Bubble and Hair-like Algae Won't Go Away!!

[adkquarium]

Hello everyone,

I have unfortunately been plagued with a strange brownish algae that has a ton of bubbles and sections that are almost hair like. I have tried the Red Algae treatment and it didn't really work. Do any of you know first of all, what exactly this algae is called and how to eradicate it from the tank? Thank you in advance for all of your help! Please see the pic below for reference.

 

[saintsreturn]

Others will chime in on their knowledge of products and "cure alls" but i am going to share my take on it. I do not add anything to my tanks but livestock and carbon. Everything i have tried failed or caused larger issues. I eradicated bubble algae and hair algae (most of the GHA) with the following:

Bubble algae: emerald crabs and lots of them. Also pulled wavemakers out and swapped them with a cheaper temporary solution while i scrapped off the BA and soaked in a cold solution of vinegar and water. No BA has shown back up since (over 6wks ago)

GHA: setup a siphon line into a sock and zip tied a toothbrush to the end. scrubbed each rock and sucked out the GHA as it became free flowing. reduced feeding to bring back up to the correct level (i do not like the stop feeding approach as it is not fair to the fish) and picked up some red legged Caribbean hermit crabs. I also added a yellow tang. I also set a camera up in the room to view ambient light on my tank. Turns out i needed to add solar shades and curtains as a lot of light was hitting my tank all day. Got the GHA down to 1 rock and when i moved the system i just washed the rock.

Both BA and GHA: Time and elbow grease. reduced water changes, reduced lighting (not blackout) and monitored food/nutrient additives.

 

[saintsreturn]

PS: welcome to R2R! And if you are not familiar with BA, please do not "pop" any of the spores in your tank or siphon them out like GHA like mentioned above. Their spores will float and rapidly increase your issues. Best to siphon them out into a bucket and toss the water. the double edge sword here is that heavy water changes will most likely feed your GHA while you remove your BA. This is why i stress things like emerald crabs. They are slow going, but do great work.

 

[alton]

Vibrant

 

[JSha]

+1 On emerald crabs on the BA they will take care of that problem

 

[adkquarium]

Others will chime in on their knowledge of products and "cure alls" but i am going to share my take on it. I do not add anything to my tanks but livestock and carbon. Everything i have tried failed or caused larger issues. I eradicated bubble algae and hair algae (most of the GHA) with the following:

Bubble algae: emerald crabs and lots of them. Also pulled wavemakers out and swapped them with a cheaper temporary solution while i scrapped off the BA and soaked in a cold solution of vinegar and water. No BA has shown back up since (over 6wks ago)

GHA: setup a siphon line into a sock and zip tied a toothbrush to the end. scrubbed each rock and sucked out the GHA as it became free flowing. reduced feeding to bring back up to the correct level (i do not like the stop feeding approach as it is not fair to the fish) and picked up some red legged Caribbean hermit crabs. I also added a yellow tang. I also set a camera up in the room to view ambient light on my tank. Turns out i needed to add solar shades and curtains as a lot of light was hitting my tank all day. Got the GHA down to 1 rock and when i moved the system i just washed the rock.

Both BA and GHA: Time and elbow grease. reduced water changes, reduced lighting (not blackout) and monitored food/nutrient additives.

Thanks so much for sending all of this valuable information! It worked like a charm! My little army of emerald crabs helped a ton, and I scrubbed each rock to get the algae free flowing in the water and then siphoned it up. Tank looks so much better. Thanks again!!

 

[adkquarium]

PS: welcome to R2R! And if you are not familiar with BA, please do not "pop" any of the spores in your tank or siphon them out like GHA like mentioned above. Their spores will float and rapidly increase your issues. Best to siphon them out into a bucket and toss the water. the double edge sword here is that heavy water changes will most likely feed your GHA while you remove your BA. This is why i stress things like emerald crabs. They are slow going, but do great work.

Thanks!! I did not pop any spores and the tank looks great now!!

 

[saintsreturn]

I am glad I could help!

 

[cracker]

@Alexandra Kappaz , Do your emeralds craps work during the day & get out in the flow & light? iv'e had terrible bubble as well. But it only grows up high in the light & current . Of course it's dark at night but the high flow is still there. Thanks,

 

[saintsreturn]

You are not going to want to rely on your crabs for high current areas as they will break loose the spores and the current will take them out. Mine did a great job around the tank and manual removal was required for higher up and higher flow areas.

@Alexandra Kappaz , Do your emeralds craps work during the day & get out in the flow & light? iv'e had terrible bubble as well. But it only grows up high in the light & current . Of course it's dark at night but the high flow is still there. Thanks,