diff --git a/api/handlers/dataexplorerhandler.py b/api/handlers/dataexplorerhandler.py
index 7bb87eb2d721c348f70db0848318ee7c0928d29b..c2c8aeeb372477eefe2e61255c4fd1eb02734462 100644
--- a/api/handlers/dataexplorerhandler.py
+++ b/api/handlers/dataexplorerhandler.py
@@ -321,7 +321,7 @@ class DataExplorerHandler(base.RequestHandler):
         except (ValueError):
             if request_type == 'search':
                 self.abort(400, 'Must specify return type')
-            return None, None, None
+            return None, None, None, 0
 
         # Parse and validate return_type
         return_type = request.get('return_type')
@@ -387,6 +387,11 @@ class DataExplorerHandler(base.RequestHandler):
         # Parse and "validate" search_string, allowed to be non-existent
         search_string = str(request.get('search_string', ''))
 
+
+        if request_type == 'facet':
+            # size is assumed 0 for facets
+            return return_type, modified_filters, search_string, 0
+
         # Determine query size, if size=all figure out max for return type.
         size = self.request.params.get('size')
         if not size:
@@ -480,10 +485,10 @@ class DataExplorerHandler(base.RequestHandler):
     @require_login
     def get_facets(self):
 
-        _, filters, search_string = self._parse_request(request_type='facet')
+        _, filters, search_string, _ = self._parse_request(request_type='facet')
 
         facets_q = copy.deepcopy(FACET_QUERY)
-        facets_q['query'] = self._construct_query(None, search_string, filters)['query']
+        facets_q['query'] = self._construct_query(None, search_string, filters, 0)['query']
 
         # if the query comes back with a return_type agg, remove it
         facets_q['query'].pop('aggs', None)
@@ -528,11 +533,10 @@ class DataExplorerHandler(base.RequestHandler):
 
     def get_nodes(self):
 
-        return_type, filters, search_string = self._parse_request()
+        return_type, filters, search_string, size = self._parse_request()
         if return_type == 'file':
             return self.get_file_nodes(return_type, filters, search_string)
 
-        size = self.search_size(return_type)
         body = self._construct_query(return_type, search_string, filters, size)
 
         body['aggs']['by_container'].pop('aggs')