Air bubbles

[albatross666]

Hi

 

I just put in a mag 9 pump in place of a mag 5 in my sump and I am having a few problems. The intake "sucks" air like a tornado and spits out tons of bubbles into the tank.

 

Any ideas? Please post today, since I will probably re-pipe my mag 5 before calling it a night.

 

Will a prefilter sponge work?

 

Thanks

[rioreef]

What is the depth of the water where the pump is? The increased power maybe pulling down the waters surface and sucking in the air. If so, increase the water depth in this area.

[albatross666]

Hi rioreef

 

I just came to the same conclusion, and i'm stuck, since i only have a 10 gallon sump, and raising the water level to 4 more inches makes the pump work great without air, but my sump will overflow if the pump is cut off (during feeding). I just don't know what to do. I will try a valve, but then what would be th use of a more powerful pump?

 

Thanks for the help. I'm gonna eat dinner and then attach a valve.

[Jon Lazar]

Put an ell on the pump intake underwater in your sump, and face the other end of the ell down.

 

Do not use a sponge on the intake. It will get dirty and restrict the intake too much, and you'll end up with microbubbles from low pressure cavitation. Trust me.

 

Jon

[jason the filter freak]

Look up anti vortex box, super simple to make and cheap, if you can't find a diagram pm me and I'll draw you one

[gmubeach]

Anti vortex box:) the aliens are coming next jk jk

[rioreef]

Put an ell on the pump intake underwater in your sump, and face the other end of the ell down.

 

Do not use a sponge on the intake. It will get dirty and restrict the intake too much, and you'll end up with microbubbles from low pressure cavitation. Trust me.

 

Jon

 

 

This was going to be my next suggestion. This will then draw water from the very bottom of your sump (will help keep it clean too.

[jason the filter freak]

Here you go it pretty much just looks like this, the red arrow is flow you don't want and the green is flow you do want.

 

We use it on the pumps HUGE (something like 5000 gph) at work in our sump. It's just an upside down box with a slot or hole cut in it for the intake, you may want to seal around the slot if you're not going to just use a hole. (The diagram on the right is a slot modle but the hole idea is way better.) You can use a tupperware container or get a box made out of acrylic. Just elevate it just a bit off the bottom, there will be no more drawing air from the surface and keep it nice and quiet.

[albatross666]

EXCELLENT idea!! A simple trick, but i think that this will do!

 

I'll post results when I try it out.

Thanks!