Since the default randomtickspeed value is 3, this issue is virtually unnoticeable in normal gameplay, but setting the value to 1000 will cause source water blocks above magma blocks to evaporate so quickly that the bubble columns form and deform at random and do not retain a stable state. The issue is a direct cause of the fix to MC-125400, in which bubble columns require at least 1 adjacent source block of water, and no adjacent air blocks. A proposed fix to this issue is that bubble columns should require at least one adjacent source water block or at least 1 adjacent bubble column to be able to form and maintain itself.

The current behavior of needing at least 1 pure water block next to the column causes severe issues if you have a magma block under water surrounded on all four sides by other magma blocks; i.e. a plus shape. A bubble column is not allowed to form in the center, because it is surrounded by four bubble columns and no pure water blocks. Then, since magma blocks randomly evaporate water above them, the center magma block will at some point do that (a very high frequency with a high randomtickspeed value). Now, in that brief moment that the water evaporates and becomes air, the four surrounding bubble columns become invalid, do to no horizontal block being allowed as air. This causes the four surrounding magma blocks to now evaporate the water above them, and given the fact that water source blocks will be reformed indefinitely in the right circumstances (bottom of the ocean), this behavior continues to loop until one of the magma blocks is removed. Adding more magma blocks outward makes the effect more problematic.