Buildup of air in FX5

[blindkiller85]

I'm getting very large quantities of air buildup in my FX5. I've checked all O-rings and the only one that is even slightly loose or had gunk on it was the main O-ring from lid to canister, cleaned and put back in. Checked the pump and impeller and both are clean and screws are tight. What else could be letting air in because everything is tight??? Checked the clamps going from the hose to shut off valve and they are tight, but what about the shut off valves? Are they known to leak air eventually?

I never see any water on the floor beneath the FX5, but it's getting enough air buildup that in small spurts it hits the impeller and makes the exhaust jump and of course it looks like crap having a ton of air bubbles coming out into the aquarium.

 

[Chicxulub]

Mine tends to suck bubbles up and belch them out from time to time. I go out of my way to have tons of bubbles in my water intentionally though.

A possibility for you is a pinprick hole on the intake side. It could very well be small enough that it won't leak water. I had a similar problem with my bead filter when I was plumbing it. It took bloody forever to track down the leak, too. Once I did I was able to fix the leak and the errant filter bubbles stopped.

Moved to setup and filtration.

 

[manafel]

Do you have anything covering the intake?

Sent from my PC36100 using MonsterAquariaNetwork App

 

[doomiedee]

I would change the o ring.


Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app

 

[rodger]

I would sell the filter on Craigslist and get an Eheim. Pump on top so sand can't get in it and no air in system. Something about the design of the filter causes air buildup. That is why the pump shuts off for 2 minutes a day.

 

[blindkiller85]

Do you have anything covering the intake?

Nope, not even close.

I would sell the filter on Craigslist and get an Eheim. Pump on top so sand can't get in it and no air in system. Something about the design of the filter causes air buildup. That is why the pump shuts off for 2 minutes a day.

Like the previous post says that it belches air time to time is usually the 2 minutes that it shuts off per day, because Hagen knows that there is something about the design. But for the near 4 years that I've had this tank up and running, it's never done this until I treated the tank with melafix, which is obvious why it did get buildup of air. After many water changes and 2 filter cleanings since, it's getting a lot of air that's not fine bubbles. Filter shuts off and has enough air that it sounds like a hookah. In the years of owning an FX5 I've never had it get that much.

 

[doomiedee]

For those of you that don't know the fx-5 is suppose to automatically turn off drain and prime it self to release the air built up in the filter. So ops problem is in the o-ring not sealing completely


Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app

 

[johnny potatoes]

I had this problem as well. It was where the intake pipe meets the intake hose, the rubber fitting that connects the two pieces. I just lowered the intake into the water so the joint was under water. Problem solved.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using MonsterAquariaNetwork App