HagenKB

Fluval External pumps air

My Fluval makes too much air - Isn't it supposed to be a sealed unit?

My Fluval makes too much air - Isn't it supposed to be a sealed unit?
The Fluval is a sealed unit, there is no air input or other access to the atmosphere. As such there can only be a few explanations. The first is that there is an air source in the tank that is providing bubbles to the filter intake in some way. If there is some airstone or even a protein skimmer adding air to the system as a whole, then it must be identified and removed from proximity to the input. You might want to experiment a bit and move the input to a different location.

A second possibility would be that when the filter is recharged there is a left over amount of air in the new filter material that is gradually giving off gasses into the filter chamber. Thorough immersion of new filter materials before use often reduces the amount of gas in the media when it is finally input into the filter chamber.

Finally, the setup may not be entirely airtight or there may be a pinhole somewhere in your system. This is not a normal situation and some trauma must have occurred to the hoses. If the two problems above are eliminated, you must look carefully at how you have set the input and output system together. Since the air seems to be exhausted occasionally and from the filter chamber itself, the logical place to search for a leak is in the input sector, rather than output. One possibility is to exchange the tubing for the input and output to locate an air leak - if any.
Hope that helps you troubleshoot the way your tank is set up. In normal operation, the Fluval does not generate any air within the canister, it is sealed, so any air entering the system must be externally generated from outside somehow.

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