Is Anyone In The Club Nano Bubbling?

[Joey Marino]

After seeing this post I decided to try it out last night. I set a timer to run the bubbles for just 30 minutes at 1am. I cleaned my skimmer collection cup before bed and set it to skim dry. This morning there was quite a bit of thick, brown skimmate in my collection cup! I was very impressed with the efficacy of this easy process. My air pump (for the time being) is on the ground in my sump. While this is not perfect and I have not been testing pH throughout the process, I am very pleased with the results so far. I will be rigging it up so that the air pump sits about 5' off the ground outside of my sump today.

 

[CastAway]

I've been on the fence. I have it set up, but have not been running it. I think I'll start this week though. I have not seen nor heard of any negative effects. One of my acro's in particular seems to really react more than the others, putting off maybe three times as much mucus as the others. It's crazy. I can't see the harm in it though.

I wish my Vortech's had a programming feature, where I could pull them out of night mode at some interval, while I bubble, as I don't get nearly the bubble density when they're in night mode.

 

[Joey Marino]

Castaway, I was thinking the same thing. I recently upgraded to 2 MP40's and it seems to really get everything out of it you need the Reeflink. I may get it in the coming months so that I can directly control a 24hr cycle the way I want it (including ramping up when I nano bubble). However, a big selling point is wether or not you can completely cut off the powerheads during feeding. I can't find any info on this. Does anyone here have one that can test this?

Sorry about the detour from the thread but I was just curious.

 

[Cruz_Arias]

For Very Little Cost, try this @BlueDevil ...

Insert the outlet side of the air pump to the inlet of the CO2 Scrubber... (Fill the entire CO2 Reactor Scrubber with media) and on the outlet of the CO2 Scrubber, attach the wooden air diffuser...
This should remove a lot of CO2 from the air... Don't forget to grab some check valves as well and an air line valve.

 

[Cruz_Arias]

@CastAway - honestly, I haven't really had any major swings in my pH (touch wood!) so I haven't been able to tell if the microbubbling has impacted the pH any. In the warmer months, my pH has fluctuated between 8.0 and 8.2 and now that cooler weather has set in (with the heat in the house kicking in) my pH range is 8.1 to 8.3. And yes, I do have an Apex, and dose Alk (Randy's Recipe #1) every other hour from 0000 to 0600 for a total of 24ml daily. My 'bubbler' also runs from 0000 to 0600 for 6 cycles (30 mins on 30 off), for a total of 3 hours.

Now, I think the biggest reason I don't believe the bubbling has impacted the ph (its pretty obvious I think) is because I don't use fresh outside air. I am sure if I did, the pH would be impacted.

@Cruz_Arias - in your experience/opinion, would not using outside air hamper any of the growth/coloration benefits as well, in addition to the pH stability benefits? Or do you think I should still see those benefits?

As far as changes that I have seen goes, I really am not sure. As you know all my sticks are frags, so they are all mostly encrusting right now. But I can say for sure they are encrusting very well. Also, polyp extension has been fantastic. Is this solely because of bubbling, I can't say. But I will say that I have seen no detrimental effects whatsoever with the bubbling so I plan on sticking with it.

I can do an experiment to see if the pH is impacted in any way. What I can do is let the bubbler run this week and then turn it off the following week. Then, pull the pH charts from Apex to see how they compare with each other. I think I might do that

Hope this helps...

How long are you running the skimmer?
Personally I do see the mechanical aspects of slime, mucus and detritus material still as positives even without 100% fresh air... However, the fresh air does lead to better pH stability... meaning 8.3 to 8.35 pH stability... only a 0.05 pH swing throughout the day...

Then again we are running the bubbling according to a pH controller... and our base Alkalinity is at 9.6dkh (as consistent as we can make this)

 

[Cruz_Arias]

Castaway, I was thinking the same thing. I recently upgraded to 2 MP40's and it seems to really get everything out of it you need the Reeflink. I may get it in the coming months so that I can directly control a 24hr cycle the way I want it (including ramping up when I nano bubble). However, a big selling point is wether or not you can completely cut off the powerheads during feeding. I can't find any info on this. Does anyone here have one that can test this?

Sorry about the detour from the thread but I was just curious.

That would be cool... There should be at least a "Pause Button" that we could program how long the pause should be...

 

[BlueDevil]

How long are you running the skimmer?
Personally I do see the mechanical aspects of slime, mucus and detritus material still as positives even without 100% fresh air... However, the fresh air does lead to better pH stability... meaning 8.3 to 8.35 pH stability... only a 0.05 pH swing throughout the day...

Then again we are running the bubbling according to a pH controller... and our base Alkalinity is at 9.6dkh (as consistent as we can make this)

My skimmer is always running, except for:

1. When my pump turns off (for feeding, maintenance etc...)
2. Three hours each night to give me a window to feed Reef Energy

Thank you so much for the CO2 scrubber idea. I will give that a shot and see what results it gives me in terms of pH stability. Appreciate it very much!

 

[BlueDevil]

Castaway, I was thinking the same thing. I recently upgraded to 2 MP40's and it seems to really get everything out of it you need the Reeflink. I may get it in the coming months so that I can directly control a 24hr cycle the way I want it (including ramping up when I nano bubble). However, a big selling point is wether or not you can completely cut off the powerheads during feeding. I can't find any info on this. Does anyone here have one that can test this?

Sorry about the detour from the thread but I was just curious.

That would be cool... There should be at least a "Pause Button" that we could program how long the pause should be...

While this might be an expensive option, an Apex will accomplish that very easily

 

[saltrookie53]

making a huge difference on the amount of skim my skimmer is producing even with an extremely light bio load.

 

[Chriscrna]

I just started tonight. Ran for an hour. Will document my progress.

 

[Cruz_Arias]

I just started tonight. Ran for an hour. Will document my progress.

Please post up videos and pics!
If there needs to be any adjustments, I'm here to help!

 

[Cruz_Arias]

@Abhishek please feel free to demonstrate how you were able to generate the very fine bubbles, please!

 

[Chriscrna]

Hard to glean from an iPhone pic, but these bubbles are extremely fine.

Amount of bubbles in the display is easily controlled by changing the proximity of the air stone to the intake.

Day 1 - bubbled 1 hour
Day 2 - bubbled 3 hours

Normally, I have great PE and coloration on ALL my acros EXCEPT two (BC XMAS and BC Pink Flamingo). Even though both of these acros are growing just fine, for some reason, I've never seen PE or good coloration with them.

After 2 days of bubbling, both of these acros have PE today.

Hoping this is a good sign of positive things to come.

 

[Chriscrna]

Please post up videos and pics!
If there needs to be any adjustments, I'm here to help!

Thanks Cruz!

I'm sure this has been posted several times, but here it is again in the interest of anyone who's not seen it: https://www.facebook.com/ElegantCor...705699091667/1615803182015251/?type=1&theater

 

[Chriscrna]

Oh, another note........my RBTA's are all bubbled. They are typically hit and miss with being bubble tipped.....usually more elongated. But I noticed tonight that all 4 are bubble tipped, which is not typical. I love that!

 

[Cruz_Arias]

Oh, another note........my RBTA's are all bubbled. They are typically hit and miss with being bubble tipped.....usually more elongated. But I noticed tonight that all 4 are bubble tipped, which is not typical. I love that!

Thank you, sir!! Love your observations and explanation of how easy it is to adjust bubble size and coarseness simply based on distance the wooden air diffuser is to the intake of the return pump. Very nice, and I'm very glad you're seeing the positives as well!

 

[BlueDevil]

What acro is that Cruz? My goodness that's gorgeous!!

 

[Cruz_Arias]

What acro is that Cruz? My goodness that's gorgeous!!

It's a little something something we've been growing for a while.

We will be releasing some frags soon in the spring when the weather permits us to ship. We'll keep you posted!

 

[BlueDevil]

It's a little something something we've been growing for a while.

We will be releasing some frags soon in the spring when the weather permits us to ship. We'll keep you posted!

Yes, please keep us posted!! I would love to get a piece of that! [emoji7]

 

[KJ]

Hard to glean from an iPhone pic, but these bubbles are extremely fine.

Amount of bubbles in the display is easily controlled by changing the proximity of the air stone to the intake.

Day 1 - bubbled 1 hour
Day 2 - bubbled 3 hours

Normally, I have great PE and coloration on ALL my acros EXCEPT two (BC XMAS and BC Pink Flamingo). Even though both of these acros are growing just fine, for some reason, I've never seen PE or good coloration with them.

After 2 days of bubbling, both of these acros have PE today.

Hoping this is a good sign of positive things to come.

Mr Bubbles, I have been watching your procedure of bubbling and this is not good for your clam`s health. The bubbles can get caught under his mantles and cause him to be stressed and possibly after bubbling for a while he may go to the afterlife