Please say it isn’t so!

[Tuan’s Reef]

The male emerald ate my hammer so I don’t recommend them. I have 1 female emerald in my tank and it ate the single bubble algae on my Zoas frag

 

[MTBake]

I had an emerald crab eat lps also.

I would manually remove as much as possible with a siphon hose. I used the end of the hose to scrape them off the rocks while the siphon was going.

I had a few spots in my tank and haven't a seen any in over 6 months. All I did was siphon out what I could and dosed Vibrant afterwards.

 

[lapin]

In all my years with emeralds I guess I have been lucky. Never ate any hammers or other LPS. Now my peppermints do snack on my big frogspawn once in a while in passing. It has 30 heads, I dont see any harm, since the bottom ones dont get much light anyway. Its close to their home. Sort of like neighborhood take out food.

 

[Duffer]

I always wonder something...you read when removing bubble algae manually not to burst the bubble as it will spread ...how does a foxface and crab when eating the bubble not burst the bubble...hmmm food for thought..

 

[trido]

Wow! talk about an over reaction. I have never in 13 years worried about bubble algae. It grows, the tangs eat it where they can get to it and sometimes I harvest it. You can remove your corals, and do as you wish, but Mother Nature will win and it will return.

 

[Coralmaniac21]

All you'll be able to do is keep it under control. Once it's in your tank it'll always be there.

I had some growing and tried to take it off.. it popped... later on i got 40 watts of uv for my 55g hexagon... its been two months since i popped the bubbles by accident and i havent seen the algae grow anywhere its gone for me. I think the uv killed the spores

 

[MSB123]

Wow! talk about an over reaction. I have never in 13 years worried about bubble algae. It grows, the tangs eat it where they can get to it and sometimes I harvest it. You can remove your corals, and do as you wish, but Mother Nature will win and it will return.

I understand that, but I want it gone.

 

[User1]

Well, not sure I agree once it is in there it will forever and ever be there. I had some years ago to somewhat plague proportions and I was able to over come it. And I'm a lazy reefer, go figure. So if I can, so can anyone. 29 gallon bio cube - what I did at the time:

1. Introduce two emerald crabs. One large, one small. The large one had red dots on hits arm/claws - smaller was a lighter green
2. Siphon out what I could - that what would float around
3. Manually remove what I could from the rocks without popping (got to the point where I didn't care if they popped later but still...try not to)
4. Lower feeding somewhat to try and lower nutrients

It will slowly go away. Emerald crabs are opportunistic feeders. While they will scour the rocks for food if there is anything on the ground or other areas they will go for it. Just how it works. As you lower food as not to starve the fish but let them eat it rather than what settles they will do more rock work foraging than what isn't eaten. It isn't going to happen over night nor are you going to see them to give them a high-five good job. They just do it much like peppermint shrimp eat Aptasia and before you know it you won't see much of the pest algae.

 

[Gareth elliott]

On rocks that moved out of the tank easily had luck with a tooth brush and peroxide. Did a water change so could dunk the rock every few minutes while working on it. Peroxide was applied normal 3% dilution via a eye dropper on the affected areas.

Dosed vibrant for what i couldn’t get to myself, blackout does nothing for bubble algae btw, ime is the one algae that will outlast your corals in the dark.

 

[trido]

I understand that, but I want it gone.

Every time you touch or move your corals, it stunts their growth and puts them at risk of RTN. Vibrant is a much safer way of dealing with bubble algae. Tearing the the tank down every time you have algea or a reef pest will cost you more time, money and burn you out of this hobby real fast.

 

[RoyC]

I tried emerald crabs and they did not touch the bubble algae. Used Fluconazole dosed once. No more bubble algae. That was a year ago. No Fish, Corals, or inverts were affected.

 

[Ashley Kekua]

My Tangs eat the algae off the rock daily and it is great nature way to do it. I had one crab before but he dine on my toadstool not good. poolyp not coming out
Bublble algae seem to grow much from nitrate highest parameter. Lower nitrate to prevent overgrowth of bubbles

 

[Ferrell]

One emerald did it for me also did the clip and suction tube method as well

 

[Tastee]

I only had a small outbreak when I first setup my tank, obviously from some of the LR that went in. I just manually removed everything that I saw over a few months. Mostly I could take them off with my fingers, but a few times I used a chopstick to get them off the rock. The Japanese style chopsticks are good, taper to a fine point but are still quite blunt. I only popped on during this process and didn’t see an outbreak, so expect the skimmer removed most of the spores. I haven’t seen any for around 6 months now (tank is now 17 months old).

 

[Tamberav]

I manually removed mine in a 22g and eventually it never came back.