Strong air flow on nano pump?

[BBlue]

Hello,

So I just set up a 10 gallon tank. It is a sponge filter with a nano pump and air stone. The tubing where the air stone is attached with a little air line tubing and I still have a bit of bubbles coming from the side. I feel the flow is really fast for it. I cannot adjust the airflow due it to being a nano pump.  It is for my beta fish. Lots of small bubbles on surface the side where the sponge filter is and feels like the flow is pretty fast. I kind of want to adjust it to be a bit slower but maybe it is just fine and I am just paranoid. Sorry first time fish owner. 

[Pepere]

You can certainly adjust air flow from any air pump.

it involves installing a splitter in the air line and a valve on the outflow from the splitter to bleed off some of the air.

having said that, there is a big difference in quality of valves.

 

might I suggest the Ziss premium air valve with fine conntrol.

 

https://www.aquariumcoop.com/products/ziss-premium-air-valve

 

and putting an airstone at the end of your air bleed line eliminates the hissing sound from the escaping air.

Edited December 3, 2022 by Pepere

[AllFishNoBrakes]

Like @Pepere suggested, the Ziss premium air valve is excellent. In a pinch you should also be able to pick up any air valve from any big box store, I simply like the Ziss one and have tons of them 

[Pepere]

On 12/3/2022 at 1:23 PM, AllFishNoBrakes said:

In a pinch you should also be able to pick up any air valve from any big box store

I have bought cheap air valves before and spent more money on them than the Ziss….

 

and they did not have enough fine control to work as an air bleed.

 

There may well be ones that do have enough control, but I know the Ziss work…

[AllFishNoBrakes]

@Pepere Indeed. However, OP stated they were a first time fish keeper and bleeding air might be confusing. Any valve installed in line from the pump to the sponge could turn down the flow on a single sponge filter. 

[Pepere]

On 12/3/2022 at 7:06 PM, AllFishNoBrakes said:

Any valve installed in line from the pump to the sponge could turn down the flow on a single sponge filter. 

It might, but I hate throttling air flow and increasing back flow to the pump.  Increased wear and tear…

[Cory]

It also appears your water has ammonia or a med in it as the bubbles are an odd size and building up at the top of the water.

[BBlue]

Thank you for the responses. I just ordered a valve from here and some plants. I do feel that could be the cause of all the bubbles the ammonia. I received the beta unexpectedly and it is in a bowl with the marbles and no heater/filter in it right now. I am trying to set up this tank as fast as I can. Right now the tank has eco complete, sponge filter and heater. I have been putting prime every other day and one measure size of QuickStart. But I know their is nothing in it for the good bacteria to hold on to and I am worried to put in the fish right now. But the longer it is without the heater the worse it is. This will be my first planted tank with beta. The plants should be coming in in a couple days. What can I do for the ammonia and situation in general for the beta? Sorry for such a long post all so new. I just tested the water tonight. I still don’t know how to read the test strip. What does this test show? 

[nabokovfan87]

On 12/2/2022 at 10:12 PM, BBlue said:

It is a sponge filter with a nano pump and air stone. The tubing where the air stone is attached with a little air line tubing and I still have a bit of bubbles coming from the side. I feel the flow is really fast for it.

Cory has a video on this issue about optimizing your sponge filter. Essentially you want the airline hose piece you're using to attach the airstone to be as short as you can make it so that the airstone isn't leaning left/right. 

Ultimately, in my experience, all of my sponge filters have this happen.  It could be due to the foam density perhaps, but I would suggest adjusting the airstone if you're worried about flow being an issue.  Using something to put more back pressure, especially on the nano pumps, could lead to a failure.  As always, make sure you're using a check valve if you need to.  If you want to reduce the flow without putting back pressure you'd use a metal gang valve and then leave one of the taps open, adjust your pressure on the filter and let the excess flow out through one of the other taps.  I can't guarantee it wont work because you can run into issues with pressure and tuning it in just right.

or my own tanks, I've never felt like the nano pumps were too strong.  Hopefully that helps reassure you that it's not too much flow.

 

 

On 12/3/2022 at 2:28 AM, Pepere said:

You can certainly adjust air flow from any air pump.

it involves installing a splitter in the air line and a valve on the outflow from the splitter to bleed off some of the air.

having said that, there is a big difference in quality of valves.

 

might I suggest the Ziss premium air valve with fine conntrol.

 

https://www.aquariumcoop.com/products/ziss-premium-air-valve

 

and putting an airstone at the end of your air bleed line eliminates the hissing sound from the escaping air.

Going back to what Pepere was mentioning (awesome breakdown of how to make this work by the way, I didn't think of the airstone!)

This is what I use:


In my case, my tank just has an airstone in the corner somewhere and whatever "extra" air there is goes through there.

Metal gang valves are really awesome and whether you're adding an extra sponge, airstone to the tank, or using it outside the tank to release any excess gas from the pump, that's a great piece to use. 
 

On 12/3/2022 at 9:09 PM, BBlue said:

Thank you for the responses. I just ordered a valve from here and some plants. I do feel that could be the cause of all the bubbles the ammonia. I received the beta unexpectedly and it is in a bowl with the marbles and no heater/filter in it right now. I am trying to set up this tank as fast as I can. Right now the tank has eco complete, sponge filter and heater. I have been putting prime every other day and one measure size of QuickStart. But I know their is nothing in it for the good bacteria to hold on to and I am worried to put in the fish right now. But the longer it is without the heater the worse it is. This will be my first planted tank with beta. The plants should be coming in in a couple days. What can I do for the ammonia and situation in general for the beta? Sorry for such a long post all so new. I just tested the water tonight. I still don’t know how to read the test strip. What does this test show? 

The Test you showed does show a tank starting to cycle.  You'd want to keep cycling things until you see 0 nitrites.  That test doesn't show ammonia, but you'd expect there to be some right now.  Not having a heater might be a concern depending what the water temp is right now.  If a betta in particular gets too cold you can have some diseases and health issues show up.

This is how you'd read the test. Hopefully it makes sense:
Ammonia (seperate test) turns into nitrite and nitrite eventually turns into nitrate.  (top two tests on this strip)


As far as how to read the test, let me start you with a few things first.  Please feel free to ask any questions after watching them. We're all here to help and want you to have success with the hobby 🙂

Right now to help with water issues, you'd want to do your water changes, preferably daily if you can.  I would start with 30% daily until you see the tank fully cycled.  After the WC, you'd add in your bacteria (quickstart) and dechlorinator (prime) like normal.
 

 

Edited December 4, 2022 by nabokovfan87

[Pepere]

On 12/4/2022 at 12:56 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

Metal gang valves are really awesome and whether you're adding an extra sponge, airstone to the tank, or using it outside the tank to release any excess gas from the pump, that's a great piece to use. 

I do use a metal gang valve to bleed off excess air but I run a short run of airline tube off a port, have the ziss valve on the tube, than more airline tube from the ziss and in to an airstone.

 

the metal gang valve is more of an on  and off valve.  The Ziss is  far better at fine air control to meter exactly how much air you want to bleed off.

[BBlue]

On 12/4/2022 at 12:56 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

Cory has a video on this issue about optimizing your sponge filter. Essentially you want the airline hose piece you're using to attach the airstone to be as short as you can make it so that the airstone isn't leaning left/right. 

Ultimately, in my experience, all of my sponge filters have this happen.  It could be due to the foam density perhaps, but I would suggest adjusting the airstone if you're worried about flow being an issue.  Using something to put more back pressure, especially on the nano pumps, could lead to a failure.  As always, make sure you're using a check valve if you need to.  If you want to reduce the flow without putting back pressure you'd use a metal gang valve and then leave one of the taps open, adjust your pressure on the filter and let the excess flow out through one of the other taps.  I can't guarantee it wont work because you can run into issues with pressure and tuning it in just right.

or my own tanks, I've never felt like the nano pumps were too strong.  Hopefully that helps reassure you that it's not too much flow.

 

 

Going back to what Pepere was mentioning (awesome breakdown of how to make this work by the way, I didn't think of the airstone!)

This is what I use:


In my case, my tank just has an airstone in the corner somewhere and whatever "extra" air there is goes through there.

Metal gang valves are really awesome and whether you're adding an extra sponge, airstone to the tank, or using it outside the tank to release any excess gas from the pump, that's a great piece to use. 
 

The Test you showed does show a tank starting to cycle.  You'd want to keep cycling things until you see 0 nitrites.  That test doesn't show ammonia, but you'd expect there to be some right now.  Not having a heater might be a concern depending what the water temp is right now.  If a betta in particular gets too cold you can have some diseases and health issues show up.

This is how you'd read the test. Hopefully it makes sense:
Ammonia (seperate test) turns into nitrite and nitrite eventually turns into nitrate.  (top two tests on this strip)


As far as how to read the test, let me start you with a few things first.  Please feel free to ask any questions after watching them. We're all here to help and want you to have success with the hobby 🙂

Right now to help with water issues, you'd want to do your water changes, preferably daily if you can.  I would start with 30% daily until you see the tank fully cycled.  After the WC, you'd add in your bacteria (quickstart) and dechlorinator (prime) like normal.
 

 

Thank you for all this information! Learning about the cycle has helped a bit. Now just need to keep trying to remember it. I will say I still have a bunch of this little bubbles still. I did a 25% water changed yesterday and got to put in my new plants. Today the bubbles are all over the surface of the water and when I open the lid some portions of the bubbles on top despite. I am waiting for my ammonia test kit to arrive to see how high the ammonia is. Right now in this tank is just the plants I am waiting to fix this bubble problem to put in my beta. He is in a vase with no heater or filter so I would like to get him in the new tank soon. Do I keep doing the water changes everyday? With the prime to dechlorinate the water and QuickStart too? Here are some pictures to explain more.  Also the plants are so cute I hope they will be ok. I do have easy green but haven’t put any in yet. 

[nabokovfan87]

On 12/6/2022 at 11:37 AM, BBlue said:

Do I keep doing the water changes everyday?

Yes. If you don't have anything in the tank right now you can change as much water as you want.

Daily, with animals in the tank, 30-50% is best for the water volume change.

For the quick start, follow the directions on the bottle.

For prime, you'll dose that every time you change water.

Secondly, let's verify that your water itself isn't causing some of the test results.

Take a sample of water from the sink and test that water.

Using an air stone aerate it for 24 hours and test again.

It looks like on some of your test strips you're getting some contamination. Here's a video on how to help reduce that.

 

On 12/6/2022 at 11:37 AM, BBlue said:

Also the plants are so cute I hope they will be ok. I do have easy green but haven’t put any in yet. 

They should be fine right now. Start off with a small dose not a full dose and work your way up to a full dose of easy green. Depending on light, plant selection, etc. Will determine how much you need. Something like anubias I almost always do a small dose, but we'll discuss all that later if you need any help.

The water has nitrates, so the plants have something to use for food right now.

[BBlue]

Ok so I tested the tap water the top strip is my tap water. The bottom left is before 50% water change, prime and QuickStart dose. I noticed when I did the 50 % change I wiped the glass inside and it had some brown on it? But cleaned that put new water in. The bottom right is after the change. 

[AllFishNoBrakes]

This brown on the glass is most likely diatoms, which is a good sign that your tank is coming to life. All tanks go through a diatom algae stage in the beginning. It’s a good sign!

[BBlue]

On 12/6/2022 at 8:41 PM, AllFishNoBrakes said:

This brown on the glass is most likely diatoms, which is a good sign that your tank is coming to life. All tanks go through a diatom algae stage in the beginning. It’s a good sign!

Oh no i wiped some of it off 😞 I thought it was dirt. Well now I know not to disturb it.

[nabokovfan87]

On 12/6/2022 at 5:57 PM, BBlue said:

Oh no i wiped some of it off 😞 I thought it was dirt. Well now I know not to disturb it.

You're fine to remove it. Most people do. 🙂

On 12/6/2022 at 3:57 PM, BBlue said:

Ok so I tested the tap water the top strip is my tap water. The bottom left is before 50% water change, prime and QuickStart dose. I noticed when I did the 50 % change I wiped the glass inside and it had some brown on it? But cleaned that put new water in. The bottom right is after the change. 

It's a little difficult to read the strips. After they sit for a little bit they dry out or overdevelop and the results aren't accurate as well.

It might be easier if you test one, take a photo, record the values, then repeat that as you need to.

What you have is fine, I think there's more to the story as far as your cycling issues if the test is accurate that you're showing us.

The top strip, from the tap, shows pink for nitrite and nitrates, right?

[AllFishNoBrakes]

Like @nabokovfan87 said, you’re fine to remove the diatoms. It’s simply a good sign that your tank is moving in the right direction!