Red bubble Algae ID and cure ?

[Tullimonstrum]

Hello everyone, Im just started my first reef tank up 3 weeks ago, and now I have some kind of red bubble algae, It looks suspiciously much like Botryocladia skottsbergii except that there seems to be only one big orange spot right on the top of the bubble. Is is botryocladia skottsbergii or another botryocladia species ?

I hope someone can ID it and can give me some tips to remove it, it's on most of my live rocks and not in accessible places for manual removal.


(Sorry about the bad quality of the pic)

 

[nautical_nathaniel]

Its hard to tell but that sort of looks like cyano bacteria. You also have some green hair algae on the rocks as well so the first step I would recommend is getting your nitrates and phosphates under control. Most of the time that will help and the last thing I would recommend to do is add chemical treatments or critters that are claimed to eat it.

 

[Tullimonstrum]

Thanks, yeah I've got both cyano and Green hair algae but im still in the middle of the cycle, the cyano and GHA showed up a few days into the cycle so . I'll try to get a better picture of the alge

Its hard to tell but that sort of looks like cyano bacteria. You also have some green hair algae on the rocks as well so the first step I would recommend is getting your nitrates and phosphates under control. Most of the time that will help and the last thing I would recommend to do is add chemical treatments or critters that are claimed to eat it.

Thank you , yeah I've got both cyano and Green Hair Algae but im still in the middle of the cycle, the cyano and GHA showed up a few days into the cycle because there were some of on the live rock I got, and I don't want to add anything living right now or use chemical treatments yet to disrupt the cycle . Here is a better picture of the red algae in question..

 

[killingseed2000]

could be green bubble just covered in cyno. there is no really cure for bubble algae. you can siphon them out and try not to pop them.


i had tons of them but i have a large tank and added a Desjardin's Sailfin Tang and he went to town.

on a smaller tank you can try some emerald crabs. they can help rid a smaller tank of them.

 

[nautical_nathaniel]

I think you can manually remove red bubble algae, you just have to be careful about it and not pop them. If you pop them, you will probably end up getting a lot more.

 

[Tullimonstrum]

could be green bubble just covered in cyno. there is no really cure for bubble algae. you can siphon them out and try not to pop them.


i had tons of them but i have a large tank and added a Desjardin's Sailfin Tang and he went to town.

on a smaller tank you can try some emerald crabs. they can help rid a smaller tank of them.

Thanks, but they are red bubble algae , the picture quality is not very good but they are purple/transparent with a big orange spot in the top My tank is 570 litres , would emerald crabs also remove red bubble algae or is it only green bubble algae ?

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

You'll want to look at pictures of red Valonia.
In the last picture , the algae on the right does not appear to Be a valonia.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Btw. Don't pop red valonia in the tank.

 

[Tullimonstrum]

You'll want to look at pictures of red Valonia.
In the last picture , the algae on the right does not appear to Be a valonia.

Thank you I have looked through quite a number of pages but couldn't find a match for that algae, do you have any guess to what it could be ? .

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Difficult to tell for sure. But a red grape calurpa macro or Botryocledia
Perhaps.

https://www.live-plants.com/redsampler.htm

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

And yes the orange spot is concerning. Several red valonia will have orange "freckles"

 

[Tullimonstrum]

Difficult to tell for sure. But a red grape calurpa macro or Botryocledia
Perhaps.

https://www.live-plants.com/redsampler.htm

I originally suspected it to be botryocladia skottsbergii but there are only one big orange spot on the "top" of them and the pictures I've seen of botryocladia skottsbergii have orange spots all over. I haven't been able to find other similar botryocladia species :s

Im really hoping on it not being botryocladia skottsbergii since i've heard so many bad things about it and it being almost impossible to remove :/

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Odd. It's sold as a refugium plant.

 

[Tullimonstrum]

Odd. It's sold as a refugium plant.

That's a surprise, as said I started out with my reef tank 3 weeks ago, the first bubble algae showed up a week ago, and 15 more have showed up since even though I haven't popped any of them or damaged any.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

If it's possible, try to get a better picture for the forum or defiantly look at more valonia pictures. It's quite possible the algae just needed some light and was already present.

As your tank is so new you may considerd vibrant aquarium cleaner to kill off the unwanted algaes.

 

[Tullimonstrum]

Will try to get a better picture taken later Hmm you might be right there.

Haven't heard of vibrant aquarium cleaner, i just checked it out, but im from Europe :/

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Defiantly check it out. There's a huge thread on reef 2 reef. I do believe they can ship it directly if it is an option for you.

 

[Tullimonstrum]

Thank you so much That would be lovely if that is possible .