Bubble algae….. ugh

[scrappy35]

I have a 75g tank that had a piece of bubble algae develop from a frag. I pulled it off and thought I cleaned it, but now I can see small clumps growing all over my rock work. I put in 2 emerald crabs, but at the rate I see them moving around I don’t see them making a huge dent. Water change is tomorrow and I will pick off all I can see. Once you have it do you ever get rid of it without chemicals? What is the recommended way to get rid of it?

 

[ChadmRoman]

I'm currently doing vibrant, two weeks into it. Seeing more GHA than Bubble growing now.

 

[homer1475]

Vibrant is the only thing that actually eradicated it in my tank. 2 years later and still no trace.

 

[James_O]

I’m interested and seeing where this thread goes. I have a ton of GBA bubbles on my paly rock, and they are encroaching on them:

 

[homer1475]

Vibrant takes a while, and some corals can take a hit from it, but it does work. Usually, like the BRS investigates video showed, GHA may take over for a while. But continued dosing got rid of both eventually.

I think I dosed it for like 6 months before everything cleared up.

 

[mdb_talon]

If you have a sump i would setup a hose siphon between the DT and into a filter sock in sump. Then would use a butter knife or similar to knock as many as you can lose while having your hose there sucking them up into the sock. That method combined with a few emerald crabs is what we did on a friend of mines tank a couple years ago and it did work. Seems to make it manageable for the crabs to do their job in eliminating what you cant see or get to.

 

[scrappy35]

If I did the dt to sump method should I get more than 2 crabs for a while?

As far as vibrant goes, is there any particular corals that generally take a hit?

 

[mdb_talon]

If I did the dt to sump method should I get more than 2 crabs for a while?

We put 4 in his 120. He says he almost never saw them, but within a few weeks what we could not reasonably get loose and suckup with the hose was all gone so presumably they were busy working in the visible areas at night. He wanted to then catch at least a couple to take back to the store, but was never able to.

 

[Fish Think Pink]

I’m interested and seeing where this thread goes. I have a ton of GBA bubbles on my paly rock, and they are encroaching on them:

Careful sucking without breaking bubbles definitely way to start turning this around. I did finally use Vibrant to get rid of bubble algae as my crabs were not fast enough (but then, they were popping the bubbles to eat it and I couldn't help but wonder if they were releasing spores faster than eating grown... don't know).

If you go the Vibrant path, then my advice is do not stop. I thought we got all the bubble algae and GHA... but did not really have all the GHA (maybe we were 99.9% or maybe it snuck back in on another frag)... all I know is GHA is back and wish I had gone longer with Vibrant (took 3 months to get rid of GHA 1st time) ... don't yet know how long Vibrant and GHA #2 will take ...

On the bright side, bubble algae never came back (yet... knock, knock on wood)

EDIT: if your parameters start to swing, that will likely impact your corals more than Vibrant - Vibrant didn't really impact ours much then or now (in fact, now not seeing anything from hammers, first time they seemed a little tighter, but that may really have been due to the nitrate and phosphate swings which using bio-pellet reactor these days I've got low and no swings due to that). Also have UV 40W 4foot monster this time around and don't feel its helping either.

GHA - Mechanical removal with siphon esp 2-3 days after Vibrant dose - GHA seems to let go easier after Vibrant dose but not if I wait whole week

 

[James_O]

Careful sucking without breaking bubbles definitely way to start turning this around. I did finally use Vibrant to get rid of bubble algae as my crabs were not fast enough (but then, they were popping the bubbles to eat it and I couldn't help but wonder if they were releasing spores faster than eating grown... don't know).

If you go the Vibrant path, then my advice is do not stop. I thought we got all the bubble algae and GHA... but did not really have all the GHA (maybe we were 99.9% or maybe it snuck back in on another frag)... all I know is GHA is back and wish I had gone longer with Vibrant (took 3 months to get rid of GHA 1st time) ... don't yet know how long Vibrant and GHA #2 will take ...

On the bright side, bubble algae never came back (yet... knock, knock on wood)

I’ve read tons of bad reviews on Vibrant being expired, leaking, or killing all the coral in their tanks. I prefer to go the natural method anyway, so I will most likely manually remove.

I used to have it (along with GHA) on all the rocks until I did a strip clean. After that, the only place I’m seeing it is on this rock.

I didn’t want to remove the rock because it has the big healthy colony on it, but I may end up having to.

 

[Fish Think Pink]

I’ve read tons of bad reviews on Vibrant being expired, leaking, or killing all the coral in their tanks. I prefer to go the natural method anyway, so I will most likely manually remove.

I used to have it (along with GHA) on all the rocks until I did a strip clean. After that, the only place I’m seeing it is on this rock.

I didn’t want to remove the rock because it has the big healthy colony on it, but I may end up having to.

Maybe you could do a container of saltwater large enough to hold rock and colony, keep the colony submerged when you scrub rock there, then put rock and colony back in main tank.

I just ordered some 12% food grade hydrogen peroxide. My BF doesn't want me to use it. We tried the 3% and he got it on coral and we watched it quickly kill one of our nicest corals Death spread FAST to coral using 3%. hydrogen peroxide and didn't phase the GHA at all. Obviously I *am* going to spot use it here and there where I think I might be able to get away with it.

Even though Vibrant worked first time, and even though we're using it AGAIN, I'd really prefer not to be using it. What I really want is the GHA to just not be there... I want the GHA gone and my macroalgaes back in my refugium - they grow so much better in my sump than in a separate tank where I have to dose them NeoNitrate and NeoPhosphate because there is no fish waste in separate tank

 

[SteveMM62Reef]

From my observation, Emeralds can’t eat the mature Bubble Algae. They can eat the nubs, and the Bubble that is sprouting. I Taped a Plastic Knife to my Rigid Tubing, scraped if off the Rock, while sucking it up.

 

[Reefahholic]

The best way to eliminate Bubble algae is to manually remove what you can via siphon. Then treat with vibrant at recommended dose.

Never pop the bubbles. Found that out the hard way and a veteran reefer on here did too. I was at his house and told him about a bubble algae problem I was having several years ago in a new tank. He said…you can pop the bubbles as long as your nutrients are low. Then proceeded to pop some large bubble algae bubbles in his tank. Several months later he had a massive outbreak like I did. Classic!

BA can be large, small, and tiny. They can get in the overflow box, plumbing, return pumps, wave makers, etc. If you have certain species they can be next to impossible to eradicate.

At that point removing sensitive corals and using Vibrant at a higher more frequent dose might be your only option, because it definitely drops nutrient levels the bigger and more frequent the dose.

Here are some pictures of my outbreak several years ago. Some of these new bubbles were almost microscopic and this species was really aggressive. I have seen a large species in established systems be ok and never get out of control.

Manually removing a problem of this scale below is next to impossible. Vibrant would have been my only solution then. However, Vibrant wasn’t created yet. I had to shut down the system.

Best of luck with your outbreak.

 

[austibella]

I have a 75g tank that had a piece of bubble algae develop from a frag. I pulled it off and thought I cleaned it, but now I can see small clumps growing all over my rock work. I put in 2 emerald crabs, but at the rate I see them moving around I don’t see them making a huge dent. Water change is tomorrow and I will pick off all I can see. Once you have it do you ever get rid of it without chemicals? What is the recommended way to get rid of it?

I had a bubble algae problem yrs ago. Give your emerald crabs some time. They will eat it.try not to break the bubbles or it will spread.... After the crabs ate it all, took a little time I never got it again. The best of luck to you.

 

[austibella]

If I did the dt to sump method should I get more than 2 crabs for a while?

As far as vibrant goes, is there any particular corals that generally take a hit?

Vibrant is excellent! But some people don't read directions. ALSO there are 2 different varieties one for fresh water and one for Saltwater. I have heard people buying off the internet buying the one for freshwater thinking it was for Saltwater again not reading the labels.... I have used it for a few years never lost a coral. You have to increase air supply and you can get a nutrient spike due to it is doing its job cleaning your tank.do water changes to clean out nutrients. It's a great product if used properly.