New substrate causing foam despite thorough rinsing

[Karen B.]

Greetings 

I bought the Estes Nature Blend Gravel - shallow creek substrate to replace the Estes black sand I had because it was too compact for my plants to thrive.

No matter how much I rinced it, there was some foam forming at the surface before disappearing.

I did not use soap, it’s not my tap water or the container used as just prior to rincing that substrate, I rinced some Flourite black sand and there was no foam.

I wrote to the company. First answer was :

« Thanks for purchasing our products. This is unusual and not something that we experience with our gravel. Given that the bubbles are temporary, I believe there is no problem but we’d like to check further. Do you still have the bag? If so, please send a photo of the UPC code area on the back so we can check our retained sample.»

I gave the UPC code and joined this video of me rincing the substrate. 

 

I received this answer :

« Thanks for sending this video – I don’t see anything out of the ordinary, I get some bubbles that quickly dissipate every time I rinse gravel as well. I suspect it has to do with the water itself and suggest you use a water treatment. »

Today I finally got around to change the substrate of my aquarium. I first removed the plants/decor, HOB filter, sponge filter and 50% of the water in a bucket. There was no foam or anything.

I removed the sand, placed the new substrate and put everything back in the tank.
I added some new water (treated with Prime and stability, as usual). I also added some of that new water in another tank. No foam in the other tank so clearly the foam is not coming from the new water either.

Nothing but the substrate was changed. And now the sponge filter is creating foam like crazy. It’s not oily and the bubble pops faily quickly. I added activated carbon to the filter - it’s been running for about 12 hours, foam is still forming.

My water parameters are 0/0/5

pH 6.6, kh 60, gh 150. (Aquarium co-op test strips)

Temp 78, no chlorine or chloramine.

I put my nerite snail and my spixi snail back in yesterday. The spixi is inside the water, but the nerita is above the water line. Can I put my betta back in the tank? I can’t quite figure out what the foam is, I know it comes from the substrate but I can’t rince it more than I did…

 

[nabokovfan87]

In the first video, that's normal from the faucet.

In the second video we have something on the top of the tank causing smaller bubbles to form and foam up.

One of the main tasks when doing substrate is to disturb it. Whatever is going on you could have oils on the tank or the substrate causing issues like you're seeing.

I forget who else had issues like this before, but we went through a process to resolve it. We never did find the cause, but needless to say the method works for this type of a contamination.

1. Drain the water by 50-60% and take a hose or something to disperse water onto the glass, especially towards the rim area.  You're trying to remove, rub off, etc. Any oils that have found themselves towards the surface due to the water level.  For a lot of this I use paper towels and wipe everything down until it's new in appearance.

2. Take the substrate and disturb it. Try to release anything that's in the substrate like food waste and everything else. Siphon out that water and drain the tank as much as possible.

3. Either in the tank or by removing the substrate, rinse it as best you can. It is gravel so be careful not to shock the glass through this process. If the substrate feels oily at all then I would remove it for the sake of being able to clean the bottom glass better.

4. Fill everything up and run the tank like normal. Run carbon for a minimum of two weeks.

5. If you don't see improvement, repeat the process weekly.

On 12/1/2022 at 4:59 PM, Karen B. said:

 

I put my nerite snail and my spixi snail back in yesterday. The spixi is inside the water, but the nerita is above the water line. Can I put my betta back in the tank? I can’t quite figure out what the foam is, I know it comes from the substrate but I can’t rince it more than I did…

It's up to you. I can't say it's fine, but I also wouldn't worry very heavily. Snails are pretty sensitive. If the snails are ok, I would think the Betta will be.

In terms of how you have the aquaclear setup. The fine pad should be above the sponge, but below the bag of media.

On 12/1/2022 at 4:59 PM, Karen B. said:

Nothing but the substrate was changed. And now the sponge filter is creating foam like crazy. It’s not oily and the bubble pops faily quickly. I added activated carbon to the filter - it’s been running for about 12 hours, foam is still forming

The carbon should be on top of the ceramic media

Because it's not lingering that points towards things being ok vs. worrisome.

[Karen B.]

On 12/2/2022 at 1:26 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

In the first video, that's normal from the faucet.

In the second video we have something on the top of the tank causing smaller bubbles to form and foam up.

One of the main tasks when doing substrate is to disturb it. Whatever is going on you could have oils on the tank or the substrate causing issues like you're seeing.

I forget who else had issues like this before, but we went through a process to resolve it. We never did find the cause, but needless to say the method works for this type of a contamination.

1. Drain the water by 50-60% and take a hose or something to disperse water onto the glass, especially towards the rim area.  You're trying to remove, rub off, etc. Any oils that have found themselves towards the surface due to the water level.  For a lot of this I use paper towels and wipe everything down until it's new in appearance.

2. Take the substrate and disturb it. Try to release anything that's in the substrate like food waste and everything else. Siphon out that water and drain the tank as much as possible.

3. Either in the tank or by removing the substrate, rinse it as best you can. It is gravel so be careful not to shock the glass through this process. If the substrate feels oily at all then I would remove it for the sake of being able to clean the bottom glass better.

4. Fill everything up and run the tank like normal. Run carbon for a minimum of two weeks.

5. If you don't see improvement, repeat the process weekly.

It's up to you. I can't say it's fine, but I also wouldn't worry very heavily. Snails are pretty sensitive. If the snails are ok, I would think the Betta will be.

In terms of how you have the aquaclear setup. The fine pad should be above the sponge, but below the bag of media.

The carbon should be on top of the ceramic media

Because it's not lingering that points towards things being ok vs. worrisome.

Thank you for your reply.

My only question is… it is 100% clean already. As I said, I rinced and rinced and rinced it (new from the bag) disturbing it, shaking it, etc. It WAS STILL making foam (the faucet foam is just bigger but had I put my sponge filter, the results would be the same. There was no faucet foam/bubbles with the other substrate I washed). I could not have rinced it more than I did did so I fail to see how doing it again, now that it’s in the aquarium, would change anything?
 

[nabokovfan87]

Something is changing the viscosity causing the foam. There is a chance it's nothing. If you run into issues I'd follow the above steps. For now. Fix filtration order and then just go ahead and run the carbon as you are.

 

Was there anything that recently changed in the tank, meds? Salt? Air? Anything?

It could be as simple as some soap residue from doing dishes made it's way into the tank. Could be a new food. Etc.

[Karen B.]

On 12/2/2022 at 5:19 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

Something is changing the viscosity causing the foam. There is a chance it's nothing. If you run into issues I'd follow the above steps. For now. Fix filtration order and then just go ahead and run the carbon as you are.

 

Was there anything that recently changed in the tank, meds? Salt? Air? Anything?

It could be as simple as some soap residue from doing dishes made it's way into the tank. Could be a new food. Etc.

Nothing new. 
I rinced it in 4 different batches. Each batch was still foaming with the faucet water (first video). As I said, I would have put the sponge filter in that container, I would obtain the same results as I do currently in the aquarium.

Nothing changed in the aquarium. It was running, no bubbles, then I literally in 1 hour removed decor/plants/water in a 5 gallons bucket, removed old substrate, vacuumed the gunk at the bottom, placed new substrate, filled back with faucet water treated with dechlorinated water (about 2-3 gallons to start planting). Added sponge filter and bubbles started right away.

I used same faucet treated water (the 2 gallons left) in another tank to top it, no foam. So the culprit isn’t the water.

Isn’t the old aquarium water either as when I was removing the old substrate, the sponge filter was placed in the 5 gallons bucket with the saved old aquarium water, decor and plants.

It boggles my mind as it’s obviously the substrate but I rinced washed it soooo much. Yet if said substrate was known to foam, I would find the information somewhere… It can’t be a default bag, as I saw it’s actually coated, can it? Ugh. So complicated!!!

 

[DaveO]

I would not be alarmed by the foam. Obviously the new gravel is the source, although it is supposedly coated with a resin to prevent this vary thing from occuring. The foam is caused by fine particulates in suspension and lifted to the surface by your sponge filter. In time this will resolve by settling out and water changes. To speed up this process you could add Fritz Clarifier (the coop sells it) which binds these particulates together to help the filter catch it and help settle it out of suspension. 

[Karen B.]

On 12/2/2022 at 6:13 AM, DaveO said:

I would not be alarmed by the foam. Obviously the new gravel is the source, although it is supposedly coated with a resin to prevent this vary thing from occuring. The foam is caused by fine particulates in suspension and lifted to the surface by your sponge filter. In time this will resolve by settling out and water changes. To speed up this process you could add Fritz Clarifier (the coop sells it) which binds these particulates together to help the filter catch it and help settle it out of suspension. 

Thank you!! Is it safe if I put my betta back in the aquarium? I am in Canada and can’t get the product before next week

 

[DaveO]

Yes, I believe it is safe for your fish. The whole process you took in changing substrate seems very safe.

[TOtrees]

1. Carbon. Change it out every couple days until the problem disappears.

2. Seachem Clarity does the same as the Fritz product above, you can probably get it locally in canadia. 

3. Good old water changes. 

 

[Guppysnail]

This happens to me each time I use gravel (I buy cheap big box stuff)  or add new gravel once in the tank as well. It has never harmed my fish. Due to it changing the viscosity I usually just add an extra airstone for a bit. 
Once I did soak in a mild vinegar solution and re-rinse a bunch of times. That helped but there was still some bubbling. 
when rinsing I use my hand and hot water. I agitate the heck out of it and it reduces some of the residual bubbling that happens in the tank but does not eliminate it. It goes away with a few water changes.