tiny air bubbles

[Nyx]

One of our planted tanks has become full of miniscule air bubbles over the past couple of weeks, pretty much top to bottom. as we have good water circulation We do consistent water changes every 2 weeks. What causes this? It's never happened to us before.

[charlie]

Nyx can you post a picture?
Is it after a water change?

[Nyx]

Errol, I'll ask Gaspare to get a pic this evening and will upload once he does. But it is both before and after a water change.

Additional info, if it helps: It is a 47 gallon column tank; 22"W x 18"D x 31" H. The tank is heavily planted (anubias nana; bolbitis; java fern; frog bit to diffuse the light; and various mosses) and has driftwood but does not have a lot of fish. The lighting is a 6700k 150w metal halide HQI with a 6 week old bulb. We are not using CO2 yet but are dosing with Excel daily and Flourish general fertilizer weekly. We do 1/4 tank water changes every two weeks, treating the water with Prime. We are using an Eheim filter with the spray bar running vertically as well as a small Maxijet for circulation. The bubbles are barely bigger than, say, powdered cycopeze or baby brine shrimp, if that helps.

The plants are doing exceptionally well, except for a few java fern leaves, but we have started losing fish. We still have three large angelfish; 2 dwarf botias; 2 bushynose plecos; 4 oto cats; 1 orange dwarf crayfish; a bunch of red crystal shrimp.

We are not having any problems with our 30 gallon planted tank, which receives the same care and has virtually identical equipment, except for the lighting.

Thanks.

[charlie]

does it look like this video?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwh75hMjI2U
or like this

[Nyx]

Errol, no, it doesn't look like either the photo or the video. The bubbles are not on the plants but rather in the water column and they are much smaller than the video. Gaspare just got home and he's taking a photo now so I should be uploading it soon. Thanks.

[Nyx]

Sorry the pic is not clearer. They look like particles in the water but are actually micro-bubbles.

[charlie]

Hmmm, hard to say,if i was to hazard a guess i`d say it`s something in the tank out gasing perhaps the driftwood? just a wild a guess.
Anyone else have some suggestions?

[Nyx]

Thanks Errol. We bought the tank as a complete set up a couple of months ago and it had been running for about a year, including the driftwood. Is this "out-gassing" dangerous? If so, what do we do to fix it?

[charlie]

I don`t know for sure , but recall reading sometime ago that micro bubbles can cause harm to fish if it gets attached to the inner gills, like mentioned this is just a vague memory of reading this quite sometime ago.
Another thought is to try turning off the power head for a bit & see if the issue improves or stay the same, then try turning off the filter & check, if that does not help, perhaps if possible remove the driftwood for a while & see what happens.

[Nyx]

Thanks for the advice, Errol. We'll try the powerhead and filter idea first. Removing the driftwood will be pretty much impossible as there are far too many anubia nana plants to count attached to it as well as some Phoenix moss (which was kindly ID'd for me in the plants forum). In that case, we'll have to remove the fish until the tank settles down. *shrug*

[Peekay]

I haven't experienced this, but I agree with Errol that it may be a mechanical component... if somewhere in the system air is getting into a flow that goes through an impeller, I could easily imagine teeny bubbles being the result. 

Good luck finding the source!

[Nyx]

Well, no clue what it was. Just when we'd decided to start unplugging stuff, the bubbles stopped. So it's still a bit of a head scratcher. *shrug*