Floating Aquarium Co-Op Sponge Filter???

[laritheloud]

I ordered a new small sized sponge filter for my 20 gallon quarantine to work in addition to an HOB... And when I placed it into the tank, it floated. 😳 I have Aquarium Co-op sponge filters in all of my tanks and this is the first time I've had a problem with floating. Did anyone else have this issue?? Can I fix it with anything other than wedging it in with a decoration?

[HH Morant]

You can probably find a way to attach some plant weights to it.

Are you sure all the air is squeezed out?

[laritheloud]

I have plant weights so I'll try that, thanks. I think I did? I squeezed the sponge, I opened it up and closed it....

[Streetwise]

@laritheloud, did you use the click-in base weight with the sponge? 

The only sponge filters that have risen for me have been when the air tubing stiffened up from light exposure and/or hard water.

[Cory]

Have a picture? at worst, you'd squeeze it under water if a bunch of air is trapped. The only thing I could think of is possibly yours is missing a weight in the base? Never had that happen in like 50k+ sold though.

[laritheloud]

Crisis averted! I opened up the filter and put it back together underwater and it's sinking properly now. Thank you! @Cory I got it working, thanks for checking in 🙂

[Andy's Fish Den]

If its a newly set up tank or you just did a water change on it, the water probably has excess oxygen in it, it happens in winter when the tap water is colder thus holding more oxygen. I had it happen a couple weeks ago when I felled a new tank and put the sponge filter in, it was floating a couple hours later. I just grabbed it, and squeezed all the air out of it and it sank right to the bottom.

[laritheloud]

On 12/9/2021 at 1:52 PM, Andy's Fish Den said:

If its a newly set up tank or you just did a water change on it, the water probably has excess oxygen in it, it happens in winter when the tap water is colder thus holding more oxygen. I had it happen a couple weeks ago when I felled a new tank and put the sponge filter in, it was floating a couple hours later. I just grabbed it, and squeezed all the air out of it and it sank right to the bottom.

That's exactly what happened. The sponge filter is new, but I am also putting in a seeded HOB off my 55 gallon tank. I'm going to be quarantining some larger fish (cichlids, managebly-sized plecos) in this tank and I'm overfiltering so it can handle meds/a slightly overstocked bioload.