Filter Occasionally Noisy And Produces Fine Bubbles

[sannesley]

I have a Rekord 800 tank which has been up and running now nearly 6 months. Link to tank here. I have never removed the filter from the housing since I set up the tank. Recently it has started to do something strange from time to time. It will blow out fine bubbles occassionally and make a noise while it is doing this. I can correct the issue with the bubbles being blown out instead of water by pulling the filter assembly up out of its housing by about 1 inch and then pushing it back into place.

Has anybody any idea why this is happening? Is it because the filter sponge need cleaning? Don't the sponges have a bacterial community on them which breaks down the harmful ammonia? I always believed that cleaning these sponges would reduce the effectiveness of the filter and I would end up with fish dying on me. This problem is not affecting fish health at the moment...

Any ideas folks??

 

[Richard22b]

Air is either getting into the system or there is air trapped in the system that every now and then is getting nocked out.

Check the seals first off and confirm no leaks in or out. The half a look at what is being drawn into the system...

Is the intake pipe by a bubble maker or anything like that or partly out of the water.

 

[cowboy507]

Don't the sponges have a bacterial community on them which breaks down the harmful ammonia? I always believed that cleaning these sponges would reduce the effectiveness of the filter and I would end up with fish dying on me. This problem is not affecting fish health at the moment...

Any ideas folks??

Cleaning them is good, you need to do this every so often, but make sure that you just rinse with the tank water. you will lose some bacteria, but it will grow back quickly because not all the bacteria is lost.

 

[sannesley]

Cleaning them is good, you need to do this every so often, but make sure that you just rinse with the tank water. you will lose some bacteria, but it will grow back quickly because not all the bacteria is lost.

I also only top up with dechlorinated water when the levels drop enough by natural evaporation as opposed to the changing of water levels on a regular basis that I've heard folks on the forum talking about.

So what you're saying is that if I was doing a partial water change that I should give the filter sponges a light squeeze in this water to clean the sponges a bit and then put the sponges back in the filter housing and then top up the water level in the tank with fresh dechlorinated water?