AIO UV advice

[Sharkattackmack]

Looking for some advice on getting my UV set up properly with my tank. It's a custom 45ish gallon AIO. The main chamber is a custom media Caddy that holds my floss, carbon, back foam for sound and media balls. Second compartment is all live rock, media balls, it has a small bubble trap and then the final is for my heater, return pump and ATO. I picked up an aqua UV HOB filter with a scicce 1.0 to help with water clarity and if I ended up with any parasites.

My first issue was noise and microbubbles. The bubble trap did frick all to help this. The noise I was able to get down with some hose. It's not perfect but it helped a small amount. I drawing water from the second chamber that's filled with live rock and the water coming back in was going right on-top of the bubble trap.

My new problem is that my fiancee checked the tank this morning and the water level was almost at the top of the glass. To stop the unsightly microbubbles and noise from bugging us I've been running the UV from 10pm till noon the next day. The draw from the pump must have lowered the water level in my ato which dumped a lot of FW into my tank. Almost a flood but definitely messed with my salinity.

Just wondering if someone else has run into this and could offer some help. Not sure moving the ATO will work as the pump chamber is the one that notices the largest water fluctuation.

Here's a very basic drawing of the back. Blue is regular water flow, red is for the UV.

 

[Troylee]

Is there any way to get the pump and return to pull from the first chamber where the weir is? I’d think it would be best in the first chamber and it’s draining into the first chamber it would prevent the water level from fluctuating and give the return water more contact time back there to stop the micro bubbles.

 

[Sharkattackmack]

I ended up making a small egg crate, ziptie, bubble trap creation that has solved my micro bubble and noise issues. Now I can run it all the time and not have to worry about water level.