Aptasia n Bubble

[acidlittle]

I was wondering if aptasia and bubble algea can live through a full blown tank cycle. I'm starting a 75 and have some rock with this crap on it in my current 29, don't know if it could live through the cycle or not. Any help is awesome!!!!

Thanks
Josh

 

[Travis L. Stevens]

Yes, some can. Most likely you might have some casualties, but some can survive.

 

[acidlittle]

So my best bet is to just cook the rock for a few weeks?

 

[phishcrazee]

Well, plants aren't really much affected by an ammonia cycle, so the bubble algae should do fine The aiptasia will likely make it too!

 

[acidlittle]

anybody know the best/fastest way to cook rock then? I think that cooking the rock should rid it of all the bubbles and such. Thanks

 

[phishcrazee]

Put it into a few 5g buckets with lids on them and put them outside in this heat, that should do it Otherwise, I've just kept mine in the dark in buckets with a powerhead or airstone for water circulation for a couple weeks until the water tests 0 for ammonia. I do a few water changes in that time, especially if the rock is very covered with algae.

 

[Covey]

I did the traditional rock cook when I went BB. I did it for 4 weeks. Hair algea and calerpia bye-bye. Unfortunally the bubble mostily made it thru and I wanted to set up the tank again.

 

[acidlittle]

What if I left the rock out of water for a few weeks? Would that kill all the bubble algea? I don't care what the rock looks like, I just have some very awesome looking pieces of rock and want them to be free of all this nuisence aptasia and bubble algea. I know it should kill all the beneficial stuff in the rock, but that will be re-populated once it goes back in the tank right?

once again thanks
josh

 

[phishcrazee]

I know it might be tedious, but if it were my rock, I'd rather keep all the good and just do my best to pick off the bad There is more good than can be seen and it will take awhile to re-establish a nice bacterial colony. I've heard some people say 6 months even! Get your tweezers out, get your kalk out and get a bucket of clean SW to rinse the rock off after you're done. That's what I would do anyways

 

[BenZoo]

I had a bad case of bubble algae. After introducing two tangs it completely disappeared.

 

[acidlittle]

what kinda tangs eat bubble algae??

 

[Bekah]

My emerald crabs liked bubble algae...until the coral banded shrimp took them out, of course. For the aiptasia, you could go the *tough* route if you wanted to kill it off (which most people do?). Mix up some kalk and squirt it directly into their mouths. That kills 'em pretty quickly. Or else you can try a peppermint shrimp. While I had mine around, he ate up every bit of aiptasia like it was candy.

I'd be careful about setting the rocks out to dry if they've got corraline algae on them that you'd like to keep - it would also die off and the colors would be gone, I'd think. If you're not worried about THAT, then you could simply set them all into bleach water, kill the rock itself and everything on it, and then cycle it again. *shrug* It'd certainly take care of everything!

- Bekah

 

[Coralfreak]

then you could simply set them all into bleach water

Not so sure Id recommend that, if you want to "bleach" the rock, all you need to do is sit it out in the sun for a few days.

My Sailfin tang eats bubble algae as does my Fiji Foxface.

 

[BenZoo]

I have a sailfin tang that loves bubble algae. I also have a hippo tang, but I dont know if he eats it or not.

 

[acidlittle]

Don't sailfins need a whole lotta room like 125gal or so? or would one be fine in my 75gal? I have two emerald crabs but they didn't do much damage. I might go through the rock and pick off all the bubbles, zap the aptasia and cook it for a week or so...

Anyways I was hoping that a sailfin would work in a 75 cos that would rock.

Josh