Air Bubble in U-Tube

[jgoal55]

Thank God I was awake at 5:21 AM........I went downstairs for one last look at the tank before bed and sure enough I notice that my water level in the display is a bit high and low in the sump.....

sure enough there was a mysterious bubble in my u-tube......how it got there I have no idea....it literally went from siphoning just fine at 10 pm (last time I checked the tank before now) to having an air bubble in the tube......

I have no earthly idea how this could happen......being that it's underwater the whole time.......

I hadn't even touched it and I am absolutely certain of that cuz i didnt mess around with the tank today......

I was on the verge of flood number 2.......that was way too close.....

what in the world could cause this to happen?????

Thanks.

 

[glxtrix]

if for what ever reason your Ph's decide to kick out some bubbles, possible odd drainage into your overflow.....things like that can contribute to bubbles which will be sucked into the U-Tube.

 

[wbholwell]

Those things scare me. You could use an aqualifter pump to constantly remove air/water from the top of the tube. That way you'll never have to worry about losing siphon. Just drill a hole at the top of the tube that's large enough to attach an airline fitting. Then glue/silicone the fitting in place. Attach the aqualifter and route the output back into your tank or sump, and voila- no more worries!

 

[justonemoretank]

Fish farted? LOL jk. Is there a lot of turbulance of water sloshing and bubbling around in the "prefilter" box that is hanging inside the tank? It is possible that the Utube is slowly sucking up small bubbles that over time are collecting to form a larger bubble inside at the top of the Utube. Usually the force and speed of the water rushing thru the tube will clear small bubbles collecting in Utubes. What size return pump are you running? A good fix is to have the tank drilled of course. However this is a real PITA when it is set up and running. It can be done with a little moxy.

 

[jgoal55]

I think the fish farted....lol....it stank....

I don't think the PH are putting out air bubble , at least not that I have ever noticed......and as for the turbulebnt water I really don't think it's that either but it may be because I threw a koralia 2 on the tank the other and sure enought it did generate some turbulence before I finally got it placed right.....


I REALLY NEED TO GET ME ONE OF THOSE AQULIFTERS.....

 

[glxtrix]

yeah man they are cheap too....Sam might even have one.

 

[xyzpdq0121]

wbholwell;68986 wrote: Those things scare me. You could use an aqualifter pump to constantly remove air/water from the top of the tube. That way you'll never have to worry about losing siphon. Just drill a hole at the top of the tube that's large enough to attach an airline fitting. Then glue/silicone the fitting in place. Attach the aqualifter and route the output back into your tank or sump, and voila- no more worries!

This is EXACTLY what I think I am going to have to do....

Jorge, Mine does the same thing about 2 times a week. I have no idea HOW I am loosing siphon but I do. Lucky for me (and maybe for you) the tank never overflows. It seems like the pressure of the increase of water in the main tank pushes water down into the overflow box. but I have seen the tank all the way full before and wondered how it was not overflowing.

I am going to look into a different tube and see if that is the issue and if not, then I am going to go the aqualifter route!!

 

[glxtrix]

I say you go the aqua lifter route anyways...for the 20 bux they cost (sometimes less) its worth having that backup on your tank, espically if you run a hob of <---- see what I did there, yeah boyeeeee!!!! Gettin down with the hip lingo...ZAAAAANG!!

 

[seedless reefer]

I have one tank that uses an aqua lifter to a weir.

They make noise, they are unsightly and quite frankly first chance I get to pitch this one its outttttta here.

 

[megadeth]

increase your sump return flow, with fast enough flow air bubbles will get pushed though the U tube

too slow a return pump, air bubbles will collect until they break siphon

 

[family reefer]

Another option and a quiet one too is to install a Maxi jet in the tank, Drill and install a nipple in the top of the u tube as described above. Run an airline from the nipple onthe u tube to the air intake in the discharge of the MJ. Any air in the U tube will be pulled from there to the MJ and re injected into the tank.

 

[jgoal55]

hmmmm...I just bought an aqualifter from Sam today and they 9.99 btw so it is definitely a cost effective option to fix the problem......

I also like the idea of the maxi jet siphon but here is my question......with all these "mods" - is it easy to restart the siphon everytime you have to take the u-tube out to clean it????

 

[glxtrix]

the whole concept beind the aqualifter is to create the sypon for you....as long as there is water in the front part of the over flow and the back...which there always should be because thats how they keep syphon anyways, the awualifter will kick on and suck water from both ends thu creating the syphon, just make sure you have the aqualifter on the same circuit (power strip) as your return pump, so when power comes on they are working together and not against eachother

 

[jgoal55]

i guess i was refering more to the maxi jet mod mentioned above......will that automatically create a siphon for you as well?

hose aqualifters are pretty noisy to have on all the time.....

 

[jgoal55]

So I have been doing a lot of reading about this type of set up. The one where you hook up an aqualifter to the top of the u-tube and most of what I have read (on various forums) is pretty mixed reviews....however, the most common answer is that in order to avoid the bubble in the u-tube you need to increase the flow fo your return pump (someone mentioned earlier)....however in a situation like mine where my overflow box is rated at 600gph and my return pump is a Mag 7 (700gph) I am having a hard time increasing the flow because its returns water to the display too quickly for the overflow to keep up......

I think my best option is finally going to be the aqualifter....although they are a bit loud......it ends my worries I hope.

 

[roundman]

I have a 600gph HOB with a mag 9.5 and I had to put a ball valve in the return line to restrict the return. There are always a few bubbles going through the siphon but with the flow they don't stand a chance, they just keep moving. I have had it running for 3-4 weeks and haven't had any siphon problems. If you don't have any type of restrictor on your return then you probably don't have the head pressure to keep it at its best flow. Use the head pressure calculator on RC, it will let you add in how many elbows and distance to figure out if you are balanced or not. 700gph is pretty close to 600gph with a little head pressure.

 

[jgoal55]

I actually do have a ball valve in the return line....it's knocked down almost 3/4 of the way......even if I open just a bit more it starts to overflow the tank....I have it pretty much set to the highest possible flow without overflowing the display tank.....

It worked great for about 10 months, never had a problem with any bubbles, all of the sudden....about every 3 to 4 days there is a bubble

Anyway, with me traveling as much as I do I didnt want to take the chance so I actually just finished working on it a while ago and I installed the aqualifter....so far so good....I cut off the power to both the return and the aqualifter and then turned it back on about five times and all five times it worked like a charm.

And actually, the aqualifter went almost completely quiet once the water started flowing thorugh it.

 

[xyzpdq0121]

Jorge,

I set up the aqualifter on mine to try it out. Once it gets the air out, it is MUCH quieter, I do not even know the thing is on. It works like a champ now. I have not had one bubble. I did not want to do the whole drill thing, just in case, so I ran the airline tube through the U-Tube and it works just as well.

 

[glxtrix]

I have a CPR overflow and they come equipped with that aqualifter, been running it for some time now and its great. I actually thought the aqualifter broke because I couldnt hear it...but its still doing its thing Jorge call me later on when youre up.