bubbles from powerhead

I have a submerged powerhead used just to move the water around the tank, why would it occasionally throw out random bits of bubbles? I think I read somewhere, it has to do with the chemistry. Some of my bubbles were from my skimmer but that was taken care of by a bubble trap...help

 

Mine does the same thing, and was wondering the same thing too!

 

The only thing I can attribute it to is, bubbles still in your water column being drawn into your powerhead! Other than that, I can't think of anything else that may contributing to the bubbles from your powerhead!
Skimmer may still be releasing some bubbles into your water...
See what other fellow reefers have to say!

 

i know ths sounds crazy but pull it out and check the magnetic part that holds the impailer
something could be on it causing an unbalance when it spins
mine did that once i took it apart cleaned it and it stopped doing the bubble thing
could have been blind luck though

 

I have the same problem & I'm using a sponge filter over the intake which should break up any bubbles before they would enter the intake.

 

Sometimes the powerhead is too close to the top of the tank and you get cavitation bubbles. If you move it lower in the tank and it goes away, that's the problem.

 

Mine isn't too close to the surface & isn't pulling a vortex that would be an indication of it sucking air.

 

i have one of those sponge pre filter things too. i found that the sponge actually makes it worse. especially when it gets dirty. when its dirty it will release spurts of bubbles and then no bubbles for a while and then do it again. i would just clean it real good and the problem would go away. i finally just took the sponge off and no more problems.

 

Thanks; it is as close to the bottom as I can get it without stirring the substrate up...

 

calcium buildup can also cause the bubbles.