Bubbles forming on surface of water

If it's foamy bubbles on the surface not to worry, unless as Squawkbert says they cover too much of the surface. They are not a problem in themselves, but what that would mean is you have an excess of organics breaking down - you sometimes see the same thing along lake shores, turbulence disrupting surface tension (waves - or in the case of your aquarium, the filter) breaks down organics into foam. Basically, you might be overfeeding (too much uneaten fish food or too much fish) or something else organic is breaking down (like dead plant leaves).

Try feeding less and gravel vacuuming more.

When people see the foam on lakeshores, they may think it's detergent, but that's not so.
 
I think it is the plant-thing. Two of the plants died and even though I took them out, of course I left them in a couple of days, hoping - against hope - they weren't really dying... Can't be overfeeding as I was cycling this tank with 5 danios and I haven't really fed them anything to speak off (couple of tiny flakes every other day).
I vacuumed the gravel, did a PWC and filled the tank a bit higher and have a lot less "foam".
Because the water levels were stable for three days I added three panda corys yesterday, so hopefully they will take care of the rest of the debris in the next couple of days.

It is ugly, this foam, but I can live with it, as long as my fish can!

L.
 
Are you sure you don't have a crack in the intke tube that is drawing in air?
 
Ok...I am sure you will laugh at me now but...intake tube?
Is that the thing that sucks the water out of the tank into the filter, because if so, no, it doesn't have a crack (as far as I can tell). And how would that cause bubbles on the surface?

L.
 
It would suck in air and spit back bubbles. Because the surface has a film on it the bubbles don't pop as readily as they would if the surface was cleaner.
 
The crack would act like a nozzle in a venturi. The relative high speed of the water would draw in air and entrain it.
 
I get the same thing. I am certain mine is not from dissolved organics. I can drain a tank down to less than an inch, fill it back up and the foam is still there. I don't have any gravel to get filled with waste (I keep bare bottom tanks), the fish always eat all the food, and I try to clean the filters at least once a week. But in my case, I think it is just another symptom of the on-going water problems I have been having straight out of the tap.
 
rbishop said:
The crack would act like a nozzle in a venturi. The relative high speed of the water would draw in air and entrain it.
Click to expand...

Sorry, I am not kidding, but English is not my first language so I am still not sure what you mean here (and my handy dandy dictionary wasn't any help either..). I took out the filter and checked the intake very carefully and it seems to be perfectly fine. Also, the water doesn't "bubble" back in the tank, it streams back (just the same as it does in my 10-gallon tank), the bubbles form in the water and then rise to the surface and sort of cluster together. It looks like an island of bubbles...

Since I did a couple of PWC and filled the tank a bit higher, it seems a lot less, so I am going to assume it will disappear over time... That said, can one buy separate intake tubes?

L.
 
I have this problem sometimes in my 125. The bubbles just sit on the surface of the water right by the spraybar from the canister filter that is in use. I find that if I do a sizable water change and increase the surface aggitation then I see a lot less of it. However, it does not seem to have completely gone away.

Marinemom
 
My newly setup 20 gallon tank has a problem that sounds a lot like this. Whenever I turn on my bubble stone, the entire surface of the tank is 100% covered in one-half inch of foam in about 10 minutes. I can turn off the air pump and the foam is gone in about an hour.

It is a brand new tank that was setup 2 days ago. No fish yet, just live plants. This is my first planted tank. Most of the water is tap water that I treated to remove the chlorine. I also used a few gallons of water I took out of my existing 30 gallon. I also added salt (1 tablespoon per 5 gal) and PH regulator to take the PH to 7. I didn't have this happen on my first tank. Why is it happening now? I don't want my plants to die. Suggestions? Thanks.
 
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