Killing Bubble Algae with Reef HD Reef Flux

[mckinney0171]

I had the same result. The bubble came back worse than before. I'll give it one more shot, since some people haven't had the same experience.

let us know how it goes. i haven't used it again. and i am reluctant to do so.

 

[BigOrangeTabby]

Could be that the dang stuff is feeding in nutrients left over from the die off.?

That's a good theory. I wonder if extra water changes after the duration of the treatment would help? I'm doing even more frequent testing for nitrates during this treatment, because not doing weekly water changes is giving me the screaming meemies. I'll report nitrate levels each week along with bubble algae eradication progress.

That said - I've kept my water parameters pristine since setting up the tank a year ago (yep - still in the "new and overenthusiastic" stage of reef keeping), and I STILL ended up with bubble algae. Frustrating.

 

[Sir Chris]

I just finished a fluco treatment for spare bubble I transferred from my old tank after QT it managed to get in.. killed all the other algae that was there like bryopsis looking and macros(Pom Pom and Chaeto). The bubble turned into clear pearls and very little but the TEENY TINY ones I scraped of the coral by removing it’s bone but did the job.

I will agree I thought the macro breaking down was fueling nitrates for when meds were gone.
I feel a water change of 5-10% so (5 gals for my 85g) and treat the water with fluco.

There are only a few bubbles but WONT disappear so will try vibrant. I’d say 40 bubbles total but will be more soon.

3 weeks since treatment

 

[dbraun15]

After reading this thread, I ordered some last week. Should have it some time early this week. I'll take some pics before and hope it works. I have neglected my tank after a vacation mishap about 6 months ago and was pretty devastated and haven't done anything to the tank since. I have green cyano, terrible bubble algae, some bryopsis, and hair algae...hoping this is the first step to getting the tank back in order. Photos to come.

 

[BigOrangeTabby]

I just finished a fluco treatment for spare bubble I transferred from my old tank after QT it managed to get in.. killed all the other algae that was there like bryopsis looking and macros(Pom Pom and Chaeto). The bubble turned into clear pearls and very little but the TEENY TINY ones I scraped of the coral by removing it’s bone but did the job.

I will agree I thought the macro breaking down was fueling nitrates for when meds were gone.
I feel a water change of 5-10% so (5 gals for my 85g) and treat the water with fluco.

There are only a few bubbles but WONT disappear so will try vibrant. I’d say 40 bubbles total but will be more soon.

3 weeks since treatment

Hello! When did you start doing water changes again? I just started Week 3 of the treatment, and I'm getting worried about nitrates (now at 5 ppm).

I'm thinking of taking my macro algae out of the refugium and starting over with new macro algae once the treatment is over, in order to avoid the "macro rot = nutrients = more bubble algae" issue. So far, my macro is alive, but it's turning white in places, which I believe means that it is likely dying.

 

[BigOrangeTabby]

Just finished Week 2, and starting Week 3 of this treatment. I'd say more than half of the bubble algae is gone, especially towards the top of the tank (closer to the light). I'm a little worried that the bubble algae on the lower third of the tank is still ostensibly thriving, and hoping this last week will finally kill them off, as they are darn near impossible to reach for manual removal.

Some of my LPS are starting to show stress. A couple of cyphastrea are losing color and polyps, and a couple acans are "deflating" a bit (especially the newer ones). One hammer coral and my frogspawn are also "deflating" a bit (not as much extension), but I don't see any tissue loss. I don't know if this is a reaction to the medication or (more likely) a reaction to the increase in nitrates (now 5 ppm, according to Red Sea test kit, and 3 ppm according to Nyos).

Those of you who did this treatment already (you brave souls) - at what point did you do a water change?

 

[BigOrangeTabby]

I am sorry about your vacation mishap, and hope this helps get things back in line. Thank you so much for sharing your progress, too!

 

[dbraun15]

I started a new thread to not muck up this one...follow along if you're interested.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/my-reefhd-reef-flux-cleanup-attempt.547867/#post-5645116

 

[BigOrangeTabby]

Week 3 Complete!

Bubble Algae - Approximately 75% gone. What remains is on the bottom 1/4 of the rockwork, which supports the theory that the medication is more effective in areas that get the most light (and perhaps flow).

Livestock - Several stressed corals (losing color, closed polyps, “deflating”). Specifically, a couple of acans, two euphyllia (hammer and frogspawn), and two cyphastrea. Other corals (other LPS and Zoas) are fine.

Nitrate - Now at 10+ ppm, and may be why the corals are stressed, rather than the meds, per se.

I am going to pull out some of the rocks and scrub them the best I can in a bucket of tank water. I am very concerned about the nitrate level, and will do a 25% WC. I wish I could let the meds have one more week to work, but I’m not willing to risk it.

 

[Sir Chris]

I wish I never use meds.

After trying with fluco then the resulting paramarers from my refuge of chato and Pom Pom algae breaking down invited Cyanobacteria with po4 sitting at .4
So what did I do. Treated for the cyano after two weeks of ..really??.. and the po4 not dropping.

Just got through a green cyano lookin and feeling slimy outbreak. Red and green mixed in and some hair algae and some odd looking turf algae all BLEW up in a matter of 3 days.

3 days ago po4 .23, Just now it's .04 from cut back on feed and heavy wet skimming to pull organics.

i still have a few grapes. Don’t try and pluck the pearls. It will leave tissue behind. I now scrape the corals skelly off with it since the coral under is dead. Or break it off so prevents the bubble from gaining dead skeleton to root

 

[Sir Chris]

Week 3 Complete!

Bubble Algae - Approximately 75% gone. What remains is on the bottom 1/4 of the rockwork, which supports the theory that the medication is more effective in areas that get the most light (and perhaps flow).

Livestock - Several stressed corals (losing color, closed polyps, “deflating”). Specifically, a couple of acans, two euphyllia (hammer and frogspawn), and two cyphastrea. Other corals (other LPS and Zoas) are fine.

Nitrate - Now at 10+ ppm, and may be why the corals are stressed, rather than the meds, per se.

I am going to pull out some of the rocks and scrub them the best I can in a bucket of tank water. I am very concerned about the nitrate level, and will do a 25% WC. I wish I could let the meds have one more week to work, but I’m not willing to risk it.

I feel it burns the cells causing them to not gain chlorophyll. Stunts the growth so something else can do the job like severely cut PO4 or a HORDE of emeralds and sailfin tangs. Someone should rent grazers out at LFS. But then there never healthy and can nuke a tank. Never mind on that

 

[piranhaman00]

Anyone else using Fluc for bubble algae? I have a minor case but dont want to dose vibrant.

 

[procky]

Hey all currently ending week 3 on reef flux rx (uk) in a massive conundrum. Originally brought to battle bryopsis... and had a fairly large amount of bubble algae. The bryopsis died within about 7-10 days which I was really pleased about.

i felt it went better as soon as I damage its cell wall. So day 5/6 I manually removed a load then 7/10 it literally dissolved. Until the manual removal it was still lush green....

So my problem is I can still see around 50 pearls of bubble algae that’s not including the tiny baby ones if there are any. This is down from 100s.

ive had 1 monti bleach, a soft leather has started to melt and my Duncan’s drag hasn’t opened in a week and the flesh has started to recede from the base..... I want rid of the algae, but I don’t want to lose more coral.

Thoughts? Smash out a big water change or leave it till the forth week. For the record I used standard dosing as recommended on the pack

 

[Orm Embar]

Reviving an old thread-

My tank has had an infestation of hair algae with a little Valonia over the last 6 months due to substantial tank neglect. Leathers and other softies have been doing well, but things haven't been going well. Well, after working on a wide variety of things, I've now upgraded my biofilter to a bigger/stronger refugium LED (Kolem 100-150w depending on what numbers you believe; 50w wall draw per manufacturer).

I've added 18 capsules of Reef Flux HD (last time I did 16; I rounded up this time) in a 43 gallon system to try to kill off the hair and also Valonia (hence the 4x dose), which worked well with no problems last time over 4-6 weeks. Will see how it goes this time. All granular charcoal is offline.

 

[Orm Embar]

Day 4 - I'm starting to see changes (a few Valonia getting paler or looking like they're deflating, hair algae that's gone to clear and wispy and presumably dying off). Chaeto looking good (it's a lighter green, but I added a more powerful fuge light and the Chaeto is "pearling" (covered with oxygen bubbles) so I attribute those changes to the light). I wish it worked faster, but so far corals and everything else look good, including my cleaner shrimp, alveopora/goniopora, zoas, etc.

 

[JaimeAdams]

@kevinl

 

[DMC112]

Day 4 - I'm starting to see changes (a few Valonia getting paler or looking like they're deflating, hair algae that's gone to clear and wispy and presumably dying off). Chaeto looking good (it's a lighter green, but I added a more powerful fuge light and the Chaeto is "pearling" (covered with oxygen bubbles) so I attribute those changes to the light). I wish it worked faster, but so far corals and everything else look good, including my cleaner shrimp, alveopora/goniopora, zoas, etc.

Hiya. Any update as l have the same green bubble algae issue. I used Reeflux HD before (recommended dose) for bryopsis which worked a treat.

 

[DMC112]

bump

 

[Singspot]

Well, that IS impressive.

Any problem with macros or chato ?

Hey , #reefsquad , pretty cool!

Anybody seeing similar reviews?

Reef HD Flux RX is an "Antifungal Treatment for fish" and using 4x of it
A - does not hurt the fishes (who do not have any fungal issue) and other living beings in the tank?
B - works as algae remover

Sounds like something odd ... so double confirming?

Anyone who has personally used, can you pls. share your specific experience?

Assume this product on Amazon is what you all are referring to, right?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Reef HD Flux RX is an "Antifungal Treatment for fish" and using 4x of it
A - does not hurt the fishes (who do not have any fungal issue) and other living beings in the tank?
B - works as algae remover

Sounds like something odd ... so double confirming?

Anyone who has personally used, can you pls. share your specific experience?

Assume this product on Amazon is what you all are referring to, right?

Ive seen flux work and ive seen flux create further problems with tank. To me- its an alternative and not solution. For bubble algae, I have taken a small needle and have 3/8 tubing ready and attach to end of tubing with rubber band and pop each one and siphon at same time- You will have removed all spores and foreign material in area.
Had to do this in the past with birdsnest coral and was gone 100%.
Other option is to add pitho crabs or emerald crabs (which I do not trust) which will eat them