Old power head spits out random bubbles

[B7gwap]

Hey guys/gals, I have an ancient (4-5 years) no name powerhead that I attached some ACO coarse sponge to the bottom of that I keep in my 75 to keep things mixing and moving. There’s no airline hooked up to it and it is under about 12 inches of water. Every 5 minutes or so it spits out a burst of tiny bubbles, and I can’t for the life of me think of why. Could it be little bits of bacteria from the pre filter? Motor wiring letting out magic smoke? Doesn’t seem to hurt or bother the fish. 
 

what do y’all think? Have you ever seen something similar? 

[kahjtheundedicated]

That is interesting. It could be that your water is already high in dissolved gasses, so the pressure changes caused by the pump are causing some of the gas to come out of solution, being the bubbles you are seeing. Not sure why it would only be happening every few minutes, maybe it's pooling in the top of the pump until reaches capacity and is blown out with the water?

[B7gwap]

That makes a lot of sense actually. The pump is noisy/loose, it could very well be cavitation or like you say, dissolved air that accumulates until there’s no more room for it and out it goes. Thanks for the brain scratch! 

[nabokovfan87]

Could it have been dropped and the casing or something isn't sealed 100% anymore? Was it left in the sun at all?

[B7gwap]

On 7/25/2022 at 9:37 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

Could it have been dropped and the casing or something isn't sealed 100% anymore? Was it left in the sun at all?

Entirely possible. I got it from my brother in law who got into ponds and out of tanks. It looked a little worse for wear when I put it in. Still, where would the gas come from to form the bubbles?

cavitation and dissolved gas are plausible. I’d be interested if something else should be considered. 
 

 

[nabokovfan87]

On 7/25/2022 at 9:22 PM, B7gwap said:

I got it from my brother in law who got into ponds and out of tanks. It looked a little worse for wear when I put it in. Still, where would the gas come from to form the bubbles?

Not sure, but from what you're describing it's intaking air somehow I would imagine.  Could just be a hairline crack in the seal on the casing or something else.  You can take a multimeter and check the water to see if it's leaking current or anything as well if you have one.

Could be a pinhole, something very very small.

Even just because it was in the sun for an extended period, some sort of an o-ring or seal dried out and now it has a small enough gap to allow air to flow in.

[Brandon p]

I going to guess there is a small crack in the out flow. The co-op power is great I use it in my 75 just to move the water some. They are so small compared. May concern would be a crack in the casing. I broke one once dropping it and everything was covered in resin but a little shock is a shock. I a have 2 that I got 30 years ago I still use but I think I might replace them with the coop or use wave makers. I like wave maker for flow near the bottom my L-333 plecos breed better with some small flow there. So there is a second opinion if you decided it’s a risk.

[B7gwap]

I forgot that Cory sells power heads. Thanks for the reminder. Too easy not to just change out. 

[Brandon p]

On 7/26/2022 at 11:18 AM, B7gwap said:

I forgot that Cory sells power heads. Thanks for the reminder. Too easy not to just change out. 

I love mine. I bought one on Amazon and on from Cory and corys is more powerful than the Amazon one. I love the coop one. 

[Flumpweesel]

So before you rush to spend money you could check to see if the bubbles occur if you disconnect the power head and run it in a bowl of just tap water, if you get bubbles after initially making sure all the air is expelled then it an weird issue with the head if not then is gasses in the aquarium water.