Thanks everyone so far for the suggestions.
There are about a half dozen or so emeralds in the tank already and they have been in there since the start, so its doubtful that they are touching it at this point. Ive attempted to syphon them out, but what is happening is the looser ones come off relatively easy, but the algae is now adhering in a tighter formation to the clam shell, which is more difficult to remove without popping them. In general, you dont want to pop them, because it spreads their gametes/spores around and causes more algae. If you have grazing crabs, they generally go after the smaller bubbles first, so they clean up what they make from popping and eating. The locally sourced crabs (from a couple different LFS) arent eating them, so I think that routes blocked for the moment. Maybe if I put in an order with someone online I might get lucky... I just hate paying $30+ for shipping some $3 crabs - plus the weather isnt exactly pro-livestock at the moment here.
I did try to smother them with sand, but the sand bed is relatively thin (~1.5") and with the flow in the tank being pretty intense, the sand tends to blow off/around in a day or so. Its also what causes those massive mutant looking bubbles on the clam as well! I might have to build an acrylic "box wall" and fill it with sand to keep it in place - though some of the bubbles are high enough up on the shell it might get into/under the mantle.:mad:
As for the Vibrant - I've read up a bit on the thread here, but magic bottles arent really something I put a lot of stock in (of course, Im using ZeoVit, so maybe Im a hypocrite
). Perhaps if nothing else works I'll give it a try. Ive got a water change to do this evening, so I'll see if someone else comes up with ingenious, otherwise I'll scrub and siphon to the best of my ability.
