they're top in efficiency. laminar air columns always beat eddy inducing powerheads for surface boil and gas exchange, Ive read.
question test:
lets say we have a power outage and we have limited power backup, which will be the most efficient setup for max oxygenation and preservation of the reef during the outage:
1. a common bubbler setup
2. powerheads arranged any way you want, any number you want on line.
answer, the common fish bait bubbler will win even if powerheads are causing surface ripple which is weak compared to several bubbles rising
the bubble churns the most water, causes the most gas exchange, on the least power.
source: mine was aquatic-eco.com
a now-defunct massive sales facility like carolina biological
staffed by hydrologists and limnologists who prevent entire lakes from crashing, the degree that they already know about air vs pump is astounding. they wrote tech blurbs in their mailer that described thousands of tests and arrangements to compare pumps vs air columns
I read no arrangement where pumps ever beat even a very weak airstream, amazing. lets dig out some links to see what's true above.
hydrology and limnology articles will back it up or refute the claim.
for daily running, the efficiency isn't work the salt scraping work for most.
eddy currents/pumps n power heads beat bubbles for food distribution, they said.
but when the heat is on, or the power is out, bubbles will save your tank long after pump arrangements cant, and all these filthy sandbeds we like to farm are chock full of o2 competing aerobes, air columns to save a reef in distress...
my own little reef is airstone only since 2006, but my lid fit prevents all salt creep or I wouldnt use it.
all my corals have only known bathed in bubbles for 15 yrs.
