Microbubbles from filter..any suggestions? :(

[d-monic]

Hey all, havent been on in awhile as nursing school has been keeping me really busy, but here i am again,with new questions!
Ok so my tank is about 1 month and a week old now,i added my first fish yesterday *Finnigan the royal gramma!* Hes doing just fine,hes staying in a certain rock but did come out to eat this morning, so i think thats a good sign.
Heres the bad news :help: :
I just started my Bak Pak 2 up,which i must say is working quite nicely, but I didnt notice until last night,that my penguin biowheel filter is producing quite a bit of microbubbles, and that my powerhead was sucking them up and shooting them all over,it was a microbubble storm! So i currently have no powerheads on, which im sure isnt the greatest idea, but im trying to come up with a solution by tonight. Ive tried lowering,and raising the water level,lowering it has helped a bit,but ive still got alot of unwanted bubbles. Im thinking the solution to this is going to simply be a new filtration method..does anyone have any suggestions? My tank is 45 gallon FOWLR, i dont really intend on reefkeeping other then softies, so i dont need a godzilla filter quite yet..plus im pretty broke right now ...
Any suggestions or experiences are greatly appreciated,im having a realy hard time coming up with a solution!

 

[fxlr8]

Are you sure the micro-bubbles are not comming from the bak pak since you just turned it on? On my bak pak I did the maxi-jet mod so it produces tons of bubbles, but the little bubble eliminator sock that comes with it helps reduce the bubbles.
Mine is located on my sump/fuge.

 

[chipmaker]

Try adding more water tothe tank so the outflow from the filter does not have to drop as much which induces bubbles. Any tanks I have wirth hob type filters I always have water levelup higher so it more or less flows right off into the tanks water level and does not really have to drop off the end of the outflow. You mentioned yu added and reduced water already, but how high did you actually make the water level in the tank. I owuld pull the biowheels out of that filter as well and rely on the live rock to do the majority of the filtering. Biowheels become nitrate factorys in a SW setup in no time and actually hinder it more thanhelp it.

 

[d-monic]

Originally Posted by fxlr8
Are you sure the micro-bubbles are not comming from the bak pak since you just turned it on? On my bak pak I did the maxi-jet mod so it produces tons of bubbles, but the little bubble eliminator sock that comes with it helps reduce the bubbles.

I see what you mean, the bak pak was making alot of bubbles too because i just started it up,but they eventually stopped, and the filter and bak pak are on opposite ends of the tank *filter on right,bak pak on left*,and i see the bubbles coming from the filter,unfortunately.
though the powerhead is right next to the bak pak,should i perhaps move it? That mightve been creating the bubble storm by blowing them out of the sock portion and your right though,the sock helps alot,i can see all the bubbles in it that wouldve escaped into the tank otherwise! PS * it it ok to have the sock part totally submerged in water? Thats how mine is! o_o*

 

[d-monic]

Originally Posted by chipmaker
Try adding more water tothe tank so the outflow from the filter does not have to drop as much which induces bubbles. Any tanks I have wirth hob type filters I always have water levelup higher so it more or less flows right off into the tanks water level and does not really have to drop off the end of the outflow. You mentioned yu added and reduced water already, but how high did you actually make the water level in the tank. I owuld pull the biowheels out of that filter as well and rely on the live rock to do the majority of the filtering. Biowheels become nitrate factorys in a SW setup in no time and actually hinder it more thanhelp it.
Ill try more water as soon as i get home@
i did have it so that water was above the lip of the filter completely,but that seemed to be even worse bubble wise!

The thing you said about the biowheel though, i think ill remove it like you say, but will the filter still actually do anything with just the carbon pad,maybe should i put 2 pads in it? I have about 50 pounds of rock, so im not sure of their filtering power...ack..i should probably get a sump or something,im just so confused about them, i have no clue where to even start with it!

 

[chipmaker]

HOw large of a tank do you have. 50 pounds would be more than sufficient in a tank of 29 to 30 gal or even 40 gal capacity. Border line in a 55 gal, but I would certainly add more live rock to a 55 or 60 gal before I would spend money on a different filter. What kind of fish load do you have and what size tank. The skimmer is ogng to take a load of work off a filter as well once its broken in. A sump may be nice but its not really a must have requirement by any means.

 

[d-monic]

Originally Posted by chipmaker
How large of a tank do you have. 50 pounds would be more than sufficient in a tank of 29 to 30 gal or even 40 gal capacity. Border line in a 55 gal, but I would certainly add more live rock to a 55 or 60 gal before I would spend money on a different filter. What kind of fish load do you have and what size tank. The skimmer is ogng to take a load of work off a filter as well once its broken in. A sump may be nice but its not really a must have requirement by any means.

My tank is a 45 gallon tall, id estimate around 50 pounds of rock,i intend to buy some more too I only have 1 royal gramma in the tank right now,with 2 hermits and 5 snails,i added them all yesterday *the tank is only a month and a week old*
i intend to get a larger cleaning crew obviously lol and the tank is gonna stay FOWLR for awhile,im not planning on adding another fish until a week or so from now or longer,and all my fish will be small in size, the largest i intend on getting is a dwarf angel Should i get maybe 10 more pounds of rock? :notsure: I have a LFS where its 4/99 a pounds,cured and they usually have a nice stock

 

[chipmaker]

Somewhere around 1.5 pounds per gal is sufficient, and with that rate once its all cycled and cured is more than capable of going without any kind of filter on it as long as you do not exceed its bio load, which from what you have is far from being overloaded.