xp2 concerns

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justrelax

Aquarium Advice FINatic
Joined
Feb 26, 2006
Messages
919
Location
Grand Haven, MI
doing normal weekly maintenance this afternoon when i noticed what i thought were air pockets in the tubes of my xp2. i thought it was strange but didn't think too much of it. i finished the pwc and filter maintenance and noticed the "air pockets" were still there so, naturally, i started to mess with them. to my delight, just a slight squeeze of the tube dissipated the bubbles at the location of the squeeze.
here's the problem... it wasn't air bubbles. i came around the front of the tank and realized i had just squeezed a bunch of white, flaky looking crap into the tank. the strange part is that the fish were all eating it!! everyone seems o.k., so i don't think it was anything toxic. did another pwc to get rid of it, and am left wondering what that was all about.
anyone else encounter the white flakes that look like air bubbles?! if so, should i be cleaning the hoses out regularly too, or just leave it be?
tia
 
hmmm. i was hoping for something more along the lines of it being normal buildup.. d'oh! what kind of media do you have in yours lwb? and, how do you clean those tubes?! seems like kind of a big project to be doing monthly...
on my way to work now, but i'm going to try and post a pic later. maybe if someone sees it, they'll be able to tell me what it is.
 
my xp3 tubes have a buildup inside of them as well...I am leaning towards Malkore's explanation of mineral buildup. However, mine are consistently covered on the inside, no confusion of their being an air pocket in mine!
 
Actually, the tubes aren't ribbed. They are a clear rubber with no ribs.

As for media, I have the sponges, ceramic cylinders, lava granules, filter floss, and the fine pads. As for cleaning the tubes, I never taken them off. I don't clean them, and the XP3's been running over a year now. And the XP2 a couple months. The tubes in mine look like there's some buildup, but are still fairly clear. And I run mine on full blast, I don't turn the flow down at all.
 
I get the same thing. No real idea what it is except maybe leftover food and junk. I usually put a net over my spraybar to catch the stuff when I turn it back on. I've never had a problem with the fish after eating some of the junk.
 
ok, so a pic isn't going to work out. just can't find the right setting to get it to turn out.
i'll take the mineral buildup answer i guess... all the fish are still alright after having eaten it, so it can't be too much of an issue!
i guess my concern now would be, can the mineral buildup alter the composition of my water over time? if i did decide to clean or replace the tubes in the future, could it cause a sudden change in kh or pH?
 
I doubt it will have any affect on water parameters. I'm more inclined that it's decaying food and algae. Is the stuff hard or soft and mushy? If it's hard, then mineral deposits. If soft and mushy, then just some stuff decaying.
 
i guess i'm not quite sure if it's hard or soft. it looked almost like flake food that had been semi-crushed up, only completely white. it is in both tubes, too. if it was food, wouldn't it be pretty much confined to the intake tube? i tested the water tonight and it's normal for a day after a pwc: 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 5 nitrate, 7.6 pH.
 
I just noticed the same thing in my tank yesterday. This tank has been up for about 3 years and I just put in my xp3 a couple of weeks ago. I've never seen it before the xp3 went in, I'm curious as to what it was. :?
 
ding* ding* ding* food and junk is the correct answer. i got tired of wondering what it was and decided to clean out the tubes today. this pic is after one swipe into about the first 6 inches of tube! i ended up tying a string to the pipe cleaner thing from my emperor and made passes through the tube to clean it all out. yuck. interestingly, the gunk in the tube back into the tank was considerably lighter in color than out of the intake tube...
i'm going to chalk this up to over-feading and re-adjust my feeding schedule. there was also a lot of sand, so i shortened the blue intake piece by one link.
 
Interesting. And since I don't overfeed, and my fish do clean up more algae in the tank now as they only get fed sparingly, my tubes are still pretty clear. Some brown in both tubes, but nothing really built up thick. Sounds like you solved the puzzle. :)
 
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