Bubble Problem

[Marineman]

Anyone can tells me from the picture what's wrong.

This happens after I removed the cotton filtration media which traps uneaten food flowing throug the overflow box and some bioballs (10) from the first chamber of my sump/refugium. Not sure if there is anything to do with this.

Picture before

[FuEl]

Wrong section to post in..anyway..nothing looks abnormal to me..

[Marineman]

This is ehat it is now. The bubble still opens like the above except that this picture is taken when the bubbles retracted.

[scarab]

Bro what's wrong with it? Looks fine to me.

Oh sorry saw your 2nd photo......

[DeepBlue]

I think give it a day or 2 should be alright....I am not sure at all...sometimes I mess with my tank..my bubbles will do that for a few hours...then it is OK

probably just stress....

[FuEl]

Don't worry too much about bubbles..they are rather tough LPS.

[Blenny]

mine looks like this and did not know what happen until i saw bi-color angelpecking at the sides of the bubble. Took out bi color and clown fish treat bubble as home.

Do you have any of these fish?

[scarab]

Bubbles are a bit weird in this case. Mine also does that, deflate for no reason. Leave it a day or two and see whether it recovers. If not suggest you take it away from direct light and put in low current area. If not the teeth of the skeleton will have algae growth (turn black like kena sun burn). The low current will encourage the bubble to reopen.

just my 2 cents.....Got a few bubble in my refugium recovering.

[Marineman]

The bubble does opens during the day except that you can see the "tear" in the membrane, whereas in the past the membrane sticks to the skeleton, that is my concern.

[lightningstrike]

IMHO, lights too strong, wrong placement, curent 2 strong???

[alanseah]

did u feed your bubble..???

try feeding them and u will see it grow real big the next day...

[KingFish]

When you removed the cotton filter, it could have released more nitrate, phosphate and what-nots into your water, depending on how aged is your media.

The tissue seem to have receded quite badly, but nonethless, bubbles are tough. Mine does that after every maintenance when i replace the fiter wool and trim the macroalgae in the fuge, but recover in a couple of hours.

How about the other corals? any similar symptoms?

[Marineman]

When you removed the cotton filter, it could have released more nitrate, phosphate and what-nots into your water, depending on how aged is your media.

The tissue seem to have receded quite badly, but nonethless, bubbles are tough. Mine does that after every maintenance when i replace the fiter wool and trim the macroalgae in the fuge, but recover in a couple of hours.

How about the other corals? any similar symptoms?

Thanks for you comments.

I feed my bubbles with cyclops, mysis, DT, plankton tablets and my own concoction of vitamins, shrimps, spirulina etc.

The impact is on my brains and bubbles, all other corals are healthy. My cynarina suffered badly, I believe the cause of it is my mushroom anemone (discosoma) after placing the latter near the meat coral.

Should i still continue to remove the bioballs slowly and do not place the cotton wool on the overflow box?

My media (bioballs) is 16 months old, change my cotton wool every week or two.

[KingFish]

Hard corals got hit pretty badly it seems.

You can leave the filter wool as its purpose is to trap uneaten food and detritus for easy removal. In your case, it prevent accumulation of matter on your bioballs which can promote nitrate buildup.

Its also good to know trapped phosphate in detritus can also be another major source of concern.

I'm not sure how is your filter media section setup, but a large amount of mature bioballs in a tower compartment can be quite a challenge. But I would recommend a slow and calculated approach, allowing only the level of impact your system can handle.

If you can, consider isolating your media section from the rest of the system and do some clean up there.

- Siphon as much detritus as you can

- Lower the water level before you remove some bioballs

- Wash your filter wool in aged saltwater regularly

[Marineman]

Thanks, will leave the cotton wools there and rmove the balls bit by bit over a few months.

I only has one SPS, doing OK at present.