Why is my Flistar producing micro bubbles?

[Jeremy S]

Well, I thought the problem had gone away since the filter wasn’t spitting bubbles for over a week but it’s starting to produce the bubbles again. Now it only does it in the evening after all the plants are pearling but It gets so bad that last night right before we had company coming over I resorted to shutting off the filter just to make the tank look enjoyable.

Here is a pic to show how many bubbles the filter is putting out:

It really makes the tank unpleasant to look at:

 

[Kasakato]

Can we get some pictures of the spray bar, filter intake, and the connections between them all?

 

[MikefromNH]

What kind and how much media does your canister contain. I had the same problems. I thought it was a leak somewhere, but nope. It ended up being clogged/over abundance of media. I figured chefkeith was correct since he seems to be the "Filstar man". He was. I haven't had any bubbles since I cleaned and removed some media (read above post).

Did you drill out your spraybar yet? Is your flow valve completely open? I believe any of these things will cause cavitation. I don't understand why others haven't had a similar problem due to the flow valve alone. It seems these filters are very suceptible to any flow restriction.

Check your media quantity and cleanliness. Also, you could try replacing your spray bar with the power nozzle that came with your Filstar for a day or two. If the problem goes away then you obviously know it's your spray bar. I'd do this first before you remove any media in your canister.

Keep us posted!

 

[MikefromNH]

Uhhhh......Jeremy S? Hello.....hello.....hello.....hello.....

Inquiring minds want to know.....if you are bubble free.

 

[Jeremy S]

Sorry for not replying sooner. I first tried replacing spray bar with the power nozzle for a day but that didn’t help so I cleaned and rearranged the media in a less constrictive way and that seems to have taken care of the problem.


Here is how I had the media arranged at the start:

Basket #3...1 Sheet of 50 Micron Filter Pad
..................1 Sheet of Filter Floss
..................1 Sheet of 100 Micron Filter Pad
..................1 Sheet of Filter Floss

Basket #2...1 20 PPI Foam Pad
..................1 20 PPI Foam Pad
..................1 30 PPI Foam Pad

Basket #1...1 30 PPI Foam Pad
..................1 liter of Ehfimech
_________________________________________________

This is what I changed it to:

Basket #3...1 Sheet of 50 Micron Filter Pad
..................1 Sheet of Filter Floss
..................1 20 PPI Foam Pad

Basket #2...1 Sheet of 100 Micron Filter Pad
..................1 Sheet of Filter Floss
..................1 20 PPI Foam Pad
..................1 30 PPI Foam Pad

Basket #1...1 30 PPI Foam Pad
..................1 liter of Ehfimech

 

[Philbe]

I would say you have to many layers of foam in there and when they get a bit dirty, thereby slowing down the water flow through the canister, the impeller is causing a little bit of cavitation. Why not try using the course foam with one layer of fine foam in the bottom basket, then a layer of floss in the middle and one of the micron pads in the top basket. I tried using lots of extra media in mine and flow was reduced and I would get loads of bubbles.

HTH Phil

 

[Jeremy S]

I’ll try this configuration for a month or so and if it starts to produce bubbles then I’ll remove some of the media. I would like to try to keep both the micron pads if at all possible since they make the water extremely clear, better then I could ever get with filter floss. Thanks again.

 

[MikefromNH]

Nice. Glad to hear your problem seems to be solved. IMO you had a TON of mechanical filtration in your first setup. In my XP-3, I have the stock foam pieces, 1 box (325g?) of biomax, 1 box of some other brand of ceramic rings, a bunch of carbon (temporarily-for removing a bit of tint from driftwood) and the stock top micron pad. Like I said before, I removed a colonized "emergency" Mag 350 filter sleeve that I have for a potential quarantine tank to eliminate the cavitation, but that's all it took. Hopefully your media change does the trick. Good luck.

 

[Jeremy S]

I’m using this filter solely for mechanical filtration. I have an Eheim ECCO that is only used for Biological filtration running on the same tank. I agree if this was my only filter I would have used a lot more biological media in it.

So far the media switch seems to be working and I’ll post back here if I start to get bubbles again. Thanks for your help. I really appreciate it, Jeremy.