Help, Bubbles in my plumbing.

[TXKev]

I re-plumbed my tank this weekend and now am having a problem with air coming through the plumbing. The feed going to my fuge looks like a percolating coffee pot.

I have a 1" drain that I comes from the bottom of the tank. I placed a T on it about 6 inches from the bottom of the tank. Below the T is a ball valve and then a 1" pipe running into the sump. This side has micro bubbles but I think that is expected with the amount of flow.

Coming from the side of the T, I have a 1" pipe running horizontally to the other side of the stand (30") with a ball valve in the middle. It then has a 90 degree turn and drops to 3/4" pipe and runs down into the fuge. I have tried having a pipe that only goes about an inch below the surface of the water and also one that runs about 8 inches into the tank. Both gave me problems with bubbles.

Any suggestions on how to get rid of the bubbles? I have thought of adding a T to the 3/4" pipe running down to the fuge and adding a 90 degree and a pipe as an air vent. Not sure if that would work or not.

Thanks,
Kevin

[caferacermike]

I run my fuge from my return line. I've found that to many times the water mixes with air as it gravity falls to the sump. I'm sure you are gulping air and depositing it in your fuge. If I'm reading your post correctly you are feeding the fuge from a tee 6" down from the bottom of that tank. I use my return line as that water should be air free. I have a tee about 12" above my return pump and have a ball valve on the way to the fuge. This way I can control the amount of flow in the display and fuge without putting any back pressure on the pump itself.

[TXKev]

That was the way I had mine running until this weekend. I may have to go back to it. I think I will hit Lowe's this afternoon and get some pieces to put an air vent on it to see if that helps. If not and no one has any other suggestions I will probably go back to the split return line.

Thanks,
Kevin

[brewercm]

That's the way mine is set up also. I control flow to both my return and to the sump until I have the flow in the main display that I want. May not help with your question but seems to be the problem fixer if nothing else works.

[Wryknow]

Perfectly normal. Mine bubbles a lot too. You will always get air in the return line as long as your return line isn't 100% filled at 100% capacity eith water. My sump has a simple baffle in it to get rid of the bubbles before the water passes into the refugium but this seems nice but unnecessary to be quite honest.

You could try using a micron bag on the end of the return line to get rid of the air bubbles and also trap floating debris.