Too much Oxygen!

[Dr B]

Hey guys,
I am having another prob with my new tank again! If some of you read it took me a really long time to get it filled up and i got a slime in there so i pitched the water.

Well just like before my water is CLOUDY.(no slime tho) I havent added salt yet, and its only been running since overnight. I am assuming this cloudiness is due to a lot of oxygen in the water, is that possible? And if so how the heck do i fix that?

Mojo, you probably know the most about my setup, what do you think?

You guys can see my tank in the innovative aquarium page here, its a 180g with coast to coast overflow and two actual drains. I believe these drains are what is giving me the oxygen problems.

Have any of you guys had those problems out there and what have you done to fix it?
Thanks,
DR

 

[cookiemn]

Dr B,
I am thinking about getting a 90 with a coast to coast. Why do you suspect that the overflow is the culprit?

 

[Dr B]

I dont suspect the coast to coast in specific as the problem. I think my drains(and drain part of the overflow) have something to do with it. I mean this is the only place that oxygen is getting mixed in with the water(other than some surface agitation).

I havent had this problem ever before... has anyone else? I have no idea what to do about it.

 

[Scooterman]

Nothing it it but water?

 

[Dr B]

You mean nothing in it but water? If so right now yes it is RO/DI water made up by myself all testing at 0ppm.

One thing to note, is that last time when i had the film stuff i also had this milky problem. I figured it was from oxygen, however I thought it may of been from the Instant ocean salt(but doubt it) cause i think 13500gph in the tank would of mixed it up nicely because i put it in slow... didnt just dump the whole bucket in at once. Also i turned my water off for about 8 hours and the miliness didnt clear up. I thought if it was oxygen it would have cleared up right away... but guess i was wrong.

 

[Scooterman]

WOW, so in your tank all you have is RO/DI water in it circulating.
You've tested your water for TDS, so that leaves me to think you need to clean your entire system, flush it well. You need to get it all cleaned up before going any farther, which means yes removing water again. When you get it all cleaned up, with new water, it should be sparkly, probably why it was cleaner the second time around.

 

[NaH2O]

Hmmm....interesting. Was the water cloudy straight from the RO/DI unit, or did it take overnight to become cloudy? Another thought I had was a possible bacterial bloom. Could be what the other situation was, too. Not sure if the bacterial bloom would start so soon???

 

[Dr B]

Scooter i dont think that was the problem and let me tell you why....

I freshwater tested my tank/plumbing(tap water) before i ever moved it into the house. It ran for a entire day. Then i drained and cleaned it down with RO/DI water...

Then i brought it in the house and filled it with my RO/DI but i had a few problems so the water sat around for a long tiem in there and got all slimy(but clear). I ran it for a week and didnt even have time to look at it, but when i did have time i noticed the cloudiness etc. So i drained it.
When i drained the water the i cleaned it up with RO/DI water again. It took me about 3 days to get the tank filled with water this second time. The water was SPARKLY clean like you said. I had a couple powerheads in there moving water around. Last night i finished my last bit of water and put it in the sump... alll sparkly clean. I started running it and stayed up for like 2 hours and everything was still sparkly clean. Slowly over the night I think more oxygen got pulled in. And i think the reason its not as cloudy as the first time is because it hasnt been running as long...

I dont think it has anything to do with the tank being dirty... It has to do with too much oxygen i believe...

 

[Dr B]

NaH20

It did get cloudy overnight, because as I was filling the tank up with RO/DI it was nice and sparkly
I dont think its due to a bacterial bloom... I mean it could be but here is no film/slime this time etc.

 

[Scooterman]

I'm lost, how are you getting Oxygen in it?

 

[Dr B]

Well oxygen gets mixed into water in several areas.
One is surface agitation.
Two is from the overflow(water falling down)
And on my overflow where my drains are my water is like a huge waterfall... it drops down like 3'' with a lot of velocity so i know its mixing air into the water there.
Third i am getting a lot of bubbles from my drain and in the drain compartment of my sump there is lots of agitation/bubbles popping etc that can all pull in more small oxygen particles into the water.

I mean maybe its not possible, but i am pretty sure that is the problem. I mean sometimes here(this did not happen to my water tho...) when you take water out of the tap it is all milky looking cause its full of air. I figure same thing right?

 

[Scooterman]

To reduce some of your overflow bubbles try reading this, see if you can us it in your system, I love mine. In the sump, submerge the drain under water and use rubble LR to help break it up there. Also if your sure your RO/DI water is grade A, then give it time. At worst turn everything off, let it settle over night, if this is the problem then It should be clear.

http://home.att.net/~rstockman/overflow.htm

 

[DonW]

I would stick a felt bag on your drains, turn on the heaters and let it go for a few days. The bags work wonders for bubbles and air. My 20g sump flows 2600gph with no dividers just a bag and absolutely no bubbles (the KISS method). If I do screw with something and get air in the tank its gone within minutes.

Don

 

[Ed Hahn]

Are you talking about 100 micron Filter socks Don?

 

[DonW]

I'm not sure what the micron rating is. If you've ever been to Shark Reef, the ones they use. Their only $10 and are good for a few days before they need to be washed. I think their 8x20 or something close to that.

Don

 

[Dr B]

Just to note, my micro bubble(as far as seeing bubbles with the naked eye) is under control now. So the milkiness isnt caused by the larger micro bubbles people talk about comming from their drains.
But yea thanks for the info on the filter socks... they are grea tto use, they will stip the water of some detritues too =)

 

[mattseattle]

so what did you end up doing?

 

[cookiemn]

Maybe I am missing something here. Does it matter if air bubbles get mixed in as it goes into the sump? I always thought that this was a moot point as long as you had enought baffles in your sump to reduce the amount of air bubbles going back into your tank.

 

[Scooterman]

You could have air bubbles everywhere, nothing wrong with it but yes, if you diffuse them by the last stage of your sump, it won't pump them back up into your main tank.

 

[fishermann]

I use the felt bags from sharks reef and yes they are 100 micron, just use little rachet plastic woodwookers clamps to clamp the bag to the corner in your sump where your intake hose from the tank is, 2 is enough, one on each corner wall and make sure the bag is a little below the rim of the sump incase it fills up before you get it changed sometime. turn wrong side out and wash twice on gentle in the washer, the second time assures no detergent residue. John