Bubbles in the wax destroy my zen. White hot rage, laser-beam eyes, pulsing vein in the temple destruction of the joy that is lava lampage. More on that below.

I spent a long time on this problem, with chemicals and tools stacked precariously around my desk as I pretended to work and really I fiddled with my lava lamp. Not so much work progress. Plenty of learning about lamps, and much study and research on oozinggoo. 

I tried swirling and poking, popping and running the lamp long-term. I tried boiling, replacing the water, and changing the chemical composition. Always, once I had good flow going, within an hour or two the vexing bubbles of water would appear in my wax, ruining my day. 

I have, however, today, run my lamp for six hours (and counting) and seen the bubbles VANISH. I now have silky smooth, ripply, active wax flowing up and down the lamp just as it should, and my zen is restored. WHEW!

The secret is in the coil or spring at the bottom of the lamp. Well, the -REAL- secret is doubtless in the quality and composition of the wax. The lava lamp I got had one main feature: it was cheap. I don't have a lot of money, and when I saw this nice new box on the shelf at my local mega-store with the picture of a sea-blue-and-green lava lamp for $El Cheapo$, I got it (I've always loved lava lamps, but didn't own one). I am convinced the wax itself is inferior. My main recommendation is if you can afford a quality lamp, go that route instead. 

But I have always been one of those people (I am -sure- there are lots of us reading this) who couldn't help but take things apart and fiddle with them. I'm also an author, which is why I have no money and my post is Far Too Long. So to get to the point:

--== REMOVE THE SPRING/COIL >>==--

Yep. That's it. Now, I resisted this for a long time, in fact the first FOUR times I removed the coil, I replaced it with something else (a different coil, paperclips bent into caltrops, etc). It wasn't until a lot of trial and error that I realized the less stuff in the bottom of the lamp, the fewer bubbles in the wax. My lamp (cheapolapants though it is) still works without the spring. Yes, there are times when the bubbles float gently to the bottom and stay separate for a few seconds, but they eventually merge and flow back to the top. -And Blessedly Without Zen-Killing Water Bubbles!-

I reason that what is happening is when wax "swooshes" upward, the suction of its motion is pulling the water solution up with it, and the irregularity of the spring, coil, clip, caltrop, or whatever at the bottom of the globe is actually -aiding- the formation of tiny water bubbles (by making the surface of the departing goo more irregular). The itty-bitty water bubbles combine over time and eventually "pop" out of the wax, but by then I'm Panda pounding my head on the mast screaming for Inner Peace. And more bubbles were forming anyway. 

I have a ton more I would love to share about my lava lamp experience, but perhaps another time. I wanted to post this here because it seemed to be a common problem in many other posts (I may go around and post a link to my answer, or just copy this as a reply) and OozingGoo was such a great site while I fixed my lava lamp.

Note of interest: my original problem had been "doming", which was generally attributed to my lamp (or environment) being too hot. I live in South Texas, so yeah. My environment is warm. I couldn't find lower wattage bulbs in the stores I checked (was already on 25watt) but in the end what helped was changing the salinity of the water (added canning salt). I did it through a long series of changing the water and starting over, but if your wax "domes" you may try upping the salt. I'll post that more fully elsewhere. Once I caused bubbles in the wax, all other considerations went by the wayside.

Okay. Seriously. Done with the post this time. Love the site.