14g biocube bubbles

Hello, im kinda new to the hobby. I setup a 10g tank and put some live rock and live sand in it and have been toying with that for a few months. I just recently purchased a 14g biocube and the 3rd chamber doesn't seem to be getting enough water and its cause the pump to blow bubbles. Ive got the filter in chamber 1, bioballs in chamber 2, and it wont stop! TIA

 

I had that problem too in my 24 gallon, I just had to fill it slightly above the "what is should be" water line haha. Oh and most people when they see this post are going to say get rid of the bio balls because they become a nitrate factory.

 

Those Bio balls are nitrate factory dude you should lose them if you can . . . . LOL just kidding I saw ontop's post and thought I would be funny!!

 

LOL, but seriously any part of your filtration system that is not maintained has the potential to be a nitrate factory. Bio balls and Canister filters get a bad rap.

 

Yeah, I agree with ontop27, I have a bc 29 and whenever it starts spitting bubbles, I just add more freshwater to the the third chamber and take it all the way up to the max line. As long as you maintain it up around there, you shouldn't have a bubble problem.

 

Thanks for the advice, I think I figured it out. Theres a small chamber under the 2nd chamber and I got my hand down in there and found that it had a bunch of sand so i cleaned it out and the bubbles stopped. It must have been constricting the water flow down there. And about the Bioballs, you guys all use live rock in there or what?

 

biocube did a retarded job with filter cartridge. Do what I did..i have a biocube 29, and slightly lift your filter cartridge thats in your 1st chamber, about a inch or so..that should increase the flow greatly.

 

+1 agree

i would toss the filter cartridge all together however, they plug easily and dont do much to begin with i would toss the bioballs, put the heater in chamber one along with the skimmer, although not the best it beats the performance of that filter insert.

 

oh and you can either put lr rubble where the bioballs were of grow so cheato and make a mini fuge.

 

This doesn't have anything to do with your bubble issue. Since I have the lameo skimmer in the filter compartment I couldn't use the biocube filter. So to keep my bio balls clean and filter the water I started using a Fuval polishing pad and just laid it over the top of the bio ball compartment. The width of the pad is perfect but you have to cut it to length, works great. Now I just get sheet filter pads, but you should rinse them every few days. I also throw a bag of carbon in the pump compartment.

John