Carlos 60 gallon new tank

[carlos_fb]

Yeah I do have 3 baffles in my sump and as I mentioned before I think the bubbles are coming from the outlet of the skimmer and it looks like the baffles are not stopping the bubbles since I see a lot of them in the return section.

 

[carlos_fb]

5 weeks now...

Ammonia 0.25
Nitrite 0.1
Nitrate 75
pH 8.2
Salinity 1026
PPT 35
Temp 79.3 F

I'm not sure I'm reading my ammonia properly, I'm using Salifert kits and the result looks cloudy white.

Check out all the hair algae I have!

 

[Scooterman]

I think Saliflert mentions that but it is normal, results are looking great man!

 

[carlos_fb]

So white cloudy ammonia results mean 0.25 or 0?

 

[fly guy]

Looks great Carlos.

You never did send me those pics i wanted of when you got your rock in.........but i found your thread so all is well.

If you havent already you really should add that gate valve mod to your skimmer, it will make controlling the wet or dryness of your skimmate much more controlled.

 

[Haole]

So white cloudy ammonia results mean 0.25 or 0?

Sorry Carlos, I don’t own a salifert ammonia kit so I can’t help ya there... Just giving you a bump so you might get an answer...

 

[Scooterman]

Carlos, do you have a picture of your sump? I wanted to look at the baffles, maybe I missed it.
On the cloudy ammonia test results, I don't remember exactly what it was but the instructions do mention it. I remember getting cloudy readings also, try & review the instructions maybe & see if they say anything about that, I think you read it is is & you probably showing a little ammonia, sorry I can't be of better help on that.

 

[Scooterman]

Oh went back & saw that you questioned about the Silicone I, which is exactly what you needed, must be a reaction to something in the water why it turned pink. Silicone II door & windows has mold & mildew inhibitors. Yea I didn't see any good pics of the sump, lets see the baffles again & fix the micro bubble things, I'm sure it isn't much!

 

[carlos_fb]

Oh went back & saw that you questioned about the Silicone I, which is exactly what you needed, must be a reaction to something in the water why it turned pink. Silicone II door & windows has mold & mildew inhibitors. Yea I didn't see any good pics of the sump, lets see the baffles again & fix the micro bubble things, I'm sure it isn't much!

I will try to take a few picture when I get home Tonight. Thanks a lot for your help!

 

[carlos_fb]

Looks great Carlos.

You never did send me those pics i wanted of when you got your rock in.........but i found your thread so all is well.

If you havent already you really should add that gate valve mod to your skimmer, it will make controlling the wet or dryness of your skimmate much more controlled.

Hey Bill,

I'm so sorry! I totally forgot to send you those pictures, glad you found my thread. I will email you a few pictures later on. By the way, the lift worked great, I love it!

Regards,
Carlos

 

[carlos_fb]

I'm going to be re-doing my return plumbing this weekend with pvc. I will also try to do that skimmer mod to see if I can get rid of micro bubbles. Hopefully that will take care of that issue.

Any suggestion would be appreciated.

 

[Haole]

I don’t know if you’re already aware of this so I’ll say it anyways, and forgive my babbling if you already do... When you go to do the mod on your skimmer, be sure to use an actual gate valve. Don’t try to cut corners by using a ball valve because they won’t give you the fine adjustment capabilities that a gate valve will.

 

[Scooterman]

If the baffles are set up right you should be able to dump all the micro bubbles before them with no problems but the skimmer should not dump that much so that may need some tweaking!

 

[carlos_fb]

Few pictures of the baffles...



Here's a better video too...

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[Scooterman]

Hard to tell Carlos, looks like you could raise the water level in the last chamber, doesn't need to be that low unless you back siphon a lot of water. That sponge on the skimmer, I removed mine & drilled a bunch of holes & put a cap on top. That doesn't help with the micro bubbles though, might make it worse. I suspect the the outlet of your skimmer doesn't have an elbow facing down so the bubbles don't drain back into the sump, either that or the bubbles come down too low & get pushed out, this can be fixed but I would need to see the skimmer better at the bottom, on & off! What kind of skimmer was it again?

 

[carlos_fb]

It's an Octopus NW-150.

Pictures on & off...

 

[Scooterman]

Thanks for the pics. It is a close call from this end, looks like there is a possibility that some of the micro bubbles are getting into the 90 that leads out of the skimmer but really It looks real close, I don't think it is. Do you get a lot of micro bubbles on the outlet of the skimmer that you can see, you will need to remove the foam to see if your getting any? On the skimmer pump outlet, it looks like there is a Tee @ the end right? You could try a 90 there & rotate it until the bubbles stop, start with it facing down & slowly turn it upward but again it doesn't look like the problem. It possibly be that the amount of water being returned to the tank is slightly sucking in air at that point, may need to raise the height of the water in the last chamber slightly. Whatever is making the micro bubbles can't be much & should be able to solve the problem, we just need to pinpoint the source first.

 

[carlos_fb]

Thanks a lot for your help Scooty!

I see a lot micro bubbles coming out the skimmer outlet so probably that mod with the gate valve would help, I may also add a filter sock at the end to filter some more...

About re-doing my drain, should I build it so that it drains below the water level as I have it right now with the flex hose? I plan to split it so that I don't have that much flow in just one place which seems to be creating a lot of bubbles too.

 

[Scooterman]

It needs air to drain properly, if you split it, I don't see any advantages to that. I would try & not use a sock because in time you will just get lots of collected gunk on it, try & get the skimmer working right & your problem should go away, I'm guessing your baffles are slightly off one way or another to let the micro bubbles through, maybe later you could add a baffle to resolve that.

 

[carlos_fb]

I'm guessing the drain takes the air from the small hole drilled in the cap of the durso pipe right?

I currently have 3 baffles with 1 1/2" of separation from each other and the one in the middle has the same separation from the floor. I think the problem might be the fact that the outlet of the skimmer is way to close to the baffles but there isn't much that I can do to fix that since my sump is very tight and the skimmer takes so much space. I think I'll dump the idea of the sock for now...

Also I will raise the level in the return section again since it's not doing any good. I lowered it last just to see if that would help.