Toilets, Sinks, Showers, Tubs and Disposals - foam on chain

I just replaced the flapper in the tank of my toilet. The new flapper came with a new chain already attached. The old chain had a piece of blue foam attached halfway down the chain. What is this foam for? Do I need to attach it to the new chain? The toilet now flushes much different as it uses the entire tank to flush, whereas before it was only using half the tank to flush. I'm guessing this has to do with this piece of foam?

The piece of foam was installed by the manufacturer in order to keep their flapper from falling too quickly, since the foam will float until the water level falls enough. However, with your new flapper, it is probably hollow and traps air, which causes it to float until the water level falls, in essence doing what the foam disk did for the other one. If it is using a full tank to flush, that is normal, since less than a full tank will only give partial flushing action.

Hi sounds like you have a water saving toilet. The foam is used to control how much water leaves the tank. The flapper you removed was probably solid plastic or rubber. When you now flush the toilet does the bowl flush two or three times with one tank full? If it does you have the wrong flapper. Get the correct one and to adust the flow of the water from the tank to the bowl move the float closer to the flapper for more water, you want the bowl to flush just once.
Good Luck Woodbutcher