need help with basement sump

we just switched over from a 55g to a 130g the other day and had the exact same problem. our sump is set up in 3 sections the main being where the water from the main display comes in and the protein skimmer is also there, the 2nd section is an overflow for the first we packed a ton of filters to force the bubbles not to flow over into the 3rd section where our return pump is. it seems to have helped alot with the bubbles in the main display though we are still getting a ton of bubbles in the sump.

 

our sump is a 30 gallon and we had to put our rock and fish and corals into the 130g before we set up the plumbing since we had to be able to move the 55gallon tank the stand and the sump to another room to run the plumbing to the sump from the 130g and we dont have baffles either and our sump doesnt have a ton of bubbles its mostly creating a foam on the top of the sump like the protein skimmer. but when that foam makes it to the return pump it comes out in the main display like micro bubbles making the water look cloudy. since we put the filters between the foam and the return pump we havent had anymore bubbles in the main display.

 

What kind & size pump are you using?

 

nems are really easily bothered by just about everything i would leave them in the other tank if nothing else just to prevent them from moving around the new tank just trying to get away from the bubbles, less chance of them ending up in your powerheads

 

Are you using a gate valve on the main drain line?  You can dial it in with this as long as you have another drainline as a backup incase of a snail or something.  My basement sump ran really well without bubbles when I drew a siphon with the gate valve and had just a trickle coming down the second drain.

 

I switched sumps and pumps recently and I had problems with bubbles for a day...but they cleared up. I would check your plumbing fittings and make sure that everything is tight and not leaking. It could be drawing air from a leaky fitting. The baffles should be killing your bubbles. How many sets of baffles do you have in your sump? And you say the sump water does not have bubbles and the display does? Is your pump periodically siphoning bubbles from the surface of the pump section of your sump? Can you take a pic of your sump and post it and another pic showing the bubbles in the display? You shouldn't have to dial that down to not have bubbles.

--AJ

 

I ran some reactors off of it in the basement, but aside from that, I had it wide open...and at the end when I ran a frag tank off of it, even wide open wasn't enough flow...that's why I upgraded. Look for salt creep at your fittings and that will show you any leaking points. I've heard of this issue occurring in some tanks and lasting a few weeks until the inside of the plumbing gets slimed up which helps to prevent the cavitation that was making the bubbles. I'll take a pic of mine right now...there's a ton of bubbles coming from upstairs, but none in the return area because of the baffles.

--AJ

 

Lots of bubbles on the right, some of which flow over into the macro-algae section (which is filled with live rock at the moment), then the skimmer section has a few bubbles from water out of the skimmer, but the return section is bubble free.
And to get an idea for size, that's a 75 g tank.  The same pump also services a couple of reactors and a 40 gallon frag tank.  I'm running between 600 and 800 GPH to my display.
--AJ