Other than using baffles, are there any tips and tricks on controlling micro bubbles? My sump is basically a big rubbemaid container so I don't have baffles but I do have microbubbles. :madmad: Is there anything I can do?

Do you know where the bubbles are coming from?

There is a lot of activity in that rubbermaid container. The overflow from the tank rund into it, there is a skimmer, and the return pump. Also, I have water running into iffroma gravity fed refugium. I can only imagine that all of that activity in one container is causing the bubbles. Other than that, i dont know.

I would try shutting off the skimmer and seeing if the bubbles go away. Being able to tell where they are coming from will help figure out how to eliminate them. Hopefully someone else can help with that part.

Have you used any epoxy's or been putting your hands in the tank a lot?

sometimes the overflow system also generate a lot of bubbles and it get further chopped up by the return pump.

u will find it will come from all of the above sources, to things to keep in mind, baffes or corner sections that divert flow will allow enough time for bubbles to rise, micro bubbles can take longer because of the total mass vs fritional elemental/environmental forces.
so i say this, u might have to become creative without a major modifying project.
major project being shutdown, drain, dry, baffle install, test run, full open flow!

u can use a glass/acrylic pane(glass being heaver) it kinda hard to explain without showing, but i'll try my best to convey it ok.

for a rubber maid i would first try a retrofit baffle, 3 glass sheets, a few thin glass strips siliconed together to for a weighted base for 2, and a solid top crossmember for the middle baffel. u silicon a glass pane onto a glass base stand. so it resembels an upside down T.
for the baffle in the middle, silcon the glass pane to a thick crossmember that can rest on the outer edges of the rubber maid !
try this if u want, its a $15 solution at best, & if could give u enough flow dirrection to trap ur bubble problem. if it works u may consider making something a perminant eddition! let me know if i explained ok

Two things. If you think it is the drain, put it in a small bubble tower - 4" PVC pipe with caps and holes cut in the side - fill with live rock rubble.

If your return pump has threads screw in a PVC 90 degree and point it downward.

Just cheap troubleshooting ideas I've used

all good ideas from veriann's serpentine maze and houtxhere2001's 4" pipe. the ninety degree elbow is a little risky however, sand and rocks can be sucked off the bottom and grind down your pump...and you will be adding restriction on the pump even before it begins to pump.

how about i throw in a marine sock on the outputs & we call it even...lol:agree:

[QUOTE=houtxhere2001]Two things. If you think it is the drain, put it in a small bubble tower - 4" PVC pipe with caps and holes cut in the side - fill with live rock rubble.

I dont quite get the principle, u have a working example to satistfy curiosty?

not being a smart ass here, but let me see if im following you>>>>>>on the downpipe end from the overflow chamber, u have a 4" tube filled with coral rubble with holes in the sides for water escape?
i would have thought this would chop the water created bubbles even finer!

veriann, i think what you are thinking about is water flowing over the rubble, creating the downdraft effect, and what houtxhere2001 is saying to submerge the drain tube to the bottom or the 4" pipe and using the rubble to break the bubbles as they rise and smash against a porous surfaces. of couse im just assuming.

te fact remains the bigger the bubble, the quicker it rises!
but i still am not getting the principle here! im not being funny, taking a break into the serious topic for a sec, cause i really do want to understand how it works?

the rubble is creating an obstacle for bubbles. with rubble in the pipe, bubbles regardless of size cannot exit in a direct path to the holes on the pipe. as these bubbles run into rocks, they are always being directed upward. the vertical contraption is a crude attempt to keep bubbles going up but not out like a protein skimmer.

yeah i see where ur comming from, u have a collar around the down pipe thats 3times bigger, typical bubbles pop out the pipe & start to rise vert.
so ur saying this contains them, & the rubble creates a bumper path upwards.
its not stagnent in the tube cause u have constant movement created from the bubbles. if this is what he was refering to, i get the principle now, wow, talk about roadkill!
ran over it, then reverses back over it, just to see what i ran over in the first place! lol

yahoo! bush tech, blubber style.!