Having problems with bubbles all over coral and tank.

[nicksy23]

Hi all,

I have had my tank for over 2 years now and have just began experiencing thousand of bubbles in the water. Although this looks great I know it is not good. Please advise what i should do. I have a feeling it is a nitrate issue, so i have already tried a water change.

Thankyou

 

[midiman]

Are you using a skimmer? I've never heard of bubbles being a nitrate issue, but maybe I'll learn something on this thread. Skimmers often produce microbubbles, and powerheads are known to produce bubble "burps" from time to time.

My in-sump Urchin skimmer produces just enough bubbles to be annoying (I DON'T think they look great :| ), so I put some filter fluff in the baffles of my bubble trap and on top of the pump's intake.

I still ahve a few, though, especially when a PH burps. From what I've read, this COULD be a problem for ceratin corals and sponges, so I'm trying to get them down to as near zero as possible.

 

[seaham358]

What type of a set up do you have? Lr, LS , sump, wet/dry skimmer? Canister filter, we need more info to help.
I never heard of nitrates causing bubbles either??
Do you have a deep sand bed? Could be denitrification taking place? But thousands of bubbles sounds like a different issue...
More info please.

 

[nicksy23]

thanks for the quick reply. I definitely have a skimmer and it seems to be doing it's job well. I may have to send you a photo if i can to show you the problem. It's not so much that the flow into to main tank has bubbles in it but more that all the rocks and coral seem to (late in the day only) form tiny bubbles all over them as if there's a problem with the water. Don't worry too much about it though, I will try and arrange a shot of the tank anyway.

Regards

Matt

 

[midiman]

I'm used to seeing this in my FRESH water tanks, where those bubbles are clearly due to photosysthesis and the release of oxygen. I don't know if that occurs in SW as well. I don't think bubbles would stay on anything in my SW tank because of the water flow.

Try to post a pic (I love to looks at pics of tanks, anyway, just to see what others have done)