

Any more input?

[joekidwell]

Where is you're skimmer located at in the sump?

[Woja222]

It's not the location of it in the sump that's causing the bubbles.

[joekidwell]

I know, all skimmers release micro bubbles...its a matter of figuring out how to keep them out of the return chamber or you're pump...do u have bubble traps? Are they spaced too close together where you're big pump just sucks them on through? Move it as far from the return as you can. My skimmer makes a cloud of bubbles in my sump but the way I made the bubble traps they don't leave the second chamber.

[Woja222]

Well, I have almost 4000 gallons/hr of water moving through my sump so bubble traps wont do much. It has two sets of baffles to go through before it gets to my return feed section.

[joekidwell]

Is this going to be an sps tank? If not id cut the flow a thousand gph and if that dosent work add a filter sock to where the bubbles are comming out.

[Woja222]

Can't cut flow. It is going to be a heavily stocked mixed reef so can't really cut any flow... I'm gonna let the tank run a few days with only the filter socks and then try kicking the skimmer on again. The skimmer is used so it's already broken it. Hopefully it's just coating wearing off of the pvc and everything else.

[RRaider]

Unless you have a 1000 gallon tank and a very large sump you can cut that down by a large margin. Even for high flow sps tanks most recommend 5-6x tank volume for the return (flow through the sump).

[Woja222]

I'm not trying to be rude but 1500-1800 gph on a 300 gallon tank is VERY low. My smallest tank (72 gallon) has a mag 950 with 3/4 plumbing and I feel that that is a little weak for it.

[MarkGP]

As you gain some experience you will learn that having that much flow going through your sump is a waste. The flow going through your sump should be matched to the size of your skimmer pump for maximum efficiency. The rest of the realistic flow should be made up in the display with either powerheads or a closed loop. All skimmers produce microbubbles and with that much flow you will never keep them out of the display.