polymerics mixing the powders 6 with gel compound will result in a gel impregnated with super absorbent polymers with tailorable concentration properties and performance for example in one embodiment there may be three strands of yarns disposed within the buffer tube 1 with each of the three strands being a different size further two of the strands may be oriented axially parallel to the fiber optic ribbons 3 while the remaining strand may be disposed helically around the fiber optic ribbons 3 the yarns 5 in a preferred embodiment have whiskers however the present invention may be practiced with yarns 5 that do not have whiskers the yarns 5 with whiskers may also be used to u201c drag u201d the gel compound 2 into the buffer tube 1 which speeds manufacturing of the buffer tubes 1 finally the present invention is not limited to only water swellable yarns other materials may be used proved they volumetrically expand when contacted by water the buffer tubes of the present invention can be made in a number of ways typically an assembled stack of fiber ribbons is pulled through a die gel compound is injected in the die from the inside and a hot thermoplastic material is extruded over the gel stack system from the outside to form a buffer tube with gel compound.