skimmer help please

[josh4107]

could anyone give me any clues as to why my asm mini g skimmer continues to produce a lot of micro bubbles throughout my tank. it just recently started doing this and taking it out and cleaning the entire thing seems to help but only temporarily for like a week or so. anyone else had a similar problem?

 

[SeymourDuncan]

It is a weekly chore to clean your skimmer unless someone designs a built in Sandblaster or something crazy.

Sponges and Bubble traps may help, but the best solution is to have the skimmer output in the sump, but thats if ya got one.

Whats the system you are working with? sump, no sump?

 

[josh4107]

my skimmer is in the sump and i have a bubble trap/ sponge on the skimmer output put at times it produces so many microbubbles that they get into the main display. i have a 33 gallon main display and my sump is around 15-20 gallons of total water volume

 

[SeymourDuncan]

hmm, maybe a pic of the sump even a drawing would give me something to brainstorm off of. I am guessing you have the output of the skimmer in the wrong spot maybe. Its a small skimmer, so the bubbles will always be in the output unless you crank down the flow...which probably doesn't suck in air....The best bet is to figure out a way to route the output into a spot further away from the return pump. I have my skimmer pump AND return in my Drain section before 3 baffles. The only bubbles I get are from the sand farts. haha.

THe sumps small capacity does make it more difficult though. All I can think is adding a baffle over the return pump if nothing else works to route the bubbles to the surface...but with no idea what your layout looks like Im just guessing. :)

 

[MarineDepot]

Are you cleaning the skimmer body? That may actually make it worse as now the skimmer has to keep "breaking in".

Also, are you adding anything to your tank like water conditioners, oily foods, etc? These can sometimes temporarily cause micro-bubbles. Hope this helps.


Chris R.