Need HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Dave3112]

A few weeks ago I noticed that I had gotten bubble algae from somewhere. I guess I misset some on a frag plug or something. Well Now it is getting pretty bad. I put in 5-6 emerald crabs and they don't seem to be toughing it. But they also could have fallen prey to my melanarus wrasse. Next I get a scribbled rabbit fish. Had to get a big one to hold his own against my 6" hippo tang and 6-7" yellow tank. Well he has been there for 2 weeks and I haven't noticed any difference in the algae what so ever. What other natural predator eats this stuff? will a longspine urchin? I have one of those in my fuge I could throw in there. This stuff is really starting to bother me and I want it gone. I can't take the rocks out and scrub them. that would be IMPOSSIBLE

So I need y'alls help. What natural predator do you use or have had SUCCESS WITH

Thanks,

Dave

 

[Reefers Cove]

on my wifes tank we had the same problem first thing we did is try to low phosphates and nitrates much as we could that will slow the BA growth then we removed manually and with the water change hose we siphoned all the bubble a. was laying around.
note: we tried some emerald crabs before but they were stressing the zoas.

 

[myzislow]

if bubble algae is the worst of your problems than you are lucky! I have them pretty bad as well and to be honest they dont bother me all that much. I just pop them off the rocks with some tweezers or the little screwdriver that comes with refractometers and then the vortechs keep them suspended while I net them out.. One more thing to do but it keeps me working on the tank and up on my maintenance.

 

[Dave3112]

on my wifes tank we had the same problem first thing we did is try to low phosphates and nitrates much as we could that will slow the BA growth then we removed manually and with the water change hose we siphoned all the bubble a. was laying around.
note: we tried some emerald crabs before but they were stressing the zoas.

I run carbon and GFO in a reactor and macro in my sump,my phosphates and nitrates are undetectable. I have no other algae in my tank. I have tried to manually remove it and it just spreads. As careful as I was trying not to pop any of the bubbles that is what must have happened. I need a predator. Like i said I have emerald crabs in there but they haven't even touched it yet. As for zoas and emerald crabs, I would gladly lose polyp I have in my tank to get rid of the algae..........

 

[Dave3112]

if bubble algae is the worst of your problems than you are lucky! I have them pretty bad as well and to be honest they dont bother me all that much. I just pop them off the rocks with some tweezers or the little screwdriver that comes with refractometers and then the vortechs keep them suspended while I net them out.. One more thing to do but it keeps me working on the tank and up on my maintenance.

I have tried that as well but I guess I popped some by accident and it has spread and is getting pretty bad. I hate the look of it!

 

[Dowtish]

I dont think popping it needs to be such a concern. I have heard emeralds will do the trick, but they have to have nothing better to eat first. And i promise you, they will pop the bubbles when they eat them. Give it some time for them, and meanwhile keep manually removing it.

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[Aquaph8]

I've had bubble algae a couple times. I've always removed as much as possible by hand and it eventually just stopped spreading. I've had some pretty bad outbreaks too. I'm not really sure why but it seems to use up all of whatever its growing on and stops.

 

[Bandomo]

Dave that sucks dude. I was in the same exact boat as you, I had bubble algae everywhere! Before I did my tank upgrade, I CAREFULLY inspected every single frag. Those that did show signs of bubble algae were carefully removed/scrubbed and rinsed in three separate containers before transferring the frags into the new tank. The frags that showed heavy signs of bubble algae were even dipped using hydrogen peroxide. I've struggled with bubble algae in the past, one thing I knew for such was that I didn't want this headache with my new build. Fast forward into the future and my expensive ceramic pillars were TOTALLY covered in bubble algae. I was furious! Anyways, now to the solution. One thing that I've learned was that it's impossible to avoid bubble algae, its just inevitable. Most important thing is to keep up with your water changes. You'll be surprised how much this simple task can help. I'm not recommending the water changes to help reduce phosphate, but rather to eliminate free floating spores. Take a long Sunday afternoon and manually remove as much as possible, follow up with a big water change (25% or more). This is exactly what I did, but unfortunately I was still left with plenty of bubble algae from hard to reach places such as caves or tiny crevasses. The next step I did was operation emerald crab. I took a medium size rock that was COVERED in bubble algae and I placed it in a bucket with a heater and pump. I purchased 6 emerald crabs and placed them in the bucket. My goal was to see how efficient emerald crabs actually are and also to pinpoint which crabs where actually consuming the bubble algae. After about 3 weeks time, I was left with 3 survivors. I never feed the emerald crabs, I figured the crabs that stayed alive where the crabs that ate the bubble algae. After the experiment, I placed the three remaining emerald crabs into my DT. Fast forward three weeks and my tank was looking spick-and-span, I'm talking about not one single bubble!

It totally sucks struggling with this mess, but don't get discourage. Hope this helps

Jovany

 

[Dave3112]

Jovany,

Thanks for the great reply! I will do the bucket thing for sure. I guess I should have seen if the ones I bought actually ate the stuff before I put them in there. LOL. And like I said I don't know how I got it in the first place! I dip and check every frag I get. I usually re-mount most of them as well and just let the old plugs get thrown away. I am very diligent of what I put into my display. But somehow it slipped through............

 

[Dave3112]

I've had bubble algae a couple times. I've always removed as much as possible by hand and it eventually just stopped spreading. I've had some pretty bad outbreaks too. I'm not really sure why but it seems to use up all of whatever its growing on and stops.

I hope your right. LOL. Maybe it will use up whatever it is.

 

[Dave3112]

I dont think popping it needs to be such a concern. I have heard emeralds will do the trick, but they have to have nothing better to eat first. And i promise you, they will pop the bubbles when they eat them. Give it some time for them, and meanwhile keep manually removing it.

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Thanks! I am just really frustrated by this mess right now!

 

[ja4207]

Naso Tangs sometime do the trick.