Anyone with an Evision Acrylics tank?

[nbd13]

Hey guys anyone on here have a envision acrylics tank?

if so do you care gto help me figure out these dursos?

i mean how do they work? if i turn them all the way closed (ball valve) the water goes up and down in the overflow and make a flushing noise, when i open them slowly they make a whistling noise and i open them till that stops....

BUT i am getting SO i mean SO many damn microbubbles back in the tank even though my sump is huge and is sectioned off i figured it woudl give the microbubbles enough room to go to the surface....

but no luck... i have the drain pipes submerged oh about .5" maybe and have about 30 holes drilled in the pipe....the pipe with holes drilled runs horizontal to the water surface (parrell) to the surface and i figured this would be a good idea as i used it in my last tank...

now my return pump is a dart and is closed about 50% and i am still getting ALOT of micro bubbles lets see if i can get a pic of the drains...



there are 2 drain lines, at the right of the pic where the white water is......

anyway i need some help here dont have alot of time to mess around here and want the tank micro bubble FREE!!!

anythoughts here?

thanks!

Nick

[OUinLA]

have you tried using a filter sock or floss/sponge to get rid of them?

[nbd13]

I do not like to use filter socks over the drain pipes, because i do not like to change them and then i forget sometimes and i am just to busy with school starting and working and all.....

i thought that they may work themselves out, but it doesnt look to be the case.... i mean this tank has been runnign since saturday so that whats 4 days....

it just makes the tank look cloudy.... and i hate that!

Nick

[nbd13]

can anyone tell me what they think i should do? i am calling James up today to see what he thinks....

Nick

[reefboy1]

Hey guys anyone on here have a envision acrylics tank?

if so do you care gto help me figure out these dursos?


i mean how do they work? if i turn them all the way closed (ball valve) the water goes up and down in the overflow and make a flushing noise, when i open them slowly they make a whistling noise and i open them till that stops....

If you close the ball valve all the way, then the durso will eventually form a siphon which will drain the overflow box to the bottom of the downturned elbow - then the durso will suck water and the siphon will break. This is very noisy. You need to open the ball valve until you see that the water level in the overflow chamber is pretty stable. If you hear whistling from the ballvalve, then you can try to make a silencer using filter floss or something to quiet it down (then you'll need to readjust it again). The ball valve is there to allow air into the pipe so that a full siphon never happens.

BUT i am getting SO i mean SO many damn microbubbles back in the tank even though my sump is huge and is sectioned off i figured it woudl give the microbubbles enough room to go to the surface....

but no luck... i have the drain pipes submerged oh about .5" maybe and have about 30 holes drilled in the pipe....the pipe with holes drilled runs horizontal to the water surface (parrell) to the surface and i figured this would be a good idea as i used it in my last tank...

now my return pump is a dart and is closed about 50% and i am still getting ALOT of micro bubbles lets see if i can get a pic of the drains...

there are 2 drain lines, at the right of the pic where the white water is......

anyway i need some help here dont have alot of time to mess around here and want the tank micro bubble FREE!!!

I wouldn't dial back the Dart - if you think there's too much flow I think it would be better to buy a smaller pump (I'm using a Mak4) or plumb in a relief path to the sump to bleed off excess flow.

As far as microbubbles - are you sure they are coming in from the drains? Is it possible that your return pump is sucking air from the plumbing somewhere? If it is from the drains, then you'll have to experiment with putting in baffles. You can use a few sheets of spare acrylic and try making the water flow around them in a raceway fashion. This will give the bubbles more time to dissipate at the surface.

I'm also getting a few bubbles after 3 weeks, but I think I still have air bubbles in the pipe (30' of 2" flexspa on my return). You may just need to be patient

Good luck

Art

[nbd13]

Thanks Art- i will try and mess with the dursos more...

the bubbles are happening from the drain pipes.... i for sure thought that my sump was big enough to handle this flow..... and if i open the dart all the way up, the bubbles are INSANE!!!

maybe i have a small air leak like you said, and eventaully this will get plugged up with slat creep.... may take tiem like you said....

anyway i am going to go see what i can do about the dursos....

maybe just wait awhile with the micro bubbles... maybe some local can help me out also.....

Nick

[CAReefer]

Nick, isn't your skimmer brand new also? Some take a week or two to completly rid themselves of manufacturing oils and such. Once these elements are gone, bubbles should quit. Have you turned off your skimmer to see if the amount of bubbles are reduced? Just a thought.

CAReefer

[nbd13]

Hey, yeah i did turn it off and it did not really help....

i am thinking of giving it 1 more week before doing anything, i got the dursos dialed in pretty good (thanks Art for the help!)

so i will see what happens in about 1-2 weeks and then go from there....

right now i am trying to place corals in spots, but its tough because i need more corals, haha!!! but my stag island is looking nice.....

anyway i will let it go for a week or 2 and then see where i am at... i hoped to run my return pump (dart) more open by then also to help with my flow issue (see my 275 gallon thread)....

anyway thanks for all the thoughts guys!

Nick

P.S. just posted a pic for you BK lovers on the other 275 gallon thread!

[o2manyfish]

Possible Fixes

Here are a couple of ideas -

1) If you pull the Durso overflows out I am sure you will find out that the microbubbles are not a result of the Dursos.

2) The return pipes from the overflow - Are the holes you drilled all below the water level in the sump ? You should have an opening in the drain pipe above water level to vent the air in the pipe - I like to use a power saw to cut a slice that runs up and down the pipe so that it will vent as the water level changes.

3) Does your sump have Baffles ? If so, then you might consider using bioballs in the baffles - This slows the bubbles flooding through baffles.

4) If you have baffles - Are any of the baffles causing a water fall as the water passes OVER the baffle. Again you can use bio balls to stop these bubbles - and in the case of the water fall the noise in the sump as well.

*** If you are a Zealot who believes that BioBalls are the ovaries of Satan, and would never consider using them, then you can also use Small sized live rock to fill the baffles.

5) You can get a larger diameter pipe - 5 or 6" Cut slices in it , insert your overflow pipe in the center and then pack the outer pipe with bioballs - Old Zeo Media, Crushed live rock - Something to trap the bubbles and stop them from flowing in the current.


If you send me a couple more photos of the sump (in action) so I can see the whole thing I can give you some more ideas where the problem is coming from and how to resolve it - But this is not a Durso issue.

Dave B


PS - Can you see the bubbles in the sump before the pump - Is it possible you have a leak in your pump head or plumbing (on the input side of the pump) which is sucking in air and creating a venturi ?

[nbd13]

Wow Dave thanks for the advice, let me first start off with i will get some pics later today, do you want me to email them to you?

alright now,

1. i agree i do not think its the dursos....

2. this might be my problem the holes i drilled are below the water surface, probably about .5" below....

so do i need to redo the drains and make it so the outputs of the drains are half way sub-mergered and half way in the air? then cut slits into them so air can escape? i assume the slits go vetically on the pipe?

is so how many slits do i cut?

so do you think this would help some with the microbubbles? and mayeb the sounds coming from the 2 drain pipes?

3. yes the sump has baffles, cant use bio-balls because like you said i am a zeohead, haha....

4. the baffles do have a waterfall but its less than .5" so i dont think its causing bubbles...

i truely think that the bubbles are coming from the drain pipes... maybe being that they are submerged....

also i can see the microbubbles all the way through the sump and in the return part of the sump, so i think that the return pump does NOT have an air leak in it somewhere, but rather the bubbles are coming from the drain pipes...

whats your email address and i will send and email to you...

do you think raising the drain lines to be 1/2 the way above the water surface with slits cut into them would work and help in my case? that way they are 1/2 the way above the water surface and 1/2 the way submerged below the water surface....

do you want the drain pipes to be submerged at all? or is 1/2 the way above and 1/2 the way below the water surface good?

thanks again Dave!

Nick

[nbd13]

P.S. can you send me a pic of how you did your drain lines so i could get a better idea of what to do?

thanks!

Nick

[nbd13]

Dave i will just go ahead and post the pics here...

the first one shows how the drain lines are submerged and the holes drilled in them, remeber 2 1.5" drian lines...



now this shows the first chamber of the sump, where the drain lines are and my BK 300 internal this chamber has a wate rlevel of 8"....



now this pic shows how it flows over the first baffle and goes into the next chamber... which is 7.5" tall...



and lastly this shows the other part of the 7.5" chamber and how it overflows into the return section which is 7" tall... you can see the 3 different water heights from this pic also... i have rock around the intake to the return pump (which is a PVC 90 to pull water from the bottom of the chamber) to help with bubbles also...



now i am thinking if i raise the drain pipes above the water it may help... what do you think now Dave?

thanks!

Nick

[o2manyfish]

You can keep the drain lines submerged which will help with the noise - But the problem with your design is you are trapping the air in the pipe - Which is causing a surging with the durso's.

If the pipes dropping into the sump are already glued in place then you can just drill a 3/8" hole above the water level to allow the air to vent. This may cut down on some of your bubbles an should stop the surging and gurgling.

The noise from the sump - Is it coming from the waterfall ?

As for the BioBalls - People that had 'real' issues with Bioballs their theories came from Bioballs being used as wet/dry. If you place the bioballs in your baffles they should be fully submerged - And function no differently than live rock - providing more surface area. In your situation the will be trapping bubbles.

While it may appear that they are trapping detritus - This is in a high flow area, and the trapped detritus, will be absorbed by bacteria - in other words its not a constantly accummulating area.

The only issues I had with this was the bio balls growing alot of Coraline.


You can email me the photos at [email protected] - But post them to this thread so more people can give you their thoughts on resolving the issues.

Dave B

[nbd13]

Hey Dave we must have posted at the same time, haha, look above for the pics....

i can just cut the PVC and reglue it to make it better, i dont mind doing it over again if its done right...

also i dont think i could drill a hole into the exsisting PVC... look at the pics and let me know what you think...

the noise is NOT coming from the waterfall at all, this i cant even hear even if i put my ear next to it....

thanks again!

Nick

[o2manyfish]

Okay my previous email was being typed while you were posting --



The first thing I notice is that your water level in the sump is way too low. At that level at the pump intake - With a dart - It is probably vortexing. And with the water level so low the bubbles in the last chamber (pump intake area) have no place (or chance) to rise.

I bet if you add 3-4" of water to the sump most of your issue should go away. The last baffle of the sump should be an under not an over - So that the bubbles are rising in the baffle - Not waterfalling into the pump intake area.

If you raise the water level, and put alot more live rock in the last baffle - And you want much smaller pcs and more of them I think you will be able to quickly resolve your problems - Both bubbles and noise.

Dave B

PS - You still need to vent the drain lines above the water level in the sump.