RSM 130: Water Flow Issues/Questions

[drizahy4]

Currently I'm running the stock skimmer with Chemi-pure on top of the skimmer pump. I use Purigen on top of the skimmer which will be discussed later. The black pad has been cut in half for flow purpose. I no longer run the white pad although I will be doing so again when I go to reorganize the tank.(Wife wants more arches after seeing another tank)

Currently I have to run the tank with one of the rear pumps on because of water flow issues. I have noticed the reason why micro bubbles are getting into the tank is due to the amount of water falling over into the pump chamber. You will see where the heater is the water falls over and tends to make and air bubble fall which gets sucked up by the pump near the wall. So I pump my purigen in this location which has done 2 things for me.
1 No microbubbles pass through.
2 puts an object to raise the water level so nothing falling over creates bubbles.

Now I need to attempt a couple things. I have my K2 on the right side of the tank that is driving water along the back past the filter intake and I have 1 rear pump on so I have a nice counter clockwise motion. Does anyone have an issue with to much water flow. Even with 1 pump off My yellow polyps are about to fly off there rock almost anywhere in the tank. Anyone else have water flow like this? And for some reason I am getting blownish bloom algae only on the 2 pumps (K2 and rear pump thats on). Nothing on the glass but regular light green and coraline algae. I will post this evening picutes of the 2.

 

[Reefmack]

The pictures would help. I'm confused as to where the Purigen is? Chemi-Pure on top of the skimmer pump never worked for me, or most/all that tried it there - it's just too fine of a media and compacts easily, which really drops the water level in back, and causes a ton of microbubbles as the pumps get starved and suck in air. I had to go back to putting the Chemi-Pure under the two pumps as it had much less effect there.

On the K2, it may just be too powerful with your rock and coral setup. I used to run a K1 which was fine in my case, and I had it pointed towards the upper mid-front of the tank. Some liked the K2 in their setups, but in my tank it would have been blowing my corals apart with too much flow.

 

[LaurentSeattle]

Here is a picture of my "Chemical Filtration Center" :

The bag contains a mix of granulated carbon and Phosban and is floating peacefully AFTER the skimmer. So far so good.

 

[Reefmack]

Good approach Laurent - that keeps the media from obstructing the flow through the back.

 

[redseareef]

Hi guys,
The theory behind stuffing the media into that last chamber is to FORCE the water through the bags.
If you do not do it this way, water finds it's way around the bag/s(path of least resistance),rendering the filtration capacity in both the bio media bag and the carbon bag severely reduced.
The bags are the shape of the chamber for this very reason. The Micron size is very large. 800 MC at least. I have actually already looked for larger micron sizes when changing out the carbon.
With the chamber and bag shapes matching creates a reactor effect. So, none needed yet as I can see! Take advantage of the high flow through the chambers, force the water through the media bag and carbon bag!

drizahy4,
I think if you raise up your water level micro bubble's will be alot less. T I would not try to force water though anything with a smaller then 800 micron size. I believe they matched this size up with the flow of the water(GPH) through the system. If it plugs up, you risk burning up your pumps among other negative effects.
Takle the problem at the source, which I believe may be your actual water level.
Yes, lets see some pics!

 

[steveh]

Ok, so a couple of things: Firstly MAX will run perfectly well with both pumps, no bubbles and no water restrictions. (see my "By the book" thread). If you can only run one pump because running 2 creates bubbles, then this indicates clearly a restriction in the filter. This may be caused by adding additional media (such as purigen), using extra fine bags, not washing the mechanical media etc. I think the purigen and the fine bag are the source of the problem in this case. If you decide you want to continue running purigen, then maybe consider removing the carbon and using purigen in place, but ensure you have a mesh bag of equal size to the carbon. Failing this, use the purigen in a small internal filter perhaps?