Fx5 air problem

[Yan7gin]

I need to prime my Fx5 after 8 to 10 hours becaus is full of air and make lots of micro bubble in my tank? Before it was doing thats when i put some polishing pad in and if i dont change them after a week, but now i remove all poliching pad and replace it by peat moss. Thats the only thing i change in the filter and now its full of air after 8 or 10 hours ???????

[tony1928]

That's pretty odd. I'm running 4 of them and I've never had that problem. Perhaps there is air getting into the system somewhere, ie. a gasket ring, a hose connection, etc...

[Yan7gin]

No i check every hoses and i did undo the cap and check all the ring and they was fine. Thats why i don't realy know what going on!!!!

[gklaw]

I am not so sure if I would fill an FX5 with peat moss or put it in there at all. It is a super light material. Not quite sure what the high presssure/flow would be doing to it - compressing and release the air ? You may be better off leaving a small bag in a hidden corner of your tank with a lower flow.

But I am not expert. I used to leave a bag in my sump.

[tony1928]

I would definitely bag the peat if you want to use it. Use a very fine bag so pieces don't escape.

I'm not sure how else air is getting into the system. The FX5 is pretty efficient at self purging. It even shuts down once a day to allow any air to purge out by itself. I've never noticed any air bubbles ever coming out during this process. I only run biomedia in my FX5's along with the regular foam rings. The water is usually filled right up to the top when I pop the lid for service. I can't see where excess air could even hide in there to create those microbubbles for you.

[Yan7gin]

I have the foam ring on the 3 basket, biomax on the 2 bottom and 2 bag of peat moss on the top. I read today on a forum some people had the same problem... Apparently when the water dosen pass easy in the Fx5, the pump try to pull the air from the water.... I dont know if its true or not but i will try to remove one bag of peat moss tomoro and see what happen. The last time i had the air problem with my Fx5 was when i had 4 air stone in the tank so i did remove 3 and let only one and from that time all was good till the peat moss

[Yan7gin]

I found yesterday, my first bag of peat moss was all pack up on the bottom of the top trey so the water could'n pass properly and the pump was pulling the air off the water. Now i leave only one bag of peat moss with a nice space on one side so the water can pass through it and aroud it. 24 h now and no more air in the filter or micro bubble in the tank.

THX all

[shelby67]

I am having the same problem with my new xp3. I packed it with old media from my other filters, would I have over packed it? It just has sponges, floss and ceramic rings
And how do I check if its leaking air, or how to purge it. Thanks

[Yan7gin]

For my experience all looks fine but for sponge if you have like polishing pad i will try to change it. I as need to change mine each 7 days if not the water dont pass through it and pull the air out the water. But check your connection and hose, you can also open it and wet all the seal before close it. And for prime it i'm not shure the best way for that one, i have one here and i don't realy like it...

[tony1928]

Glad you found the problem. I don't think the pump in the FX5 is quite so strong to be able to suck air from water but is it probably drawing the air in from some weak point in the system. Could be anywhere. It's the same thing as shutting off your garden hose and you get water spraying out of the connection due to a bad rubber washer. Normally all is fine until you turn up the pressure.