Setting up sponge filters

[Schilkeman]

Just starting to use sponge filters and having a little trouble keeping the air just going through the top. I have two nano two tanks (five gallon and ten gallon). I am using the Ziss air stone in the filters. I have an aquarium co op nano sponge filter in the five gallon and a small aquarium co op sponge filter in the ten gallon. The ten gallon seems to be working fine and looks like it is removing a good bit of the particles in the tank. In the five gallon, the nano filter does not seem to be doing as well not bringing as much of the particles in the tank to it. I have watched the video by aquarium co op and both of the filters have an occasional large air bubble coming up from the sponge. Both filters look level and the bubbles do not come out of the same side every time. The amount of air coming off the top is pretty steady and moderately full, putting about half of the possible air that my pumps are able to put out. The pumps that I am using are top fin's air pumps both ratted for each of the tanks. Is this something that I should be concerned with or what adjustment could I do the fix this?

[Kurt Brutting]

Shortening the airline tube that’s connecting to the air stone might help. I also have the same setup in a couple of my aquariums and I had to tighten the ziss air stone on one of my filters to stop some big bubbles from sneaking out of the side. 

Also I used a mouse pad under my air pump to quiet it down a bit. 

[Schilkeman]

Thank you.

[Levi_Aquatics]

I agree with @Kurt Brutting shortening the airline usually does the trick for me. 

[Patrick_G]

You can also adjust the airstone. Sometimes making the bubbles larger or smaller helps. 
 

[Streetwise]

This video might be useful.

[WillC]

I found for the first couple weeks the filters weren't pulling as much. Once they were a little more established and had accumulated some debris, they started to pull more efficiently from the water column.