What to do about bubble algae...

[runzwithscissors]

Totally agree..the downside is not everyone maintains their takes as diligently nor has their tanks with skimmers and socks.

 

[runzwithscissors]

I manually remove them. I take a plastic brush for dense areas and scrub the crap out of it. I pop the ones I can't get at with a sharpened piece of hard plastic tube. I remove rocks that i can easily take out and scrub them down out of the water and rinse them under the tap.
It has been a debate for a long time about not pooping them. Yes they do release spores into the water when you do. But with all the filter feeders, mechanical medial like filter socks, water changes and protein skimmers ect it has never cause me issue after all these years. The tank for me can go from out of control to none in a few weeks because I keep on it. You do have to keep it up at least every few days for bad breakouts. I do water changes the day after I pop them to remove some of the spores.

I myself am not a fan of crabs. Even the algae ones will eat stuff they should not. To me they are sneaky and will sooner or later cause issue. I have seen them rip open corals to get at food inside. I do however keep tangs that like fleshy algae or a fox face if you have room. When I pop them my tangs go to town on the broken husk of the algae. As all the foul anti-predation chemicals leaks out when they are popped. Making it palatable to herbivores that would not previously touch it as well as other herbivores like snails. I have been doing it the way for years with no issue and I have not had it cause an outbreak.

Totally agree, but not everyone are as diligent on tank maintenance or runs a skimmer or socks

 

[WetWhistle]

I myself don't run a skimmer or filter sock unless I have an issue like this that I need to take car of. In times like this it is the extra effort that tips the scale on winning vs losing the battle with a nuisance algae. Extra effort makes the difference. If people get lazy they cause the algae issues in the first place. So the first line of defense is change your husbandry ways.

 

[ksfulk]

This weekend I reworked some of the rock work in my tank and cleaned up the power heads a bit, and vacuumed the sand bed for a water change. I pulled all of the sand away from the clam and found that the foot was only attached by a single filament - the rest was attached to substrate. I was able to remove the clam and hit him hard with a stiff toothbrush. Within a few minutes it's shell is clean and it was back in the tank.

 

[WetWhistle]

It looks happy by the amount of mantle extension it is showing.

 

[ksfulk]

Yeah, I was worried it might be stunted by having it out of the tank for a few minutes, and messing with its foot, but it shifted around a little bit that night and has settled right back in (though a little closer to the glass then I would have liked).

 

[WetWhistle]

A short amount of time for a clam out of the water and as long as you don't damage the foot\byssus gland it should be fine . If you have not already I would burp the clam as in rotate it around so any possible trapped air works it way out. Most times a clam can expel pockets of air on its own but I have seen some that could not and they went downhill quickly after being taken out. It is not always needed and is rare but it is just something I do and recommend as a precaution as a clam that dies from not doing it would suck big time for something that is easily done. Glad it is doing well.

 

[Dragonreef202]

I have had emerald crabs eat bubble algae in my tank. So I can imagine that the crab has busted a bubble algae in tank before. I haven't had any heavy infestation so I guess he did a good job. If I do see bubble algae I'll try to symphon out when doing water changes.