Black bubbles on coral?

reefguy40gal · Sep 2, 2014

I hope this is the right forum....I forgot the name of this coral.

It's in my 40gal. I had an issue where the new LED light that I bought was far too bright. So I turned down the white to 60%.

This piece of coral was near the top of the tank for the ~2 weeks the light was run at 100% white.

There's these....black bubbles that are appearing on it.

The coral is some sort of.....green slime.....that just migrates everywhere and looks really cool.

Sorry for poor quality pic.

Can you please tell me what's wrong with my coral, and how to fix it?

thanks

w.gurney77 · Sep 2, 2014

Looks like green bubble algae.

F430Lou · Sep 2, 2014

Looks like you got some bubble algae there. Make sure you don't pop them because you could cause it to spread. I would recommend to syphon them off but make sure you get them all or they'll come back. Also not sure what kind of fish you have but sailfin tangs are good at keeping bubble algae under control.

reefguy40gal · Sep 2, 2014

I got a blue tang....but he's just a baby. 1-1/2" long. He's not eating it....

Ok so if I don't do anything....the bubble algae will just continue to grow over the green coral? (btw, anyone have an ID for that coral?)

It's on a frag, so I can just remove the frag and scrape it off.

NanaReefer · Sep 2, 2014

During a wc, turn off all flow, using siphon hose scrape off bubble algae while at the same time you'll be siphoning it out. Works great and if they break the spores are siphoned out.
This was the best way I found to rid my tank completely of it.

w.gurney77 · Sep 2, 2014

NanaReefer said:
During a wc, turn off all flow, using siphon hose scrape off bubble algae while at the same time you'll be siphoning it out. Works great and if they break the spores are siphoned out.
This was the best way I found to rid my tank completely of it.

This does work well on large rocks. You want to get it as soon as you can. It will spread fast if conditions are right in your tank ( high nitrates or phosphate)
Since its on s plug you could pull the plug out, pull off the algae and scrub the plug with an old toothbrush. Try not to scrub the coral tissue and rinse it off in a cup of tank water before you put it back.