Bubble Algae

I had a little that came with some of my live rock. I used multiple methods simultaneously to get rid of it. I have not seen it back. Here's what I did.

1) Manually remove what you can. I have a nano tank, so I was able to remove the rock and work on it. I used my fingers and tweezers to get rid of most of it. I was very thorough. Some of it still remained in areas that I could not reach..nothing I could do about that. Once I was done, I rinsed the water in freshly mixed saltwater and then disposed of that water. The idea was to get any spores that may have come from any of the bubble algae that I popped...and yes, a few burst while I was removing them. Even the ones that burst, I did my best to scrape out all pieces of the bubble.  During this process, I was careful not to leave the rock out of the water for too long as I didn't want to kill anything else on the rock.  I went in 5 minute intervals.  5 minutes in water, 5 minutes out.

2) GFO - I used GFO to help reduce the phosphates so that the algae had less "food" and was not able to grow as quickly

3) Emerald crab - I purchased a small emerald crab to clean up what was left. Some people don't like this because they pop the bubbles releasing the spores into the water of your tank, but it did the trick for me.

Those things all together permanently removed bubble algae from my tank.

--AJ

 

GFO is Granular Ferric Oxide which is a phosphate reducer. It's typically put in a media bag in a high flow area of your sump or in a media reactor. I buy mine from Bulk Reef Supply (http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/Carbo...index.html), but there are all different kinds that you can buy from different vendors.

--AJ

 

I've got a 75 gal tank and had alot of bubble algae.  I tried many times to remove it with tweezers.  But, unfortunately it was so widespread, and not possible to remove all pieces of live rock from the tank and clean one at a time.  It always came back.  This last summer at the DFS coral conference I got a free sample bottle of API Algaefix Marine.  I tried it on the tank and it did absolute wonders at removing the bubble algae.  It also did a super job of removing the other tough algae that had been growing on my rocks for several years.  Now I have no bubble algae, and my rocks are just covered with the nice looking coraline algae.  I discontinued using the Algaefix when the bottle was empty.  I know others don't like to use these products and I will tend to avoid them as well, but I haven't had a reoccurance of the bubble algae, and no ill effects (the only possible downside you could say is that since I now have no algae, I have to supplement my tank with seaweed to feed the tangs!)  I'd use it again if the need arose.   There's also a thread on Reef Central where others have reported good results with this product also.

 

I dropped in an emerald crab (10g tank) and it cleaned up all my algae (and tiny bit of bubble) in a matter of a few days. Now he just peacefully hangs out on rocks cleaning away!

 

i put an emerald in my 125 and he dissapeared /DesktopModules/ActiveForums/themes/_default/emoticons/sad.gif he was eating bunch of it last time i saw him. i think i need another emerald

 

Oh I forgot, I also tried the emerald crab route (probably 1 1/2 yrs ago).  Bought two of them - they didn't touch my bubble algae at all.  Haven't seen them in a long, long time.

 

I just picked out 2 pea sized bubble algae lumps from my 125...they were a lot more firm than what I anticipated (had thought about getting an emerald crab or two, but gambled with manual removal first...if they come back I may still go crab shopping). Basically I rolled them loose from the live rock they were on and took them out of the tank...I have read to be careful not to break them.