Where's the bubble algae magic treatment???

[JMM744]

I used both Vibrant and peroxide. Small rocks got dipped in peroxide( with zoas attached). Large areas I used a syringe and basted the area with peroxide. At the same time I dosed Vibrant. Had a 70 reef full of the stuff and it’s bubble algae free for almost a year now. You could see the bubbles die from the peroxide over several days. They would get translucent and finally clear and disappear. Vibrant took care of the areas I couldn’t get to.

 

[CurtnStac]

I used both Vibrant and peroxide. Small rocks got dipped in peroxide( with zoas attached). Large areas I used a syringe and basted the area with peroxide. At the same time I dosed Vibrant. Had a 70 reef full of the stuff and it’s bubble algae free for almost a year now. You could see the bubbles die from the peroxide over several days. They would get translucent and finally clear and disappear. Vibrant took care of the areas I couldn’t get to.

I currently spot treat now with peroxide. It is pretty cool how it turns it white within days. But when I stopped for a few weeks the bubbles came back with a vengeance. I wondered if when the peroxide disintegrates the bubbles if spores are released. Never thought of using the Vibrant too, maybe there's something to that!

 

[Roggio]

I have done this as well. Careful not to get peroxide on the coral, I would use a syringe and drip the peroxide all over the plug. It works well at killing any algae on frag plugs.

One of the corals was a giant scroll coral. I dipped the toothbrush in peroxide and scrubbed the coral in some places. I couldn’t risk the algae and would rather lose the coral. I dipped it in revive after and it was fine. The peroxide is harmless after it touches water H2O2 and all

 

[Slarti]

Ok cook thanks. I've wondered if there was any actual scientific evidence that bubble have spores in them, or was it just a theory.

I read a very good article about it all a while ago, will see if I can find them but from a shaky memory the bottom line was that bubble algae is indeed not filled with spores. It is actually a single cell (one of the largest?) that propagate by 'branching' and not spores. Will go and look for it...

 

[CurtnStac]

I read a very good article about it all a while ago, will see if I can find them but from a shaky memory the bottom line was that bubble algae is indeed not filled with spores. It is actually a single cell (one of the largest?) that propagate by 'branching' and not spores. Will go and look for it...

Thanks! Sounds like a interesting read.

 

[Slarti]

OK this from Wikipedia as I could not find the original article but it is along the same lines...

It is one of the largest single-celled organisms. The single-cell organism has forms ranging from spherical to ovoid, and the color varies from grass green to dark green, although in water they may appear to be silver, teal, or even blackish. This is determined by the quantity of chloroplasts of the specimen. The surface of the cell shines like glass. The thallus consists of a thin-walled, tough, multinucleate cell with a diameter that ranges typically from 1 to 4 centimetres (0.4 to 1.6 in) although it may achieve a diameter of up to 5.1 centimetres (2.0 in) in rarer cases. The "bubble" alga is attached by rhizoids to the substrate fibers.

Reproduction occurs by segregative cell division, where the multinucleate mother cell makes daughter cells, and individual rhizoids form new bubbles, which become separate from the mother cell.

 

[mmw64]

I used both Vibrant and peroxide. Small rocks got dipped in peroxide( with zoas attached). Large areas I used a syringe and basted the area with peroxide. At the same time I dosed Vibrant. Had a 70 reef full of the stuff and it’s bubble algae free for almost a year now. You could see the bubbles die from the peroxide over several days. They would get translucent and finally clear and disappear. Vibrant took care of the areas I couldn’t get to.

Is the peroxide any special strength or just whatever I can get at CVS?

 

[kamike91]

I'm conducting some extensive testing after the holidays on an existing product utilized in a new method that I hope will finally cure the dreaded bubbly menace.

Here's a sneak peak

Introducing , bubble be gone!
(TM , patents applied for )

I need this, how much will it cost? And is it reef safe?

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

I need this, how much will it cost? And is it reef safe?

Lol.
It’s just a bit of kidding around.

Thermo nuclear devices are not reef safe.

 

[jd371]

OK this from Wikipedia as I could not find the original article but it is along the same lines...

It is one of the largest single-celled organisms. The single-cell organism has forms ranging from spherical to ovoid, and the color varies from grass green to dark green, although in water they may appear to be silver, teal, or even blackish. This is determined by the quantity of chloroplasts of the specimen. The surface of the cell shines like glass. The thallus consists of a thin-walled, tough, multinucleate cell with a diameter that ranges typically from 1 to 4 centimetres (0.4 to 1.6 in) although it may achieve a diameter of up to 5.1 centimetres (2.0 in) in rarer cases. The "bubble" alga is attached by rhizoids to the substrate fibers.

Reproduction occurs by segregative cell division, where the multinucleate mother cell makes daughter cells, and individual rhizoids form new bubbles, which become separate from the mother cell.

I don't know where everybody gets that spores are released. Do you think Emerald crabs eat it without popping the bubble algae. I've gotten frags that developed bubble algae after they were placed in the tank, all I did was pick them out with a tweezer and never had an outbreak. Unless you get out every little bit of the Bubble algae it will regrow but it doesn't release spores, that's not how it reproduces.

 

[ontop27]

Ive tried a couple different options. My saving grace was vibrant. And so i dont sound like a fan boy haha, vibrant did not work on bair algae for me.

 

[brandon429]

I vote vibrant as the best valonia treatment to ever exist. any counter invasions pale in risk to the system.

 

[Texas Reefer]

I vote for a couple of emerald crabs. Sometimes it takes a while for them to start eating it. And yes, if bubble algae have spores, then emerald crabs would release them. But the emerald crabs, ever on the search for their next meal, eat the newly developing bubbles. I have (had) bubble algae in my overflow, but even though I didn't have emerald crabs at the time, it wasn't showing up in my DT. I think I had so many herbivores in my tank, constantly picking at the Rock, the bubble just didn't have the opportunity to take hold.. my theory anyway.

 

[cincyreef]

I had an overload of bubble algae. I used vibrant and emerald crabs, and I now have no bubble algae left!

 

[brandon429]

Roggio's post is the secret to being algae free in all of reefing. He positioned against the invader as top priority and took action, the tool won't matter the attitude does. In this case peroxide for sure handy been used by many

In a nano reef I'd take out rocks and spot treat

Large, inaccessible tanks I'd both/w vibrant

 

[Brian W]

I just always take out the frag or rock when I see it and scrape it off with my fingernail, the brush the area with a toothbrush, the rinse it quickly under tap water....then return it to the tank.
I still have bubble algae so this obviously does not work, just a temporarily solution.
I hate bubble algae more that GHA....GHA is easy to get rid of.....after you have been in the hobby for a couple years and learn what makes it grow. (knock on wood I did not jinx myself)
;Cat

 

[Brian W]

The real question is not how to get rid of it but rather:

 

[FarmerTy]

Just get Vibrant. It'll knock out bubble algae.

 

[Sycoticrealm]

I just manually remove it carefully.
If you stay on top of it early i seem to never have problems with it.
Doesn't busting the bubble release spores?
So i never quite understood how something eating it would get rid of it.

 

[brandon429]

I once read a post on valonia from a marine plant biologist, not joking that was his niche it was on a reefcentral post. he said that the vacuole in valonia occasionally has reproductive (sexual) components but its not always, and mostly its a vacuole of fluid and occasional chloroplasts/various inclusions. the whole plant can reproduce by mere fragmentation owing nothing to spores, just like GHA we might scrub and cast around