Are my plants pearling because my filter is malfunctioning?

[sherry]

My plants are definately pearling.. alka seltzer land on excel

Now.. That happens at the moment whether or NOT the filter is plugged in ...

but the Filstar xp1 is spitting lots of air when it is plugged in.. every 30 seconds or so..


so here's the question.. is the filstar saturating my water column with o2.. .or is the filstar spitting air because my plants are pearling honestly and the water column is saturated.

I have reprimed the filter a couple of times... no change.

lotsa pearling. It looks great.. but I would like to know if I need to fix a filter or if this is how teh filter will work when the pearling is going on.

 

[TankGirl]

Your filter and pearling are almost definitely not related. The pearling is coming from enough light and nutrients for the plants to be photosynthesizing well and driving off excess oxygen.

You need to get your filter working, though. Your plants cannot produce enough oxygen in the water to make your filter malfunction, so something else is going on.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

Check all the fittings, as well as the venturi plug. Make sure the venturi is plug is screwed in. Might even unpluf the unit, pop the top off and reput it back on, just to make sure it's sealed properly and not letting air in.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

Are there any plants near the filter input? If too close, it could be taking some of the pearling into the intake. If there's plants around the input, might want to move it slightly to see if it helps. My guess is an open venturi plug or it's loose. It's on the same unit that you turn the flow down for feeding.

 

[sherry]

where is the venturi plug ? I will pop the top but honestly I have no idea what this is.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

It is the small round thing next to the flow control. It should have a plug screwed into it. If not, I believe in the kit there's a small round plug that will screw into it. Can't remember if mine was in or I put it in.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

It's actually on top of the flow control knob. I just looked at mine. Screws into the top of it.

 

[sherry]

I don't have mine plumbed in.. just using straight output bent with an elbow

 

[Lonewolfblue]

ok.....
And you see no leaks or hissing anywhere, like air being sucked in? If not, then I'd have to say pearling is causing it, lots of O2 in the water column.

 

[Codefox]

You could always try it on something other than tat tank to see if that's the problem

 

[Lonewolfblue]

Let us know if it is still doing it after lights out and the plants stop pearling. I take it that they only pearl when there's plenty of light and nutrients and CO2, right? See if it still burps at night.

 

[TankGirl]

IME Filstars can easily get air into them, and I had this problem with mine when I first got it. I had to shake and tip the canister back and forth to work the air out. Every time I changed filter media it would do it again, but gradually it quit being a problem. Unless you have a bubble wand forcing air up the intake I can't imagine pearling causing this. My tank pearls all afternoon and evening, like a glass of champagne, and this does not affect my XP3 at all.

 

[sherry]

It was the filter.. what I did to fix it was I first unhooked the intake from the tank.. with the autoshut valve in the shut position.

then with the intake in a bucket, I opened the valve. It causes a reverse siphon. I left it open only until water came out.

That was to get rid of any airpockets in the hose. Then I shut the valve, replaced the intake, filled with water as usual to prime and oila... no air bubbles.. and alas probably no pearling.. I do think my plants pearled, but I also think it was because the filstar so saturated the water column that they had a boost.

 

[malkore]

Actually, the filter could be spitting air due to the oxygen level of the tank.

You say the plants pearl when the filter is turned off, yes?

Something a lot of filstar owners notice (myself included) is that the filter builds up air in the top of the unit as the day gets later.
It may be a design flaw, but I think in O2 saturated water, the filstar's design causes outgassing of the O2 within the filter...thus you end up with that air pocket in there, and spitting air bubbles back out.

When you wake up in the morning, does it do this, or does it take a few hours of 'lights on' before it happens?

 

[sherry]

yesterday was the first time.. and it took a few hours.. but it was also doing it this morning.. and stopped when I blew the intake hose out backward. I wish it were my terrific pre co2 plants, but somehow I don't believe it.

I almost did set up co2 yesterday, but the plug to my in tank diffuser (p0wer head attached) is too wide to go thru the hole drilled in the acrylic frame.. I need to shave it down... translated to .. I need to get a friend of mine to shave it down for me.. I'm a little exacto knife phobic.

|This was pearling without co2.. only excel and I think it happened because there was so much air belched into the tank... the plants got a chance to show their stuff.

 

[malkore]

Excel can cause pearling...hard to say what's going on in the tank though, since it doesn't quite sound like pearling, now that you'd described it more.