Micro bubbles

[horrifier]

i have heard a lot of ppl talk about micro bubbles and using bubble traps and what not in the sump and fuge.  my question is, are micro bubbles bad?  i mean is there a reason u want to try to eliminate them other than the visual aspect of seeing them in your display?  i'm just tryin to do as much research as possible before i start my first saltwater tank and honestly have no idea why they are so bad in your display.  any thoughts or opinions, or better yet facts on the matter would be great.  thanks

[Boonjob]

Visual.... They are like fog for your tank.... Makes everything hazy and can build up on corals and rocks....

Also they can lead to excessive salt creep

[The WuSue]

Also they annoy coral and fish.  Think of it reverse, its like being in a spitting rain. It's not going to kill you, but you feel crumby and might catch cold.

[Twizted1]

Micro bubbles are a pain. You spend a ton of time & money on your dt & sump ect. Then your looking thru fog @ your hard earned new hobby. Its not all that hard to avoid them if you do it from the beginning.

[horrifier]

thats what i was thinking.  i kno i don't want to have them and am planning on doing bubble traps in the sump, but wanted to kno for sure if they could actually harm the fish or corals

[lazylivin]

No they wont hurt the fish. It is actually very beneficial to all your live stock.

Here are some pics of waves breaking over a reef.



 

[horrifier]

see thats what i was thinking, they don't visually look good bc with too many they can make ur tank look really foggy but i didn't think a bunch of air bubbles would be a bad thing. if anything i thought it would be good bc that is bringing more oxygen into the water, and when they do come to the surface help with gas exchange.  the reason i was wondering so much is bc i have been looking at different sump setups tryin to plan mine out.  i'm thinkin of using a 20L and wanted to do a fuge on one end, sump on the other and pump in the middle.  well i want as much room for the fuge as possible so was thinkin about skippin the bubble trap after it, but having one after the sump portion.  i'm still probably months off from doing any of this, but the more i can learn now, the better i can do then. or atleast thats my hope anyway

[HUNGER]

Ya it just doesn't look good in the tank

[rploaded]

Holy aeration batman!!!!!!!!

Imagine that in your skimmer chamber nonstop!

[The WuSue]

I stand corrected. I always heard they caused damage.

Always good to know though.

I was about to add a foam block to turn my sump waterfall into a trickle down.  But the amount micro bubbles sucked up into the return is minimal and kind of pleasant.  Glad a read before I acted.

[horrifier]

thats why i'm asking as many questions as i can before i start, that way i can freak out when something serious happens instead of the little things lol

[volcano]

Every once in a while my Red Sea Max systems had micro bubble issues. I got tunez skimmers and stevie T media racks and cups and never again had micro bubbles in my RSM systems.

[Bluewater]

Ok good in ocean bad in tank....but think about how much current is going on in the pics of the ocean. If bubbles hit the corals they are not going to stay there long. In our tanks if the bubbles tend to stay under the body of the coral, say monti cap, this will cause irritation and possibel tissue damage and bacterial infection. On the other hand if you have as much flow as the pictures above you are ok.

[lazylivin]

Author Eric Borneman
Source ReefKeeping Magazine http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-01/eb/index.php

Myth 14: Microbubbles are to be avoided

Many aquarists go to some considerable lengths to baffle sumps and pump flows to prevent small bubbles from being returned into the display tank. It has been suggested that such bubbles represent an irritation to fish, corals and other invertebrates and that they should be avoided. To be honest, I am unsure from where the origin of this perception came. However, it is untrue. Even the name is inaccurate… the prefix "micro" would refer to bubbles too small to see.


The onslaught of bubbles from this oncoming wave should make it apparent that
corals and coral reefs exist just fine with the presence of air bubbles in the water.
Small bubbles are very common in tumultuous reef environments, and areas where waves break are often dense with both reef life and small bubbles. In addition, in tanks and on reefs, many bubbles of various sizes, including true "microbubbles" are produced by photosynthesis, and this is especially the case in highly illuminated environments. In my own aquaria, a constant rise of bubbles, especially in the afternoon, are produced by various corals and algae in even some of my less-illuminated systems. Larger bubbles frequently get sucked into pump intakes, and are chopped up to even smaller sizes and distributed throughout the tank. I won't even begin to discuss the massive numbers of bubbles produced by various surge devices. These water motion devices have great benefits in aquaria, and even as anecdotal aquarium observations, I have never seen anything disturbed, irritated, or harmed by the rush of bubbles.

Potential: Relatively harmless. Neither bubbles nor the lack of them in a tank is likely to endanger the health or survival of organisms.

Distribution: A patchy, but common belief.

[HUNGER]

Nice find lazy

[horrifier]

nice fine, good looking out.  i am thinking when i build the sump i will baffle the skimmer side, but won't worry about doing it after the fuge as the low flow shouldn't produce to many bubbles.