Micro Bubbles...What's the big idea?

[FastUno]

I remember everyone at one point was trying to get as many bubbles in their tanks. All those aerators & bubble wands...what happened?

What are the pros & cons of bubbles in the main tank. Aren't their plenty of bubbles on the reef, as the waves crash in? Do the bubbles have a direct negative impact on the corals? Do they block off the light?

What is it?

 

[zahner]

one major con is that they cloud up the visibility in the tank.
some say the extra aeration is beneficial; some say it irritates corals.

 

[spykes]

microbubbles make corals slime more often, for fish it gets into their gills where they would get stuck. surface agitation and foam fractionation is enough to saturate salt water. salt water has a lower amount of dissolved oxygen amount, not matter how much you inject into the water, it will not defuse but just elevate and make your tank into a skimmer. bubbles in the tank irratates livestock IMO but that's just my thinking who knows what my fish thinks lol.

 

[DEEPWATER]

microbubbles make corals slime more often, for fish it gets into their gills where they would get stuck. surface agitation and foam fractionation is enough to saturate salt water. salt water has a lower amount of dissolved oxygen amount, not matter how much you inject into the water, it will not defuse but just elevate and make your tank into a skimmer. bubbles in the tank irratates livestock IMO but that's just my thinking who knows what my fish thinks lol.

Dr .spykes....where else can you get such a good explantion ,,
Dam you know your shizz,
BUt not your fish :bigeyes2: lol

 

[spykes]

Dr .spykes....where else can you get such a good explantion ,,
Dam you know your shizz,
BUt not your fish :bigeyes2: lol

huh? my fish? plz explain :p i know this stuff because of reading, and lots of it.
oh you mean what they think? yeah im sorry i cant help that hahha

 

[DEEPWATER]

i IMO but that's just my thinking who knows what my fish thinks lol.

heres a quick peek ,lol ,,

 

[jhale]

could you imagine seeing a bubble wand in a reef tank?

like dave said most of the air exchange is going to happen at the surface of your tank. the next area would be in the skimmer, no little diver will compete with a deltec

 

[spykes]

could you imagine seeing a bubble wand in a reef tank?

like dave said most of the air exchange is going to happen at the surface of your tank. the next area would be in the skimmer, no little diver will compete with a deltec

more surface movement will also release more dissolved organics as well, and exchanged of CO2 which allows less acidity of water, which means alk stays more stable as well.

 

[FastUno]

Yes, this is what I have read in threads too (except for the bubbles getting stuck in fish gills part). But how do you know this? Have you seen this for yourself? Have you seen a negative impact when there were more bubbles present in the tank.

BTW, I am going to take a step back & revisit a lot of questions that I had read about, but never really fully & complete investigated.

With respect to bubbles, my sump does not have any baffles & for a reason. I need the open space to get my skimmer in & out the very tight area under my tank. The skimmer barely makes it through the stand & into the sump. Also, baffles would mean more noise & vibrations for me, all depending on what hits the glass. So I try to avoid any mechanical device touching glass. I have noticed this week more bubbles present than every before, but don't see a negative impact that everyone says I should see.

 

[DEEPWATER]

Hey dave,,where are you getting these books from ,ide like to start reading a bit more then what i find on the net ,

 

[spykes]

my friend is a fish breeder, we often talk about this, microbubble problem is fish breeding, apparently that's why we use coarser airstones now. anyhow
ronen, you need to research everything and sunderstand them, i use to read alot on the internet without breaking down the knowledge. So when you read these articles and not understand the basics of it you wont get it. I been reading in depht stuff and understand equations like : Ca++ + 2(OH-) + 2(CO2) <==> Ca++ + 2(HCO3-)

 

[FastUno]

So, what you guys are telling me is that I should not take any chances & get my baffles in, right?

 

[Deanos]

Aren't their plenty of bubbles on the reef, as the waves crash in? Do the bubbles have a direct negative impact on the corals? Do they block off the light?

What is it?

There's alot of nudibranches, coral eaters, predatory snails on the reef as well. That doesn't mean we want them in our tanks. Like others have said, visibility is reduced...salt spray is increased. Those reasons are good enough for me to try to minimize microbubbles.

 

[jhale]

So, what you guys are telling me is that I should not take any chances & get my baffles in, right?

the bubbles that people freak out over are more of an annoyance thing, they make looking at the tank difficult for some. a few bubbles making it into the tank from the skimmer won't hurt anything. I would not have an airstone in the tank creating bubbles 24/7 that's a big difference.

how many bubbles are getting into your tank?
all the ones made by the skimmer? or just a few?

 

[aaron]

Airstone bubbles arent that bad as they are big enough to be so bouyant that they pretty much head straight up to the surface. Micro bubbles on the other hand are so small they tend to stay in circulation for a long time and cause the problems that everyone is talking about here. Spykes I have also read about micro bubbles irritating fish gills.

 

[FastUno]

There are many very small & fine bubbles. Basically it's my return from main tank into the sump that produces the bubbles & it seems to be a higher production now. My return pump is an Eheim 1262, with some kinda sponge filter.

I would think that the sponge would prevent most of the bubbles from entering main tank, but that is not the case. When I use the 100micron filter in the sump, the bubbles are reduced by a great deal, but I have not been using this lately since it gets clogged quickly. Remember no baffles in my sump.

I don't see any negative effects, other than visual. So I really wanted you guys to convince me that it's bad & that I should take care of it right away.

 

[zahner]

hmmmm, i have been worried about this too in my setup. i have a 1260 and was hoping that the sponge filter would help. however i do think i can cram at least two baffles in the sump and still get the skimmer in and out. do you have a picture of the display showing what it looks like with all the microbubbles? curious what i might be up against

 

[Reefer420]

I have microbubbles in my tank from my Remora skimmer- I cannot seem to get rid of them completely and they are annoying!!! I dont' see any differance in my fish/corals over the last few months- but I would much rather not have them around.

 

[FastUno]

I am at work & can't take any pictures now. I don't think you would want to see my tank now anyway, I have let stuff grow on my tank walls, since I am not running my skimmer now. I don't want to scrape any of that stuff until I get a skimmer, otherwise I will pollute the water column.

Reefer420, you need the pre-filter box. That will help you out.