Soapy bubbles in new tank?

[BeefyG]

I started to set up a tank last night and I added the gravel, three rocks, a coconut head (see avatar) and water. I put in a HOB filter with new media and started it up. I noticed some bubles but figured it was air pockets from the gravel. I came back in this morning and it looks like I had some soap in the water. There is a bubble ring around where the water from the filter is splashing and some bubbles floating elsewhere. Its a 10g btw.

I can think of two possible reasons:

I had bought a four pack of mircofiber washcloths and split it between my wife for the kitchen and me for aquariums. After the first use, they all got jumbled and ended up in the kitchen drawer. I used this to scrub out the bare tank but didn't notice bubbles while doing that.

Also one of the rocks was like a sandstone from the yard (yeah I know, bad idea right?) but could it have been soapstone? I have no idea what it actually is...

What should I do? I removed the filter and drained half the water already. I didn't have time for anything more than that.

[naps]

I have had this happen to me with new tanks before for no reason...but the added info of mixed up cloths and rocks outside makes me worry that you could have had some contamination.

The only real way to be sure that everthing is clean is to start over with all new water and clean everything out.

[Mzungu]

The only real way to be sure that everthing is clean is to start over with all new water and clean everything out.

+1

Rinse everything out a few times. It COULD just be bubbles from new substrate or something organic, but it never hurts to be careful. :)

[BeefyG]

So I drained it and took everything out but the gravel. I took each item one by one and washed it in a bowl of water but never saw any soapy bubbles. I poured fresh water back in the tank and got some more soapy bubbles but not as much as before. I had bought new gravel from walmart because I wanted black instead of the white stuff I already had so I'm thinking maybe it was something in that. Anyway, I filled it up and drained it a couple more times and now the bubbles seem to be gone.

One of these days I'm gonna learn to not leave a syphon running unattended... I'm glad I have wood floors...

[Complexity]

If you ever have a problem with soap getting into a tank, you can clean it out using vinegar. Do as you did before by taking everything out and rinsing it, but add some vinegar to the water. Then rinse that out. Wipe the inside of the tank with vinegar and rinse that out, as well. Vinegar strips soap so that it will be carried out with the water rather than clinging to the surfaces of the tank, substrate, and decor. It is not harmful to fish as long as it is rinsed out. A single rinsing usually clears it out sufficiently.

If you continue to have questions as to whether the tank is safe for fish, test it out using snails. Since snails spend their entire time clinging to the surfaces inside a tank, they work very well for testing whether a soapy residue remains. Further, snails can survive just fine without filtration so you can use them to test a tank before it's fully set up and running. Keep in mind that snails can be difficult to eradicate from a tank once they've been put in so if you're highly adverse to having snails of any kind in your tank, then this method might not be a good option for you.

[naps]

What kind of filter are you using...I have a HOB penn plax that kinda makes surface bubbles, but not too bad. It just might be the filter???

[BeefyG]

I'm using an aquatech 5-15 HOB filter. This morning there were a bunch of bubbles again but these I think are just air. The other bubbles were pretty fine. These are fairly coarse and aren't floating away to the corners of the tank.

[Complexity]

Something's still not right. You should not be getting bubbles like you're describing regardless of the filter. I'm concerned that you got some kind of soap residue in there.

Did you clean the filter media when you cleaned it out last?

[BeefyG]

So last night there were still a lot of bubbles. I removed the filter media, poured in some vinegar, and let it run overnight. I drained it again this morning and poured fresh water in. I also filled it up more than I had been which cut down the amount of bubbles being generated by the filter output. It seemed OK but we'll see...

[jennisof]

I just did my small tank up with Aquasoil, and it foamed for about 5 days.

[BeefyG]

There is a tiger barb, platy, molly, and three ocats in there now and they all seem to be doing fine.