Sponge filter virgin in need of help!!!

[Slick_Nick]

Hey everyone I ordered my first ever sponge filter about a week ago for a small tank I set up to grow out fry. I ordered the nano size sponge filter from aquarium co op. I got an air stone and air line tubing I had the pump and a valve to control the amount of air already. I can’t get it to stop making bubbles come out of the sponge. The piece of tube attached to the air stone is as short as I could possibly make it and I’ve tried turning the air down it doesn’t seem to help at all it chokes out the air too much and puts a lot of strain on the pump. Any other tips? I tried catching a pic of the bubbles escaping out the side. It’s not a lot but I’m sure it’s enough to make it less effective. 

[nabokovfan87]

I pretty much gave up on trying to get that fixed on mine.  The fish move it around, it's always slightly leaning,  Even when perfect, it still released bubbles outside of the lift tube.  My assumption is that the porosity of the sponge has something to do with it, there's not a way around it.

You can try turning down the air, but beyond that just ignore it, you're fine!
 

 

Edited January 21, 2023 by nabokovfan87

[mynameisnobody]

Cut the airline that connects the airstone to the sponge filter so that it is very small. Basically the airstone must sit towards the very top of the sponge in order to eliminate bubbles. Give it a shot, it should work for you. Also I would turn down the air a lot. You’d be surprised how little you need to pump through to make it effective. 

[Slick_Nick]

On 1/21/2023 at 12:58 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

I pretty much gave up on trying to get that fixed on mine.  The fish move it around, it's always slightly leaning,  Even when perfect, it still released bubbles outside of the lift tube.  My assumption is that the porosity of the sponge has something to do with it, there's not a way around it.

You can try turning down the air, but beyond that just ignore it, you're fine!
 

 

I appreciate your help I was kind of thinking the same thing with the porosity of the sponge making it easier for the bubbles to escape out the side like that! I guess as long as most of the bubbles are coming through the lift tube it should be good

On 1/21/2023 at 6:51 AM, Mynameisnobody said:

Cut the airline that connects the airstone to the sponge filter so that it is very small. Basically the airstone must sit towards the very top of the sponge in order to eliminate bubbles. Give it a shot, it should work for you. Also I would turn down the air a lot. You’d be surprised how little you need to pump through to make it effective. 

I did cut the air line in there as short as possible it’s all the way at the top and still didn’t help. As for my adjustment on my air pump it seems like when I try to cut the air just a little it cuts it almost completely out and you can hear the strain on the air pump. I might try to find a new valve for adjusting the air so I can fine tune it. Thank you for your help

[TOtrees]

I’ve had the same issue, and I’ve gone even farther, still without success in fixing the problem. 

I’ll be honest, I am comparing performance of the coop sponges to the good old Hydro sponges, using coarse foam. When investigating the issue, I observed that the inside diameter of the coop’s sponge is a bit smaller than the Hydro sponges, meaning an air stone will occupy or block a greater proportion of that chamber, and I thought perhaps that might physically obstruct enough of the water being drawn through the sponge and up the tube that that was causing some of the bubbles to escape of the side. 

So I went out and got some of the smaller diameter air “stones” by Lee’s, you know the “disposable” ones? Anyways, I tried setting up the sponge with that inside, end result is it doesn’t seem to have made a difference. Or, if there was an improvement, it was minor and might have abated but didn’t outright fix the problem.

So, like @nabokovfan87 I’ve given up on trying to fix the issue. I’m going back to the Hydro Pro (coarse) next time I need new ones. I love the coop and I love what they’ve done for the hobby over the last decade or so. Being in Canada, a lot of what the coop sells isn’t available to me, but in addition to a couple sponge filters, I have bought their fry food, and I also managed to get one of the heaters. They’re both awesome. Cory is truly improving on the quality of many of the hobby’s staples. And, what Cory and the coop have done for accessing knowledge/learning and reaching peers is nothing short of amazing.

 

[Slick_Nick]

On 1/21/2023 at 7:39 AM, TOtrees said:

I’ve had the same issue, and I’ve gone even farther, still without success in fixing the problem. 

I’ll be honest, I am comparing performance of the coop sponges to the good old Hydro sponges, using coarse foam. When investigating the issue, I observed that the inside diameter of the coop’s sponge is a bit smaller than the Hydro sponges, meaning an air stone will occupy or block a greater proportion of that chamber, and I thought perhaps that might physically obstruct enough of the water being drawn through the sponge and up the tube that that was causing some of the bubbles to escape of the side. 

So I went out and got some of the smaller diameter air “stones” by Lee’s, you know the “disposable” ones? Anyways, I tried setting up the sponge with that inside, end result is it doesn’t seem to have made a difference. Or, if there was an improvement, it was minor and might have abated but didn’t outright fix the problem.

So, like @nabokovfan87 I’ve given up on trying to fix the issue. I’m going back to the Hydro Pro (coarse) next time I need new ones. I love the coop and I love what they’ve done for the hobby over the last decade or so. Being in Canada, a lot of what the coop sells isn’t available to me, but in addition to a couple sponge filters, I have bought their fry food, and I also managed to get one of the heaters. They’re both awesome. Cory is truly improving on the quality of many of the hobby’s staples. And, what Cory and the coop have done for accessing knowledge/learning and reaching peers is nothing short of amazing.

 

I appreciate your reply. Sounds like you’ve done quite a bit of tinkering with this!  I think the fact I got the smallest sponge filter they have doesn’t help. It fits perfect in this little tank for growing out fry though. Hopefully somebody has a solution that just hasn’t seen this post yet thank you