Bubble Algae and temperature problem

[jmoney]

I have had an outbreak of bubble algae, I use ro/di water, and last week added a phosban reactor rated for a 150 gallon aquarium on my 75, and have yet to see any results. Is there anything else I can do. I purchased 2 emerald mithrix crabs, and they have yet do anything after 1 month. Is there anything else I can do to remedy this problem?

Also I've been keeping my tank at 82 degrees for over a year now is this temperature too high. I used to keep it at 78 but after reading through a few books the suggested temperature was 82. Anythoughts?

[jmoney]

anyone have any ideas?

[mujtba]

move to freshwater?

[silverking]

manual removal works best i think. just siphon them out when you do water changes

[seapug]

Others have posted that Foxface fish eat bubble algae, but consider yourself hopelessly "infected." Once you have Bubble Algae you'll probably never completely rid your tank of it.

Pop them and they supposedly spread-- leave them there and they definitely spread. Since you're screwed either way, I just rip out as much as I can and destroy (pop) the ones I can't. Once you do the initial "knockdown" it's just a matter of maintenance to keep them under control.

[TavisB]

i have an urchin that will eat it on his way to the coralline...

and you can move the bubble algae to the sump/fuge (if u have one) and let it live there. Hopefully it will grow there and not so much in the display.

[jmoney]

Ill try that, hopefully the phosban reactor will hep prevent it from coming back

[beez]

Jmoney, I've had really good luck with emerald crabs (which I know you already have) but only the large ones seem to eat the bubbles...how big are yours? Be warned that the crabs need to be taken out when the problem is solved....large emeralds will eat zoas and other polyps regardless of "reef safe" claims...I ripped apart an entire side of my old 180 to catch mine after seeing them chow down on polyps more than once. Good luck!!!!

[beez]

Oh....my experience with phosphate removers is that they don't do much for bubble algae. I had a deltec reactor with a liter of rowaphos on a 300 gallon and it didn't help with bubbles. Thats just my experience though....maybe you'll have better luck.

[Frick-n-Frags]

Valonia: worst algae pest I have EVER encountered. I have fought through every other pest algae in the past.

I have 5 mithrax crabs in a 50, they can't stop it.

it is a "clean water" algae. my chaeto is struggling and I see stunted bits of razor caulerpa here and there. the bubbles are dominating.

they grow under zoos and shrooms

I believe I have to cook my LR. I also have to transplant about 30-40 assorted mushrooms and put my alligator sponge rock and my solitary non-photo coral polyp (my second oldest coral) into the sump (scared for the sponge and the flow change). I have whatever 30# of clean rock in my sump now, so that is going to be my DT LR for a while while I cut off the other 50 and cook rock in it.

this may be one of the lowest points in my "reefing fun quotient"

Word to the wise: aiptasia are a frickin joke compared to valonia. do not tolerate one single bubble in your tank ever.

once they hit critical mass: U = me = toast

[jmoney]

im goint to attempt to remove all of it by hand tommorow, and I'm hoping the phosban reactor will keep everything at undetectable levels

[Serioussnaps]

phosban will have no bearing on your success....valonia can grow in the cleanest and most sterile of waters......you can A)cook your rock and it will probably work if you cook it for 6 months to a year, B)buy new rock and make sure it never gets introduced, or C)vinegar or muriatic acid bath on your live rock

These are your only options

My foxface DOES NOT eat VALONIA and when he does it is a gnat on a boars ***

[geekreef_05]

Lots of good advice here.

But quite simply you should remove as much as possible manually. Your not stuck with this forever, if your are super diligent you can break free of the nasty bubble eventually. But a more reasonably solution is to keep it at manageable levels.

Manual removal, buy another emerald crab and chill out. All algae's have cycles and your just a one of those bubble outbreaks. So dont take any drastic measures unless truly required.

[seapug]

Don't waste money on emerald crabs. They don't swallow the bubbles whole so they get popped either way. Buy a pair of cheap tweezers and get rid of more in ten minutes than 50 emerald crabs could do in a month.

[jmoney]

Update:

here is what I've done since the outbreak began and it has slowed somewhat for a few weeks, but its startin to come back again. I checked my phosphates which are have stayed consitantly at 0 ever since the addition of the tlf phosban 150 on my 75, also we added a Uv sterilizer to run during the removal just to zap any of those extra spores, but it has in reality been running about 8 hours a day I just discovered. The bubble algae has moved now from the top of the tank to the bottom on the sand. and is slowly coming back to the top along with this thick green grass algae. I was hoping my tang would take of that but he hasn't really touched it. Any fresh Ideas?

just to recap: I have emerald crabs somewhere apparently, but haven;t seen them in a while. Also could the addition of more snails help slow this problem. I had 100 in there and 10 of the ones that are underneath the sand, but I have only seen one of those and maybe 25 snails and 12 hermit crabs in the last few weeks

[jmoney]

anybody have another idea? I just tested for phosphates again, and my kit said 0 but i don't know how much I trust it, I'm ordering new ones tommorow

[Tang Salad]

I wish I has an answer for you buddy, caus I've been fighting the same problem for months. I've tried everything in the book to get rid of it, and I now have more than ever.

I'm hoping some day, years down the road, it will just go away on its own.

I hate the stuff.

[Frick-n-Frags]

Originally posted by seapug
consider yourself hopelessly "infected." Once you have Bubble Algae you'll probably never completely rid your tank of it.

temp, etc has nothing to do with the dominance of bubble algae

I know of two ways to kill it:

1)overload nutrients so bad that a thick carpet of microalgae snot suffocates all macro algae (obviously not a desireable solution, but it worked once in a tank that I just let go to see what happened. obviously you can't have corals in the tank at the time)

2) cook the rock


I will be performing option 2 as soon as I get all my mushrooms transplanted. I will try to take pictures as a warning to all to never ever tolerate even one little bubble. Not one.

never

[MJAnderson]

Same here. Am planning to cook the rock. Honestly I can't remove it as fast as it grows. I'm setting up a frag tank so I'm going to move all my corals over and turn off the lights for a few months before I cook the rock.

[jmoney]

I need to try and make some kind of coral storage if I where to do that. The other problem is finding somewhere to put my fish. I just wish there was another way.