Bubble question

[alkalineknot]

ok this may be a dumb question but i am somewhat new with salt water....i have a 12 gal nano cube, over the last 2 days bubbles have appeared all over the live rock and i have no clue why. any input would be greatly appreciated

[diverdown69]

It possibly could be gas production in the bacterial/algal community (biofilm) that is on the rock. Do you notice any odor from the tank like H2S or ammonia? It could also just be air that was trapped in the rock pores that is making its way out. Have you looked at your water chem parameters?
Just my $0.05...

[alkalineknot]

all of my water tests have been perfect (i have had extremly good luck so far) and there is no unusual smells coming from the tank. i just want to make sure these bubbles are not a bad kind of gas of some sort. thanks for your help

[diverdown69]

Chances are that the bubbles are okay unless you start noticing strange smells or livestock mortalities. I would watch pH very closely until I was certain that there was no problem with my WQ. Nitric or sulfuric acid formation can cause problems very quickly in a natural system and probably even more so in a microcosm like a marine aquarium. The carbonate buffer system in a natural marine ecosystem is quite stout, but it can be overwhelmed if enough of a strong acid or base is introduced.

[i have crabs]

do u have a skimmer or a ph pumping air into the tank if so the bubbles stick to everything when thiers to much in the water

[steve0]

Yes I do have tiny bubbles coming out of my hang on skimmer. If you know how to stop this let me know.

[alkalineknot]

i do not have a ph in my tank but i did notice the bubbles are all on the hair algea which has just started in my tank wat are some solutions to this? I know ro water is supposed to help but i have no access to this do products such as phospho X work or are they a waste of money t

[alkalineknot]

ok te bubbles are still all over my LR but somethin new as well. a purple thing (for a lack of a better term) has grown over some of the hair algea and now bubbles are makin te purple stuff bubble with it (it comes under it makinh it bubble) and a slight smell is also in my tank . smells like someting electrical I am stuck ! any advice?????

[jaiden]

The common "electric smell" is ozone. If you have ozone, but NO ozone generator, you need to check out your equipment quickly and carefully. Any electrical discharge (spark) will create ozone.

if you DO have an ozone generator, make sure it's functioning properly.

[seaham358]

Purple may be cyno bacteria. dose it blow off the area easily? If so that would be my guess. So with hair algae and cyno you have a water problem, Excess nutrients would be a start, lack of water movement and wrong lighting spectrum all are factors with cyno and hair algae. IMO Air bubbles is not uncommon when dealing with cyno. Not sure what causes them but when I had cyno I had all kinds of bubbles trapped in the cyno.
How old is the tank...... Your using tap water?

[alkalineknot]

ok my tank is a 12 gallon nano cube it is 3 months old. It has good water movement and compact lighting. I started feeding my feather duster micro-vert, but i dont think the small amount i feed it is causing this much of a problem! I do use tap water, because i have no access to RO. is there anything i can do?????? I am going to filter my water this time when i do a water change but i have heard that will not help too much. I need to try to do something quick because im starting to loose animals!