Microbubbles and cloudy water, help please

[texanjordan]

I know I am asking newbee questions, but it has been a really long time since I have cycled an aquarium from scratch.

I got my tank up and running on saturday, so far the water has cleared up tremediously, but it is still pretty cloudy and far from clear. Any suggestions on how to clean up the water? Or will it clean up by itself? I am using all base rock and live sand, I added two bottles of live bacteria to get it cycling. The salinity is around 1.30, PH is around 7.0-7.24.

Also, my return pump is kicking out a ton of micro bubbles, the way I have it plumbed is a piece of 3/4 pvc pipe going straight up, an elbow shooting it straight right which goes inside a 1 inch tube to the return pipe. The pump is a brand new mag drive 12 which is completely submerged. I purchased a 3/4 barbed fitting, and im going to replace the pvc pipe with the tubing and have that connect with my 1 inch tube. I just want to stop the micro bubbles. Thank you for your help.

[Ratattooy]

I know I am asking newbee questions, but it has been a really long time since I have cycled an aquarium from scratch.

I got my tank up and running on saturday, so far the water has cleared up tremediously, but it is still pretty cloudy and far from clear. Any suggestions on how to clean up the water? Or will it clean up by itself? I am using all base rock and live sand, I added two bottles of live bacteria to get it cycling. The salinity is around 1.30, PH is around 7.0-7.24.

Also, my return pump is kicking out a ton of micro bubbles, the way I have it plumbed is a piece of 3/4 pvc pipe going straight up, an elbow shooting it straight right which goes inside a 1 inch tube to the return pipe. The pump is a brand new mag drive 12 which is completely submerged. I purchased a 3/4 barbed fitting, and im going to replace the pvc pipe with the tubing and have that connect with my 1 inch tube. I just want to stop the micro bubbles. Thank you for your help.

Water should clear up on own especially doing water changes while your tank cycles. Your salinity is too high and PH too low. Add RO/DI water to it till you get 1.023-1.025. You can add air pump and air stones to bring PH up. Ideally you want your PH at 8.2. The micro bubbles can be corrected by having bubble trap (three baffles- one low one high then back low in your sump just before the return pump. Attaching a hose to the return pump then connecting to a pipe also helps too. Hope that helped


Airborne

[Ratattooy]

Like this


Airborne

[texanjordan]

my sump is setup like the pic above, I even have filter material between the baffles, I really dont think thats where the micro bubbles are coming from. When I look into the return section the water is clear and not turbulent at all. I think it has to do with the plumbing, probably at the elbow, but im really not sure.

To the first post, I am lowering my salinity, it was too high when I launched the tank, it was around 1.32, I have been able to drop it to about 1.30, still working on it. As far as the PH, I will probably be adding some buffer soon, I have a kalk reactor, but i dont want to bring it online just yet.

[Ratattooy]

I hAve a chromis and rubble with coraline to cycle ur tank faster if u need


Airborne

[Mike]

Poor chromis :(

Would imagine it is no fun living in poisonous water. Just drop a shrimp in there to decompose or some fish food.

[Dean]

Poor chromis :(

Would imagine it is no fun living in poisonous water. Just drop a shrimp in there to decompose or some fish food.


LOL the age old debate. I also use a cheapo fish when cycling. It is really not much more cruel than ripping a beautiful fish out of the pristine Red Sea, going thru multiple "acclimations" only to end up in a small glass cage for the rest of its life is it? Cycle it with a hardy fish and reward the little guy after the job is done. :)

[Bill S]

Your micro bubbles may be coming from your return line. Make sure there are no gaps/cracks in it. Venturi effect will suck air in.

Patience. Bad things happen to tanks that get rushed.

[texanjordan]

Im thinking its the return line as well, plan on fixing that when I get home.

I will most likely be using a yellow tail damsel to cycle, but the water is way to salty to add anything at all to it yet.

[CoryDude]

So you have the 3/4" tubing PVC tube inserted into the 1" flex tubing? I'll just about bet that once you add the barb fitting you'll fix your problem. I did the same thing thing a few years back. The 1" line has 3/4" ID so it's a snug fit with the PVC but even with clamps, it can still let air in. Plus the barb fitting is safer.

i wouldn't chase ph right now since you still have a few weeks to cycle your tank.

[texanjordan]

What I plan on doing is putting the 3/4 barb on the return pump and adding 3/4 tubing. the 3/4 inch tubing fits very snugly inside 1'' tubing and that is how I am planing on connecting them. If you have a better idea on how to connect 3/4 inch tubing to 1'' tubing I would be very interested.

[texanjordan]

I made some changes yesterday, I changed the plumbing on my return line to soft plumbing to see if that fixed the issue with the micro bubbles, it did not. I was able to determine that the bubbles were coming from my brand new Mag Drive pump. I pulled the pump and replaced it with my old much weaker pump, and surprise, no bubbles! I need to call danner and try and figure out what is wrong with the pump, and why it is shooting constant bursts of micro bubbles.

I added some seachem water clearing solution to my tank, and over the last 36 hours my tank has cleared up considerably, almost crystal clear.

[Bill S]

The only way a pump can blow bubbles is if it is sucking air. Is your Mag submerged? If so, it ain't the problem.

A venturi effect will happen with a much stronger pump. So it might still be your plumbing.

[texanjordan]

The pump was completely submerged. I used the same plumbing with my old pump, and there are zero air bubbles. I called bulk reef supply where I got the pump and they told me it sounds like an issue with the pump and to call danner directly for trouble shooting. What do you mean by the venturi effect? Im familiar with venturi de watering pumps from my cutter days in the coast guard, but not when it comes to plumbing lol.