Bubbles or not

[Raydee]

I currently have two powerheads on my tank just for added water circulation but I am wondering if I should adjust them to shoot bubbles into the tank or not. Will the bubbles effect the tank or the fish at all? I know that the bubbles will cause salt deposits on the glass and hood. I have never seen bubbles in any salt or brackish tank around here but is that because it is bad for the fish or just because it causes the salt deposits?

I know they sell bubble walls and stones all over the place, what good are they? Are they primarily used in FW tanks only?

[Pufferpunk]

I just recently had to add the diffuser to my powerhead because my tank crashed & the ammonia spiked, which caused the fish to not be able to breathe & need extra O2 in the water. It was very noisy & there were bubbles all over my puffers' skin. As long as the water flow is agitating the surface, I don't think it's necessary for the extra bubbles.

[OrionGirl]

Another down point for bubblers is BW/SW systems is the increased evaporation, resulting in fluctuating salinity. I agree--increased surface agitation is better than a bubbler. There really isn't a significant increase in oxygen levels from the bubbles: it's actually from the increased surface agitation when bubbles break the surface that up the oxygen levels.

[Shikkapow]

I didnt have a bubbler in my BW tank and after about a week the sand got anerobic and smelled like rotten eggs, I do weekly changes, but the only time it got funky was when I didnt have a bubbler.....

but yes the salt creep is bad above the bubbler

[Pufferpunk]

You need to stir up the sand before doing water changes. There are bacteria pockets growing in there.

[howlincody]

Ray, I think you should be fine as long as you don't have many plants (surface agitation will deplete the c02 supply in the water). How many times is your water turning over per hour? I'd say that 15x per hour is about the limit. Oh, and like OrionGirl said, this will cause more evaporation so you may want to invest into a glass versa top if you don't already have one.

I always have kept my sand level under .25" deep to prevent anaerobic spots (like PP was talking about).

[Shikkapow]

I always stir the sand up, and mix it weekly to avoid the anerobic bacteria, but the only time I ever had a problem was w/o the bubbler.. I followed the same steps as normal but still had probs....