Eheim 2222 Spewing Tiny Bubbles

[Merduka]

Hi All and Vinz,

After priming eheim 222, after 3/4 days, the outlet stsrtec spewing wster with lots or tiny bubles and the surface seems to have a lot of bubles llike protein.

All mollies died overninght with some mollies apparently jumping ouit of my 2 feet tank.

What went wrong? Then the eheim started to make gurgling sound. I stopped & reprimed - looks ok.

Claned all water and am now having empty tank with substrate but no fish.

I want to add tetras. How do I proceed next?

Thanks
Merduka

[vinz]

Looks like 2 separate problems here.

Sounds like your tank is still in the middle of the nitrogen cycle and the fish either tried to leave the tank, or died from ammonia/nitrite poisoning. Have you been adding anything like Seachem Prime or AmGuard as advised previously?

At this point, be patient and wait about 2 weeks for the tank to cycle completely. When you add fishes, start with a few robust fishes and make sure you use Prime AmGuard or similar product. Feed less. Less food => less fish shit => less ammonia/nitrite => won't overload the bacteria colony. If those fishes survive, then add more fishes. Once the tank is stable, you can go to normal feeding.

If threw out most of the water and added new tap water, chances are you just reset the nitrogen cycle and it will have to start from zero. Then you may have to wait about 4 weeks before adding the tetras. You might want to add 3 or 4 tough fishes to cycle the tank after the first week. Maybe Zebra Danios. Or mollies, but just 1 or 2. Other members may have other suggestions.

Do you have plants in the tank?

Problem 2: Sound likes your filter has an air pocket inside. I had a filter in this series before. It would develop this problem every few months or so, even though I never touchit. It is solved by greasng the big o-ring (the one between the power head and the green translucent body) with vaseline (the petorleum jelly, not moisturisers). The sets come with a tube of vasline, but since your is second hand, you will need to buy a bottle from the pharmacy. Again, NOT moisturisers. You need to get Vaseline Petroleum Jelly. Other brands also can, but must be petroleum jelly without additives. Another solution is to go buy a new o-ring for the set. Just ask any shop that sells Eheim. If they don't have, they might be able to bring in for you. Or go Qian Hu to buy. You could start a thread and ask who knows where to buy.

Edit: The bubbles are from the filter air pocket, but they may not be bursting because of the presence of ammonia/nitrite (read that somewhere, but can't remember which or why.)

[Merduka]

Ok bro, will go get the ammonia/nitrite treatment and KY Jelly to add to the ring.

But will not add fishes in yet for now....

Will keep you posted again.

Thanks
Merduka.

[nox]

i have this model too, the air always gets trapped somewhere so i fix it by turning the whole canister about 90 degrees in all directions. that should make all the air bubbles come out

[Merduka]

Hi all,

New updates:

went and bought KY Jelly from local pharmacy shop. Cleaned the Eheim 2222 and lined the outer O rings with jelly.

I submerged the output filter head below the tank surface to reduce water spalhing out of the tank.

has been running for 2 days..... no more white foam but the water still has strong ammonia smell.

Might get the seachem thingy to break the ammonium cycle.

Next I plan to add CO2 with my purchased tank. Thinking to use external reactor.

will follow adv to add fishes only after tank is cycled.

BTW, I want to start with easy plants.

apart from Nanas, any adv please?

Thanks
Kenneth

[vinz]

Slow easy plants: Cryptocoryne, Java fern (normal or windelov), Java moss

Fast easy plants: Hygrophylia polysperma (robust stemmed plant, grows really fast, good for keeping ammonia in check)

Can you share what your current set up is:
- Substrate
- Tank size
- Lights (how many/ what kind of lights, how many WATTS total)
- What else in there: fish, plants

When you plant, you have to plant densely at one go. Adding a few plants every week or longer will lead to more problems. Start the tank properly. So, best to go to a shop and order your plants, collect them all on one day and plant it all. Then start up the CO2 system and lights. Planning is required.

Btw, plants help to shorten the nitrogen cycle.

Speaking of which... to correct a misconception that I detect in your post: We do not want to "break the ammonia cycle". We NEED to let it complete. The Seachem Prime/Amguard only "locks-up" the ammonia in non-toxic form IF you have fishes to protect. The ammonia will still be available to the filter bacteria, which is NECESSARY for the cycle to complete. So no fish => no need Prime/AmGuard.

I'm wondering why your tank smells of ammonia. Typically new tanks don't have this smell as there should not be any major source of ammonia. Waiting to see what you have in your tank.

[Merduka]

Hi Vincent,

Thank for replying fervently. Here's my update amd photos of my tank set up. FYI, the 2 puffers dies only after 3 days .... I suspect the media/stones in my canister needs to be changed? Have not got an reactor to connect to my 5L CO2 yet.


I have enclosed photos for your advice.

The plan is like you say to have CO2 and only plants firsts to recycle the nitrates

Thanks
Kenneth

[Merduka]

Hi Vince,

BTW what is the substrate I am using? Does it look familar?

Thanks
Kenneth

[vinz]

No idea what substrate that is. You should start another thread with title "ID my substrate", attach the photos and see if any one can reply.

What is in your filter? Did you use new media? Or took some old media from somewhere?

[Merduka]

Hi Vincent,

The media came with the Eheim I purchased 2nd hand. I think I should change it? Any shops to recommend in the west.

Regards
Kenneth

[vinz]

I think we found the problem. So no idea how long the media has been there, whether it was washed, etc. Personally I wouldn't reuse someone else's media unless I know it came from a working filter.

So, yes, advisable to change the media. You can check the set up for your filter here.

You will need all the layers described there. Filtration is very important to aquarium health, so no short cuts here. Some alternatives:

The blue coarse pad: If it came with the filter you bought, you can keep it. But wash it thoroughly. You can soak in hot water too, but I'm not sure how hot it will take, so work your way up from 50%boiled water + 50% tap water. If you get new one, make sure you don't get those that act like activated carbon. (Activated carbon filters away your fertilisers.)

The white fine filter pad: Can get cheap one. Some people buy a large sheet and cut to shape. You should replace this every 6 months to a year. Nature Aquarium in Thomson has cheap pre-cut ones.

The Eheim Substrat Pro is the critical layer. This layer is where the beneficial bacteria will colonise. You can use the Eheim stuff or you can replace it with Biohome Plus. (I'm guessing this is where your filter is having problems. It has probably been taken over by the anaerobic (bad) bacteria.)

The Eheim Mech layer is part of mechanical filtration. It separates the one big current into many small weaker currents and lets large debris drop to the bottom of the filter. You can go cheap and get ceramic rings from this layer. You can also get Eheim Mech Pro instead.

West side plenty of shops. Go look at the map in our fish shop directory. C328 and Polyart in Clement block 328 are well stocked shops to start with.