Question about Bubbles, is this excessive?

Still new, and I've recently redone my aquarium to make a more natural environment for my fishys.

The next up on the chopping block for consideration: my 6" bubble wall. Originally I had gotten it for the aesthetic, but after redoing the tank yesterday it crossed my mind that I could be disturbing the surface "too" much between the bubbles and the HOB filter (it's only a 10 gal. tall, the surface area is roughly 12.5"x12.5" so it doesn't take a whole lot to get the top moving), however I seem to have a constant collection of bubbles on the top of my tank, usually covers roughly 25% of the surface as they float around (attached a pic of my "bubble field").

After reading signs/symptoms of over oxygenation and under oxygenation(or w/e the word is) I'm pretty sure it's fine at the moment, and I have no telltale signs, and while my pygmy Cory's like to play in the mid lvl sometimes, I don't catch them going to the surface for air.

I'm all about preventative measures though, hate avoidable repercussions in hindsight.

I keep my HOB turned down to a about a third of it's strength, roughly 26-28 gph, and simply assumed the bubbles would help the slower HOB flow rate with surface disturbance.

I would love to leave the bubble wall in there, but am fine with going down to a small/regular size airstone if needed. I normally unplug the air filter at night too.

If it sounds like I'm overdoing it to an experienced hobbyist, please let me know!

Any advice or input is appreciated, thanks!

Do they annoy you? They are not harmful. They could be harmful for bettas, as they need surface space to breathe.

PheonixKingZ said:

Do they annoy you? They are not harmful. They could be harmful for bettas, as they need surface space to breathe.

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No I worry more that the amount of aeration through surface disturbance is causing a slow rise in my ph, from what I've read at least..

My ph keeps going up over time and then stables out around 7.9, but the bubbles are the only thing I can find info. for that might be causing it. A couple forums posts and articles Ive found said that over aeration can cause this, which is why I started turning it off at night but doesn't seem to be helping.

If I leave it off too long, my fish start gulping at the surface, even if I turn the hob up higher to try and counteract removing the bubbles

I have never heard that over aeration can/will cause high pH.

Hmm.. I believe it was correlated as a higher aeration creates a drop in carbon dioxide lvl's when the gas escapes in the air too quickly, causing slight increases of pH.

Good to know the issue probably isn't as sensitive as some of the articles I've found make it sound. If interested in the effect, just searching for causes behind aquarium pH rising will yield info. about it scattered through the reasons you can find, at least in some the articles.

Switched to a smaller airstone just this morning to see if there is a difference over time anyway, also added a lovely piece of driftwood to help maintain it hopefully.

Koglin said:

After reading signs/symptoms of over oxygenation and under oxygenation(or w/e the word is) I'm pretty sure it's fine at the moment

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you don't hav to worry about over oxygenation in my opinion Oxygen levels cannot get higher than the saturation point for water. It won't go any higher because the water will start to outgas the excess rapidly.

There are many people out there that like to see pearling plants in aquarium. This means they use higher light levels and fertilizer levels to encourage rapid growth of plants. Many of these aquariums have fish some don't.The plants quickly push the O2 level up to the saturation point. At that point oxygen bubbles form of the leaves and then float to the surface. I have not seen any posts about people having problems with this.

However having deficient oxygen levels could lead to the death of the fish which can and does happen. The best way to prevent oxygen deficiency is to increase aeration.

Koglin said:

Hmm.. I believe it was correlated as a higher aeration creates a drop in carbon dioxide lvl's when the gas escapes in the air too quickly, causing slight increases of pH.

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I have done some experiments with RO DI water and a PH probe. Pure DI water is the only type of water in which the PH and those the CO2 level can be determined accurately. Most water has too many contaminants in it. Meaning the PH in tap water is primarily determined by the mineral content of the water noT the CO2 level. Yes COC2 has a PH affect but in my opinion it is much smaller than the mineral induced PH shift.

Anyway I store My DI water in a bucket and a small pump constant pumps the water through a DI resin cartridge to keep it clean. Without any surface agitation the PH of the water in the bucket correlated with about 100ppm of CO2 in the water. And when I pumped air though the water the PH dropped a little more. Meaning aeration added a little more CO2 to the water. It didn't decrease it. Nod it I had put CO2 into the water I could have gotten much higher CO2 levels in the water but it would quickly droop back down until is equilibrates with air.

So overall if your create the water CO2 and oxygen levels will increase until they are in equilibrium with the air. so aeration increase CO2 and O2 level in water deficient in these gases. If the water has more gas than in the air surface agitation or air pumps will cause the water to outgas until equilibrium is reestablished.

Changes IN PH levels are primarily caused by plants and fish removing minerals from the water to support growth. Fish food and fish waist can also cause mineral levels to increase. It is these changes in mineral levels that cause most of the PH change in an aquarium.

That makes a lot more sense than how I was understanding it, also comforting to know that my bubble wall isn't causing the issue. After changing to a smaller stone there hasn't been a difference.

For the time being, think ill take your advice regarding food/waste, been transitioning to sinking wafers for a bit now since it's easier to pull them out of the water compared to any uneaten flakes or brine shrimp, gonna make the switch and just supplement with brine on occasion, see if that helps after a while. Thinking it may be a food issue.

Thanks for the info. @StevenF - it is appreciated'