It looks like you have quite a few of them… What about just getting the adapter?
Ebay has a ton in the $4 range. Here’s one for $4.82 with free shipping:
[quote=“icecool2, post:121, topic:7613”]
It looks like you have quite a few of them… What about just getting the adapter?
Ebay has a ton in the $4 range. Here’s one for $4.82 with free shipping:
That’s funny, I was just about to link the ebay adapters. They are from china and might take a couple weeks to get here. Going to see if I can find a North American distributor first.
Eh, I give up. Six ran me $26. Hopefully they arrive before March 10th… verdict_in
It shouldn’t take too long to get it from China. I probably should have mentioned this sooner, but I didn’t think of it… Make sure the angle goes in the direction that you want and not pointing forward.
[quote=“icecool2, post:124, topic:7613”]
It shouldn’t take too long to get it from China. I probably should have mentioned this sooner, but I didn’t think of it… Make sure the angle goes in the direction that you want and not pointing forward.[/quote]
Yup. We’re good.
I had my buddy Will over today and he says a majority of the remaining cloudiness is due to micro bubbles. I ordered a 21" piece of black sponge filter that I’m going to cut in half and place in the two bubble trap baffles to try and limit the amount of micro bubbles making it to the return pump. If that doesn’t do it I’ll try something on the return pump’s intake.
Will also brought his old MP40 which was for sale so when the 90 officially comes down I’ll have two MP40’s running in the 150. The water motion looks great with just the one unit but it does have to be maxed out to get that result. I’m looking forward to throttling it back a bit when I pair it.
This morning I officially lowered the LEDs back into the canopy hood. I don’t know what I was thinking raising them, it looks 100% better. I’m really looking forward to receiving the adapters to make the cords disappear as well. The spotlighting isn’t as noticeable as when the water was still extremely cloudy.
I also started on two other projects today. The first was a trip to Home Depot to burn a $50 gift card to get all the components for the Algae Scrubber and a few paver stones for the base of the aquascaping. I’m going to take a trip into Wilmington tomorrow to borrow my father’s table saw to cut the hole in the pipe for the canvas. I think it’s going to look really clean when up and running.
I also got the first batch of rock curing. I’m not going to let this sit for too long, maybe a couple weeks at most. The rock really was pretty clean coming in. There wasn’t a lot of dead stuff to pick off.
Waaaaaaave.
Because everything is brand new, there will be more micro bubbles. After running for few weeks and everything gets broken in, the micro bubbles will become less noticeable and hopefully non existent.
Micro bubbles, eh? Makes sense, but where are they coming from? Are you running a skimmer? If you turn off the pumps do they go away?
Why not use rubble rock instead of sponge?
[quote=“icecool2, post:129, topic:7613”]
Micro bubbles, eh? Makes sense, but where are they coming from? Are you running a skimmer? If you turn off the pumps do they go away?[/quote]
I’m running a skimmer. It’s not collecting any skimmate yet, just some dust. I figured it couldn’t hurt to start breaking it in right away.
[quote=“beadlocked450r, post:130, topic:7613”]
Why not use rubble rock instead of sponge?[/quote]
The sponges take a minute to clean once a week. I’d probably never clean the rubble rock.
So the curing process is going to be cut short. About 24 hours after starting to cook the rock the water turned a horrid yellow/brown color. The smell coming off the rocks was so bad it’s hard to breath in my basement and the smell has worked it’s way through the rest of the house. I did a 50% water change and then a day later did another 50% water change. It helped but at this rate I’m going to go through hundreds of dollars of salt and rodi water just to cure this rock. Since there is no real filtration in the tub, I think I’m wasting my time and money. I’m going to finish the process in the tank itself and hope that the 72 hour soak at least got a majority of the dirt and decaying stuff off the surface of the rock.
Do you have bubble baffles in your sump? They’re usually quite effective at reducing the vast majority of them.
Personally, I think those sponges are going to be a source of trouble later. They’re just containers for organics to collect, IMO. I’d look to solve the problem rather than trying to treat the symptom. A little work now will save you a lot in the long run.
You could move your skimmer over to the rock curing bin to suck some of that crud out. Was this previously live rock?
I would etch that rock in some vinegar or muriatic acid before using it. This will remove any remaining organic matter, and bound PO4 that may be on the outer layers of the rock. Afterwards add it to some freshly made SW, and check for PO4, do WC if necessary.
Just looked through your pics… Is your sump still setup this way?
You’ve got a ton of bubbles coming from your skimmer, but there are two bubble baffles after it and I don’t see many bubbles in the return chamber.
Thanks for all the replies. I’ll try to address most of them.
The sump is still setup the way it was in the picture. I added two 17.5 x 2 x 2" pieces of black sponge to the baffles but to my surprise the microbubbles pass right through them. I’ve attached a video where I placed a single white LED from my phone to the side of the return chamber so you can clearly see how many micro bubbles are making it through the two baffles.
I think everyone is correct in saying this will get better over time. The skimmer clearly isn’t broken in and won’t begin to function properly until we’ve got some organic stuff to gunk it up a bit. Same goes for the sponges. They should get better as they accumulate a little slime. I’ve been advised that the sponge media should run the entire height of the baffle so I ordered a 24 x 24" piece from Foster and Smith today.
The rock still smells pretty bad. I’m going to try the vinegar bath this morning. Can’t make it worse, lol.
Something just doesn’t feel right with those bubbles… Do they stop if you turn off the skimmer? Where is the output of your reactor feeding? The third chamber? If so, that could be a part of the problem.
You should not been seeing that many bubbles coming through two bubble baffles. That should be what you see after the first, the second should be basically devoid of bubbles altogether. It looks like you have a really high speed sump, so that doesn’t allow the bubbles to settle out before passing into the next section. My gut reaction is that the step down effect from chamber to chamber reduces some of the effectiveness, but I don’t think it should be as bad as you are seeing.
I’m considering this a 5 chamber sump.
Chamber 1 has the tank drain, filter pads and some biological filtration media. Soon to have the algae scrubber.
Chamber 2 has the skimmer, which is currently the source of the micro bubbles. Soon to be adding an intake pump for the algae scrubber.
Chamber 3 has the intake pump for the media reactor with carbon and heaters. The pump is a throttled down mini-jet 404. It’s barely moving water through the reactor so as not to churn the carbon.
Chamber 4 has the media reactor and the output for the media reactor.
Chamber 5 has the return pump.
The skimmer isn’t broken-in. I really doubt it’s going to be outputting this many micro bubbles once it starts producing skimmate.
OK. I’ll stop 
Microbubbles are one of those things that can really become nuisance and a frustrating one at that.
It almost looks to me, like the skimmer isn’t sitting in enough water(depth). Is this the skimmer that was recommended for the sump? Have you tried closing the discharge to see if you can get the water level in the reaction chamber to go up a bit?
[quote=“icecool2, post:138, topic:7613”]
OK. I’ll stop
Microbubbles are one of those things that can really become nuisance and a frustrating one at that.[/quote]
Hey, no worries. I appreciate the feedback! And that’s why I’m documenting my efforts as well.
I’ve turned off the skimmer and sure enough, 20 minutes later the system is just about micro bubble free.
[quote=“Downbeach, post:139, topic:7613”]
It almost looks to me, like the skimmer isn’t sitting in enough water(depth). Is this the skimmer that was recommended for the sump? Have you tried closing the discharge to see if you can get the water level in the reaction chamber to go up a bit?[/quote]
Both the skimmer and sump were built by SC Aquariums. The skimmer was designed specifically for this sump so I don’t think it’s a water height issue.
I thought the only adjustment on the skimmer was the blue tube that raises and lowers the water level inside the skimmer. I think that’s the adjustment you are referring too and yes, I can probably raise the water level another 3/4 of an inch in the skimmer without causing it to wet skim excessively.
I think I’ll be more worried about the micro bubbles a month from now if I’m pulling out cups of green skimmate every day and we’re still seeing the microbubbles.
In other news, I’ve banished the dry rock/damp rock from the house. My basement still smells and I’ve had to open the egress window and place a fan inside just to air out the basement. The rock managed to stink up my entire garage in a matter of hours so it’s outside now where it can smell all it wants. I’ve stacked it in a giant plastic tub and I’m going to let it soak out there for a few weeks. I know it’s not the proper way to cure this rock but we’ll see how it turns out.