Bubbles forming on surface of water

I too have a couple of live plants in this tank. Now that I have gravel vac'd a couple of times and did PWC a couple of times (about 25%) the foam is A LOT less. I am assuming it really is the debri from the plants causing all this. Maybe give it a couple of days, do a PWC and see what happens?

L.
 
nmace said:
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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Why are you using salt? It is not needed in the aquarium with any freshwater fish unless you are treating for an illness such as ich where you would use salt with high temperatures. Also the plants will be a lot happier without the addition of salt since that will just irritate them and most do better without any salt in the tank. I would also leave the ph alone. Whatever fish you have or are going to have will adjust to the ph that you have as long as it is stable. The problem with chemicals is that when you are using them the ph will tend to fluctuate which is bad for the fish. If this is going up and down they can go into ph shock and die from it. I would just leave the ph alone.

Marinemom
 
nmace said:
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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Yes - next time, just add conditioned (dechlorinated w/ Prime or whatever) water (I suggest not replacing salt or pH regulator as you do your PWCs, just conditioned water.
 
Really?!!? No salt? I've always heard that 1 tablespoon of salt per 5 gallons in a freshwater tank is recommended. Both by people in pet stores and in books.

I added that amount of salt to my 30 gallon freshwater tank (completely different tank) when I set it up and when I do water changes. It seems to be fine, it has never foamed up like this.
 
Salt is unnecessary in freshwater aquariums that is why it is called a "fresh" water not "salt" water tank. Though many pet stores and the like suggest salt as a general tonic for fish, it is unnecessary. All it does is irritates the fish's mucous membrane and makes them produce extra slime coat. I think that is the thinking behind adding salt, but like I said it is unnecessary.

The only legitimate use would be as a medication for illesses like ich.
 
Wat2Go said:
Hmm. Anybody have any ideas because we are 4 days later now and even though it hasn't gotten any worse, it is also not getting any better?

Again, it isn't dirt, it is just a dense layer of bubbles forming where the filterwater streams in.
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When you do your PWC, are you using a new bucket or an old bucket to add the water? If you are using an old pre-used bucket, it might have some left over gunk that is making it into the tank.

If you are using a brand new bucket, I have found that some plastic manufacturers add a sort of oily finish so as to make it shiny. Minutae amounts leach off with the PWC and enter the tank.

Try scrubbing the bucket really well on the inside until when you run your finger on the dry inside, it doesn't feel oily in any sort of way.
 
Wat2Go said:
I set up a new 29 gallon tank 4 days ago. It has a Aqua 30-40 filter. I added very well rinsed gravel, some decorations and a couple of plants. I also added TLC (live bacteria) in the recommended dose (1/2 ounce per 10 gallon). I added 5 zebra danios the next day (they came out of my ten gallon tank. I would have liked to give the 29g tank a bit more "sitting time" but the danios needed to be taken out of the 10g tank).

Today I notices there are bubbles forming on top of the surface, rather a lot. I used some paper towel to take most of it off, but that didn't seem to do much good...

Water is 78 F, amnio 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 0, ph 7.0. I don't think the tank has even begun a proper cycle, so I do not plan to add any more fish for at least another 3 weeks, and the danios are very happy campers.

What are these bubbles, and how do I get rid of them?

L.
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My tank did this when I first set it up, too. I used Stress Zyme, which is supposedly live bacteria like your TLC. When I found out Stress Zyme was worthless, I stopped using it, and after a few water changes, the bubbles were gone.
 
Stress Zyme is useless? How so? Why?

I know this isn't the main topic of this thread, and I don't mean to hijack it. But I'm new to all of this, and I always heard Stress Zyme was good.
 
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