Microbubbles from HOBs

I have a 55 gallon tank with a marineland 400 and a marineland 350. They are creating microbubbles and I'm worried they might be bad for my discus. I just got my discus 3 days ago (and tetras, etc. 4 days ago) and although I know it's normal for them to be shy at first, I am starting to wonder if the microbubbles are making it worse. They're not even really eating yet. Even the tetras never seem to go more than halfway up, even for food.
I've tried searching for ideas but it seems like I'm already doing everything that I've seen suggested. I keep my water level as high as possible, above the bottoms of the plastic part where the water pours down. I even got a big filter sponge and cut pieces and wedged them in to slow the water, and it probably helps some but I still have microbubbles. I age my water with an airstone so I don't think it's coming from dissolved gases.

Any ideas anyone?

Micro bubbles from a filter discharge are way different than micro bubbles caused by expanding gasses in unaged water. Harmless...

I would be more concerned if your 3 and 4 day fish were not QT'd...

So you're saying that my microbubbles are completely harmless to my fish? They won't stress them out at all?

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Originally Posted by ygdiscus

So you're saying that my microbubbles are completely harmless to my fish? They won't stress them out at all?

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Correct. Also check your ammonia etc. Good chance you are having a mini-cycle after adding discus (large bio-load). Was the tank cycled and are you doing water changes?
Pat

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Originally Posted by Second Hand Pat

Correct. Also check your ammonia etc. Good chance you are having a mini-cycle after adding discus (large bio-load). Was the tank cycled and are you doing water changes?
Pat

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I've been monitoring water parameters very closely the whole time. The day before I added fish it went from 4ppm ammonia to 0 ammonia 0 nitrites in less than 19 hours. So far no ammonia or nitrites, and nitrates have been around 5. I've done a couple water changes but I can't say I have a routine yet because every day is different. Also they're not eating much yet so I haven't been putting in that much food yet (they're getting there slowly).

The explanation is that tap water is piped in under pressure. The solubility of atmospheric gasses, primarily nitrogen, O2 and C02 are increased proportionate to pressure, in addition solubility of gasses goes down as temp goes up, which always seemed paradoxical to me as it is the inverse of solids in solution. So as you heat the water and let it sit in an unpressurized container the excess gasses come out of solution prior to going into the tank.
What is your tank temp, and what are you feeding vs what the discus were fed prior to purchase?

Don, mate, fantastically accessible explanation sir! Kudos to you :)

As of now my tank is at 86. As I mentioned, I do age my water so I would assume I am avoiding that issue. Unless I misunderstood what you were trying to say, which is definitely possible. I have a garbage can under my tank with a waterline and an auto float valve. There is an airstone and a heater in the garbage can. When I do a WC I pump water straight from there into my tank.
I'm not 100% sure exactly what they were being fed, buy I'm pretty sure it was live blackworms, beefheart mix, pellets, and maybe other stuff as well. Currently I am feeding pellets, FD blackworms, and beefheart flakes (which actually have very little beefheart).

Aging system sounds fine with the caveat that the water should be tested and not used until Ph stabilizes. Usually < 12 hours. Typically Ph comes up as CO2 comes out of solution. Occasionally people report Ph going down, which implies some volatile base coming out of solution but I am unsure what that might be, have not found a good explanation to date. May want to try some frozen beefheart and see if they are more interested in the familiar and then transition diet once they are eating well.

My tapwater comes out at about 8.5 and ages to about 7.5. I haven't tested enough times to determine the exact amount of time it takes for the pH to stabilize, but I'm pretty sure it's 24 hours or less