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Title says it all, I often get micro bubbles in my DT, and it makes me wonder if they can increase dissolved oxygen levels overall due to added gas exchange. Any thoughts? @Randy Holmes-Farley
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My un-scientific ipinion
Since the bubble is gas encapsulated in the water it wont exchange gas. It will however disturb the waters surface when it rises and pops.
Hum........... MaybeThat's an interesting take on gas exchange. Just what makes you think gas can't exchange inside a bubble? It's not really encapsulated in water, it's just surrounded by water and I would think that could make for easier/better gas exchange.
This one is beyond my old defective brain@lapin, good find!
Now, are bubbles, and in particular skimmers, better at gas transfer than water surface to air where the water surface is moving due to powerheads or wavemakers?
Yes they can
David Kevin Woolf
Bubbles can be generated at the sea surface by many mechanisms, but the main source is by the entrainment of air in breaking waves. Bubbles will scavenge material from the surrounding water, thus contributing to the cycling of dissolved and particulate organic material. When they burst at the sea surface these bubbles generate a sea salt aerosol contaminated with material scavenged from the sea-surface microlayer and below. Gases will be exchanged between a bubble and the surrounding water while it is submerged. In addition, the breaking waves and surfacing bubble plumes disrupt the surface microlayer, and this may enhance transfer of gases directly through the sea surface.
- International Centre for Island Technology
- Energy Academy
- School of Energy, Geoscience, Infrastructure and Society
- Institute for Life and Earth Sciences
The net transfer of a gas between a bubble and the surrounding water, from entrainment until the bubble bursts or fully dissolves, contributes to the total transfer of that gas between atmosphere and ocean. This bubble-mediated transfer has some special properties that set it apart from direct air–sea transfer of poorly soluble gases. Bubble-mediated air–sea transfer velocities depend on the solubility in addition to the molecular diffusivity of the gas in seawater. Bubble-mediated transfer is not proportional to air–sea concentration difference, but is biased toward injection and the forcing of supersaturation. The entrainment of air by breaking waves increases rapidly in intensity with higher wind speeds.
@lapin, good find!
Now, are bubbles, and in particular skimmers, better at gas transfer than water surface to air where the water surface is moving due to powerheads or wavemakers?
Title says it all, I often get micro bubbles in my DT, and it makes me wonder if they can increase dissolved oxygen levels overall due to added gas exchange. Any thoughts? @Randy Holmes-Farley
I’ve wondered this myself, and is applicable to the placement of emergency air stones in the event of power outage.
1. Does the submerged depth of the air stone matter? Is it equivalent to have it an inch beneath the surface vs at the bottom? Is all that matters the pop at the surface?
2. Do you even need an air stone as opposed to just an air line? Are microbubbles more effective at gas exchange than macro bubbles?
Does anyone know?