bubbles in DSB

[roundman]

My fuge has been up for about 1 month and I keep having a lot of bubbles on the top of the DSB. I hadn't thought about it until I read the "nitrates" thread but is this to be expected and are those nitrogen bubbles meaning that the fuge is working?

Thanks

 

[stanfill reef]

Yep. The nitrates are converted to Nitrogen gas (N2). The gas will coelesce into bubbles if your flow is slow enough. Don't do this - but if you were to stir up your sand bed I would bet that you would see a lot of off-gasing due to the nitrogen cycle.

 

[roundman]

I have a small power head in the fuge but pointing up to help with flow on the serface. should I have it pointing more toward the bottom to try and stir up the bubbles so that they will not collect

 

[jaandgc]

No you don't want to stir up the sand, you can leave it as is.
Jerry

 

[stanfill reef]

No, leave the sand bed alone. The bubbles will naturally drift to the top. You don't want to point the flow to the sand bed because you might cause more oxygen to penetrate further into the sand, thereby defeating the purpose of the sand bed.

 

[FutureInterest]

I've never seen nitrogen bubbles just hang out on the surface of the SB... Yes nitrogen will be released in bubble form from within the SB and make their way to the surface, but they don't then hang on the surface...

Its probably cyano or diatoms and what you're seeing as bubbles is actualy oxygen, which is their byproduct.

 

[george]

FutureInterest;74500 wrote: Its probably cyano or diatoms and what you're seeing as bubbles is actualy oxygen, which is their byproduct.

This is likely what you have. Also remember that while you don't want to race the water through your fuge, they still do need some internal circulation.

 

[suasati]

FutureInterest;74500 wrote: I've never seen nitrogen bubbles just hang out on the surface of the SB... Yes nitrogen will be released in bubble form from within the SB and make their way to the surface, but they don't then hang on the surface...

Its probably cyano or diatoms and what you're seeing as bubbles is actualy oxygen, which is their byproduct.

Yeah Nitrogen bubbles are really small (50 microns) I doubt you will be ablt to distictly see them, if you see it under the sand through the glass it is probbaly O2 or co2, if it is sitting on top of the sand bed, you are probably seeing some cyno.... what is your phosphate level?