bubbles bubbles everywhere...

Question
I have a small 1.5 gallon tetra fish tank because I felt so sorry for my male beta being in a tiny bowl.  At first the vastness of the new enclosure spooked him and he got stuck in the fake plant, but has now adjusted just fine.  I let the tank set up for about 2 days before adding the beta.  Everything has been going great, water looks good, fish is behaving fine and eating great.  But my question is the fact that the small Whisper 3i filter is producing a lot of bubbles on the top of the water.  This seems to be making it difficult for my beta to find it's food and causes my beta to become aggressive at times.  He charges the bubbles and flares up at times.  The filter takes the small tetra whisper filter cartridges.  

I've also found that these bubbles 'pop' very easily (they aren't soapy bubbles), there shouldn't be any trace amounts of any cleaner as I haven't used any and all items in the tank were rinsed well before use.  I also rinsed the filter as instructed before using.  The other odd thing is that I noticed when I added some flake food, the bubbles stopped almost instantly!  It took almost a hour before they returned and covered almost half of the surface area like before.  Too bad the beta seems to only like the pellet food.  

Hope you can help!  Andrea

Answer
Hi Andrea;

Make a partial water change of 25% every day for the next 3 or 4 days. This will reduce the ammonia that causes the bubbles. The bubbles aren't harmful but the toxins causing them are. The tank is new so it will be going through the break-in period and ammonia can build up to harmful levels. It takes about 6 weeks to get through it but after the daily changes for 3 days, just a 25% change twice a week should be okay as long as you don't overfeed. After the break-in is over, a once a week 25% change is all that's needed. Here is my web page about new tanks to help you know more about it;

http://www.xanga.com/Expert_Fish_Help

The flake food and disappearing bubbles thing is actually pretty simple. The flake food "pops" the bubbles with it's little sharp edges. As for him freaking out, your betta probably sees his reflection in them and thinks there is another fish invading his territory. He's just doing what male bettas do best...defending his space!

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins