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EAMarine to EAAquascaper conversion

D

dlambe

Member
Joined
19 Dec 2017
Messages
29
Location
UK
Hi,

I recently bought a second hand Evolution aqua marine 1000. It has been great so far but having some issues with the built in filtration. The return pumps (2x Eheim compact 1000) keep getting filled with air, making them very noisy until they spew out a load of micro bubbles. If it wasn't for the noise i could live with the odd blast of bubbles.

C1162-2.jpg

The only way i can see air getting into the pumps is via the bio media in the next chamber, so have tried attaching some filter floss in between to act as a bubble trap, but so far no joy.

So whilst trying to think what to do next...i thought why not taken out the inbuilt filtration and use a canister..thus effectively making the tank into an EAAquascaper. If i were to remove all the plastic panels (just cut away the silicone) i would just be left with a pure glass aquarium which would also give me 10cm more depth.

Does this sound like a good idea or should i just leave the filtration as it is and try and somehow rectify the bubble issue? Any issues anyone sees with this?

Thanks
 
Hi all,
dlambe said:
The only way i can see air getting into the pumps is via the bio media in the next chamber, so have tried attaching some filter floss in between to act as a bubble trap, but so far no joy.
Click to expand...
If the pump was occasionally was noisy, but with no bubbles, it might be cavitation. Some-one will know if restricting the flow in a sump could cause cavitation (I don't know). If you take the filter sock of and the problem goes away? That would suggest a low flow issue. It might also explain why the filter wadding didn't help.

If the K1 media is very active? I could see that it might be pulling down gas bubbles from the waters surface. I like floating cell media, but because you have a fresh-water planted tank you could replace the K1 with alfagrog or similar, because you are in a much better place with regard to water oxygenation levels.

cheers Darrel
 
Thanks Darrel,

The pump is noisy about 90% of the time to be honest. If i turn them both off and then back on, they will spew out a load of bubbles and they then quieten down, but within 30mins or so they are noisy again.

The eheim pump have an adjustable flow valve, these are on max but have set these low to see if any difference, but the K1 media still turns over fairly rapidly so it didn't seem to make a difference. I like the idea with changing the media, may try that next.


Cheers
Dan
 
I can’t see how air would get to the pumps unless the water level in the sump dropped, do you have a auto top up? I am a newbie to planted tanks but an old hand with reefs and sumps so hopefully I can help. Evaporation will bring the pump part of the sump down first and this could be the source of the air being dragged in?
 
Hey acrobatty, i'm still playing around with it but water is kept 50mm from the top so confident air is not getting dragged in. I think it may be cavitation causing it as darrel suggested. The k1 media is getting pulled against the upper half of the wall in between that chamber and the pump chamber, which is effectively blocking half of the inlets between. I moved half of the K1 and it seems to have helped, i may just get different media.
 
Ah I see the first chamber is an over flow so the media will overflow too, damn.

I’d try running it media free for a couple of days to see if the media is the cause.
 
I thought of that but the k1 media just gets pulled into the narrow channel in between the spare chamber and where it says the media should go, thus blocking it. Thanks for the idea though
 
It is highly unlikely that your bubbles are coming from the sump - your feed area to your pumps are from the bottom and you would need very high flows (not the 1000x2 with no head oressure) to push airbubbles in.

How noisy is your overflow? - have a look at siphon overflow aka Herbie or Bean animal. Any other overflows which entrain air will be noisy like the Durso system

I would suspect this being a Venturi effect - air being entrained or your overflow bringing loads of air bubbles

Ps: I do have a reef and have sumped tank

Sent from my SM-N910F using Tapatalk
 
Can you take a pic of the sump, and specially of last divider? That drawing appears to have a few more things in the last divider than meets the eye... I actually don't believe the pumps are maily fed from the bottom at all... that and water levels, etc, may change our opinions greatly.
 
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