How much should I worry about bubble algae?

[Lyss]

I've been lax on my reef maintenance since the holidays -- it's pretty much running on autopilot rn, but I plan to make this coming Sunday a water change and maintenance day to place some frags on rocks, trim up some macroalgae, etc.

ANYway, I got bubble algae from a frag a few months ago. Removed it but it eventually came back, and now I'm seeing it beginning to spread to two other frag plugs. It isn't on the rocks, I'm assuming b/c they're covered in coralline, ulva, halimeda, and red pom pom macro.

I will remove the bubble algae from the frag plugs when I do maintenance on Sunday, but my Q is really about how concerned I should be. My thinking was that I have other macro algae thriving in the display and have utilized it as part of my aquascape, so there is plenty to out-compete the bubble algae, and I have been paying a lot of attention to lowering and keeping nitrates low (like 10-15ppm low, not ultra-low). Do I need to be hyper-vigilant now and watch out for the bubble algae popping up elsewhere, or is it possible for it to just get out-competed?

 

[Jekyl]

Meh, get an emerald crab.

 

[BanjoBandito]

Must be the time of the year, I had to pull a couple bulbs off a frag plug the other day too. I mean, as long as we aren't seeing it en masse or large golf ball size bubbles, it's not that big of a concern. I don't know how true it is but I was told that only the larger bulbs will release spores that will readily colonize. Just stay on top of it and you should be fine.

 

[Lyss]

Meh, get an emerald crab.

I'm wary of emerald crabs. I did have a pitho that I lost and never replaced -- was thinking if I have enough other stuff I need at some point this year of maybe getting another pitho from Reef Cleaners.

 

[Jekyl]

I'm wary of emerald crabs. I did have a pitho that I lost and never replaced -- was thinking if I have enough other stuff I need at some point this year of maybe getting another pitho from Reef Cleaners.

I've had a few with no issues.

 

[iamahab]

I just noticed a few small bubbles on a frag I've had for months. I manually removed them but fear there will be more in the future. I'm looking into remedies and stumbled upon this thread. I'm leaning towards Vibrant, band aid or not. I have a emerald crab but he/she never leaves it's cave structure. I barely see him, I certainly wouldn't depend on him to do anything but hide.

 

[Sebastiancrab]

I have been battling them for several months. My solution is to pull the rocks and frags and manually remove them and rinse. I must have had a spore release at one point because they suddenly seemed everywhere. The key is to stay on top of getting rid of them.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

I had a few bubbles of bubble algae in my tank. 4ppm nitrate and 0ppm phosphate it just kinda died off. Two pincushion urchins probably helped too, altho they would probably eat all of your pretty macros.