How do I stop bubbles in my refugium?

[msmith619]

I have a new 125 gallon with a 55 gallon refugium. It is a reef-ready tank with two returns. Each return has a pvc pipe bring the water back into the refugium. The problem is air bubbles. Lots of air bubbles. It literally boils the water and is very noisy. I have attached a poor quality picture of the bubbles. Has anyone had this problem and found a way to fix it?
Mike

[Jonthefishguy]

Filter sock

http://www.thefishguy.org/bllifiso200m.html (http://www.thefishguy.org/bllifiso200m.html)

[longhorn_20m]

I saw some relief when I adjusted the depth to just around 1" under the water surface.

What type of overflow do you have? Durso?

[msmith619]

Yes, I have Durso overflows. Raising the output to water level might help.
Mike

[ReefCube]

filter sock or bubble trap would be better

[mikedelgado]

I use a mesh filter sock so I dont have to clean it.

[MKCindy]

I drilled holes in a sleeve of PVC, glued a cap on the end, and inserted it, defusing the rate of flow. It stays in without glue, leaving only a few small bubbles.

[allan]

I have my inflow from the display spilling into a chamber where the skimmer resides. There are a lot of bubbles, but by the time the water makes it through the baffeling system that we built there are no bubbles.

[msmith619]

The bubbles don't bother me as much as the noise. I have baffles that prevent the bubbles going up the return. It is so loud I can't hear the TV. The water literally boils with the large amount of bubbles. How does a filter sock stop the bubbles? Does it just fit on the outflow?
Interestingly, I have the same Durso overflow on 75 gallon reef and have never had a bubble or noise problem.
Mike

[marshall.read]

how much flow do you having going into the refugium? the water should be kept relatively slow moving for optimal benefit. seems too much flow for your plumbing, the pipe isn't able to pass the water sufficiently to keep air from getting trapped in the pipe and pushed down to the refugium. some people have luck pushing airline tubing down the plumbing as a means of letting the air escape out the top of the durso, but this can be a pain to get 'tuned' correctly. you could add a filter sock, but then you're diminishing the value of your refugium. The sock will require consistant maintenance to keep the nitrates down, and you're depriving your refugium of the 'food' that will come from the unfiltered water. prolly the best bet is going to be to correct the problem, rather than treat the symptoms. meaning either adjust the flow to match your plumbing or adjust the plumbing to match the flow. you could put a valve on your return pump to slow it down, or simply adapt the plumbing just after your bulkhead to a larger diameter pipe and make sure your hole at the top of the durso is big enough to let the air out of the durso pipe. But realize that a gravity flow system is going to have a bit of noise due simply to the water falling and impacting the water surface below. if you want an extremely quiet setup you will need to go with a siphon overflow system, unfortunately at this stage of your setup i'm not sure that would be possible ( unless you wanted to switch to HOB siphon overflow, but i would not recommend it, your durso system is a better bet ). Last piece of advice, and again i prefer not treating the symptoms, but you could add some foam insulation inside your stand to block out the noise. good luck.

[kkiel02]

I also use the drilled PVC like mentioned above but I also have my chaeto in the same chamber which also seems to help. My only noise is from the skimmer.