Micro and nano bubble tank treatment

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

My sand bed does not show this interesting phenomenon.
It is very fine oolitic aragonite sand,with a diameter of 0.25-1mm.
It is neither pearly white nor is it dirty brown in colour, it always seems to remain the same in colour. Nassarius and Strombus snails keep it turned over.

The sand substrate you see in the picture posted earlier, is a very fine (0,5mm) silica based sand!
I don't know if the type of sand makes a difference, others will possibly post some comments about their sand beds

I couldn't see much from the photo, but presumably one of two things are happening if bubbling causes bubbles attached to the sand, and both likely rely on the sand or something in it being hydrophobic, and so adhering bubbles. If your sand is not hydrophobic with coated organics and bacteria, or if in other folks sand the bubbles are really adhering to organic detritus and not actual sand grains, that may explain the difference.

The two processes presumably are those below, and reality may be a mix of the two.

1. Actual bubbles attach to hydrophobic surfaces and may grow in size as bubbles merge on the surfaces

2. Supersatured gas (N2 and O2) may begin to accumulate on hydrophobic surfaces and a gas bubble develops there. This is, I believe, what happens when photosynthesis causes bubbles on sand, in dinos and cyano, etc.

 

[jpontier212]

Guys i'm new to this concept and to reefing in general. Can i use any air stone? Or does it have to be the wood block?

 

[Thales]

Generally bubbles in the sand is nitrogen from biological processes and happens in silica or aragonite.

I couldn't see much from the photo, but presumably one of two things are happening if bubbling causes bubbles attached to the sand, and both likely rely on the sand or something in it being hydrophobic, and so adhering bubbles. If your sand is not hydrophobic with coated organics and bacteria, or if in other folks sand the bubbles are really adhering to organic detritus and not actual sand grains, that may explain the difference.

The two processes presumably are those below, and reality may be a mix of the two.

1. Actual bubbles attach to hydrophobic surfaces and may grow in size as bubbles merge on the surfaces

2. Supersatured gas (N2 and O2) may begin to accumulate on hydrophobic surfaces and a gas bubble develops there. This is, I believe, what happens when photosynthesis causes bubbles on sand, in dinos and cyano, etc.

Randy, the bubbles are under the sand, in the sand bed.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Generally bubbles in the sand is nitrogen from biological processes and happens in silica or aragonite.


Randy, the bubbles are under the sand, in the sand bed.

OK, I couldn't see that in the pic. If they are under the surface, and only with bubbling, it could be either mechanism I proposed above, plus the possibility that...

1. Small bubbles coated with organics are delivering the organics into regions where denitrificatin could take place, but the amount of organic would need to be high to offset the O2 coming in
or
2. The bubbling somehow frees organics (like coral slimes) to diffuse into the sand and these then undergo denitrification to produce N2.

 

[Reefahholic]

Frag tank in testing. Corals sliming like crazy.

 

[Cruz_Arias]

Awesome depiction! There are plenty more pictures and videos from members on the Elegant Corals page on Facebook.

 

[Cruz_Arias]

OK, I couldn't see that in the pic. If they are under the surface, and only with bubbling, it could be either mechanism I proposed above, plus the possibility that...

1. Small bubbles coated with organics are delivering the organics into regions where denitrificatin could take place, but the amount of organic would need to be high to offset the O2 coming in
or
2. The bubbling somehow frees organics (like coral slimes) to diffuse into the sand and these then undergo denitrification to produce N2.

Agreed...

All we are documenting is what is being observed. Very interesting that could use more scrutiny!

 

[Reefahholic]

Awesome depiction! There are plenty more pictures and videos from members on the Elegant Corals page on Facebook.

Thx, wish I had a Facebook. I'm sure we'll keep seeing more and more videos and pictures and keep learning new things about this method.

 

[Squamosa]

Frag tank in testing. Corals sliming like crazy.

Here is a short video of one of my deep-water Acropora sp. producing mucus, quite a bit of it

It also shows how the coalescing and and clinging bubbles eventually lift the mucus threads to be carried away in the current

 

[Squamosa]

Here is a short video of one of my deep-water Acropora sp. producing mucus, quite a bit of it

It also shows how the coalescing and and clinging bubbles eventually lift the mucus threads to be carried away in the current

Some people may say, deep-water species are not used to all the bubbles and will show signs of distress!

Here is another attached video of a strawberry shortcake (Acropora microclados) exhibiting strong mucus production when subjected to micro-bubbling in my tank

 

[Squamosa]

Guys i'm new to this concept and to reefing in general. Can i use any air stone? Or does it have to be the wood block?

Could you please refer back to the beginning of this thread, everything you need to know has been covered in earlier posts.

Thanks for your patience

 

[Squamosa]

A 64 day comparison shot of my blue and violet stag.
All iPhone pictures!

 

[Squamosa]

This is my favourite coral and one of the fastest growers...a comparison!

 

[BlueCursor]

Based on Boyle's law, the bubbles will expand only about 6% if they go from the bottom of a 24" tank to the top of the tank. We will never see the difference. Nano and micro bubbles are so small we will never see this 6% change in size. At least, we will never see it staring at the tank.

 

[Cruz_Arias]

Thought this was very cool :

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/168322104795794268/

This shows vortices affecting the micro/nanobubbles... they only refer to them as "micros" though...

 

[jpontier212]

Could you please refer back to the beginning of this thread, everything you need to know has been covered in earlier posts.

Thanks for your patience

I'm trying out this new concept but have developed a large air bubble in the u tube of the overflow box. Is this normal or am i suppose to adjust something to accommodate the tube

 

[Diesel]

I'm trying out this new concept but have developed a large air bubble in the u tube of the overflow box. Is this normal or am i suppose to adjust something to accommodate the tube

It's better than nothing but you have a better effect of getting the small bubbles in your tank by getting it close to your return pump.

Pictures were credit from Elegant Corals.

 

[Squamosa]

Here is some pH data I collected over the course of last week and put into a figure.

I (or my wife) took pH readings every hour using a simple handheld digital pH meter, that only measured in 1 pH increments.
My pH typically runs low due to a calcium reactor.

 

[Thales]

Interesting. I would like to see several days of your pH swing without bubbling.

For comparison here is my daily swing without bubbling:

 

[Lowell Lemon]

I am going to have trouble with the some of science end of the discussion but I have a couple of questions.

First, are all of you running a refugium and if so are you running them on a RDP cycle? It seems that stable PH is a claim of the RDP method. Am I so far behind the curve now that this is no longer a practice or is it just assumed as normal practice?

Secondly, do you think a small injection of ozone would help or hinder the effects of the process? Or would we somehow increase possibility of problems with saturation of gases in the water column?