Fluval FX5 Bubbles?????

my fx5 is making tons of little micro bubbles. and about every couple of hour i will unplug it and it purges out all of the air and then about 10 min later its full of air again. its no where near any source of air so i figure it has to be pulling in air some where. there are no leaks what so ever. any ideas. thanks

 

Oops.. I thought this fluval fx5 was a skimmer for a second...

Did you wet the o-ring when you packed it?
Inspect your hose connections?
Got any pics?

 

yea i can get pics what do you want them of

 

I was just curious how you have the hoses going to the tank and back to the filter.. not totally needed, but may help us here.


edit:

 

all my hoses are tight i check i didnt wet the oring and i havent changed them in a while i just ordered new ones and waiting for them to get here but i cant figure how or where it would be pulling air in. im thinking the lid or around the motor maybe

 

i do have the out pushing through a cora life 12x twist uv sterilizer but i cant think that that would be the problem because its after the filter

 

Ok. You might try popping the lid and wetting the o-ring before you reseal. That has worked for me in the past.

 

ok i will try that. thanks

 

I know what this is.. it hit me and it took me forever to figure out. the pump is cavitating....

Do you use filter media in the baskets ? ( like the polishing pads ?) or the blue pads? My guess is they are dirty. The polishing pads are great, but after a little bit they get dirty and casue problems. I ended taking out the polishing pads and went with the blue pads.

What is happening, is the water flow is being too restricted by the filter pads, the imppeller in the pump is spinning SO fast, it's actually pulling the oxygen out of the water (called cavitation), causing the bubbles. I have 3 FX5's and it did it to ALL of them. I cleaned the pads and the micro bubble went away, 2 weeks later it started again.. then I removed the polishing pads.. and it has gone away.

... I tried, new O-rings, new hoses, new everything.. and it was just the pads....

 

Just an FYI.. your comment " do have the out pushing through a cora life 12x twist uv sterilizer but i cant think that that would be the problem because its after the filter "

You may want to re-think that. you are pushing the water WAY to fast for the UV to do anything. the FX5 pushing up to 900+GPH

for the 9 watt...
Parasites: water flow should be a max of 55 gph
algae: water flow should be a max of 121 gph
bacteria: water flow should be a max of 253 gph

for the 18 watt...
Parasites: water flow should be a max of 110 gph
algae: water flow should be a max of 240 gph
bacteria: water flow should be a max of 500 gph