I'm currently setting up my 92 corner tank and have a wet/dry filter on it. Right now I have modified it to not have the 90 degree corner intake, and I have routed out the holes in the filter tray to about double their size. Both mods were done to facilitate faster flow into the sump area so the Mag12 wouldn't run dry at full throttle.
My question is this... I'm getting a lot of foam production in the bio-ball chamber. I mean so much white bubble foam that it is climbing the walls and trickling down the sides of the filter. Is foam production normal in this part of the filter?
I'm thinking it could be caused by remnants of PVC glue, or something like water clarifier or dechlorinator or something like that... Do you think running carbon might help?
Thanks for any help or ideas you guys can supply...
Frank aka Bernie
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carbon could help short term, do you still have the bio media in this area or removed & nothing but empty cavity?
The foam could be caused by a contaminant, water streaming into one spot & smashing bubbles in such a way can produce skimmate, essecially if its darker froth id say its ripping organic or inorganics on the way up.
im having a hard time picturing what you've done though, if you dont have the overflow, hows the water leaving the tank? i know you said you expanded the holes in the filter tray, im just not able to picture it.
oh by the way, dirrect an air pump without the stone attachment or clip on fan or something in the area where its bubbling over, the air is enough to pop the bubbles for short term so it doesn't wet you carpet/cabnet
Chuck, I was kinda thinking I was just trying to push too much flow through the bio-balls. But having never dealt with a wet/dry before I wasn't quite sure if that was the problem or not.
V, the overflow for the tank is still the same. The only modifications for flow have been done to the wet/dry. At the intake there was a 90 degree PVC fitting that I replaced with a straight in fitting. The other modification was to the tray that sits just inside the intake. It originally 2-3mm holes in a grid pattern, I routed out the holes to approx. 8-10mm. The tray has a grid pattern to help spread out the water, and I just made the holes bigger to help the flow get through that area without slowing it down as much.
I have been on the edge of removing the bio-balls but just haven't yet. It appears this is another reason that I can put on the list for removing them.
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Thanks for the reminder Carmie. Since the tank had only been running for a few hours at a time and only for a couple of days total, I just snagged them all out at once... no livestock either, so no worries there...
Even after removing the bio-balls the foam m is still filling the bio chamber to about the halfway mark... My LFS seems to think it might be residual sand dust causing the extra foam... any thoughts on this?
On the up side, if could find a way to harness the foam I'd one helluva protein skimmer
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I was still getting mega foam after removing the balls. I added a carbon filter pad thingie so the water crashing from the tray would land on it, and that seemed to solve all my problems.
I just bought a beckett skimmer off ebay, so today I spent half the day drilling my sump, externally mounting my return pump (mag 18) and skimmer pump (mag 12), and then had to fight micro-bubbles...
I got the bubbles under control, now just have to wait for the sand to calm down from the increased flow of the mag18 and I'll be golden...
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