UV plumbing- did I do something very stupid?

reefer5076

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So I thought I could handle it without any help, and I hard plumbed my UV in. I did it this way to conserve precious space in my cabinet, but Im starting to think I did something wrong. Issue is micro bubbles coming in from the UV return. I cannot stop them. I ran the UV plumbing overnight hoping they would disappear, they did not. I assumed if it’s sucking air when the pump is on, it must leak water when the pump is off. Shut it off this morning, unable to find any small leaks. Here’s my setup, hoping someone can tell me if I did something wrong, particularly on the suction side of the pump. I mounted the pump above the waterline in the sump again to conserve space. It’s sucking from a check valve in the sump and it has another check valve on the return side for good measure. I did need to use another pump to prime the system……

The first 5 pics are in order of the water flow from the sump going back into the tank ….last pic is just showing microbubbles coming from the return. Is there a flaw in my plumbing design that I overlooked ? Let me know if you need more info or pics, help is much appreciated =]

5D894FAF-58CC-40C1-A61B-B3143A0B8BA0.jpeg 1CDC0D7D-6AD8-4529-A90F-960A8F0ADB3D.jpeg 0F598067-B85E-4B80-8DF2-17EFBBC3A9C9.jpeg ED077DAA-FC53-4EC5-8239-63F80505E8B0.jpeg FFE70099-0488-44E7-88F5-FD14BCC3B1C9.jpeg
 
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reefer5076

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Also…. I’m a newish Reefer working towards a mixed coral tank. Am I correct to say micro bubbles are bad for coral and this is a problem that needs to be fixed before adding coral? Thanks again
 

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KStatefan

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I think the flaw is that the intake of the pump is above the water level. These pumps are not designed to pull water up. I would assume the bubbles are from cavitation in the pump.
 

DaddyFish

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I'm not 100% certain, but even though most pumps are designed for either submerged or in-line configuration, almost none are designed to operate with the "nose" pointed down. Horizontal Yes, some even on their back, Yes. But I know of none that approve a nose-down configuration.

And as stated above, they are not intended to "lift" from a water column. So you may have two problems with the pump config.
 
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reefer5076

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Yeah I was thinking that might be the case, this design was ideal for space saving and I thought I could make it work…… also, if the pump was cavitating wouldn’t I hear it ? The fact that there seems to be an endless supply of bubbles means the air must be coming from somewhere
 

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