Microbubbles

[ev1016]

Can someone give me information on why one wants to reduce the amount of "microbubbles" in your system. Is it purely for asthetic reasons, or does it impact your system negatively? I know you don't want to expose sponges to the air, can microbubles do the same damage?

 

[D to the P]

Mainly asthetic, but they can irritate corals. I'm not sure about them damaging the sponges though.

 

[airinhere]

I believe it is the surface tension of the bubbles that pose the real risk. They can stick to the surface of the sponge and suffocate it under a thin blanket of bubbles. Same thing can happen to fish when bubbles stick to their gills.

Microbubbles can also land on corals or anemones and (via surface tension) trigger nematocysts to fire. The bubble then is layered with the stinging cells from your corals. As the bubble floats away, it is now a little bundle of nematocysts floating free in the water. The dose is very small per bubble but could irritate corals.

And microbubbles look bad.

 

[ev1016]

What is considered an unacceptable amount of micribubbles? Is the goal here to eliminate them all together?

Thanks.

 

[airinhere]

Total elimination is the goal.

Short of that, just try to minimize them as best you can.