Best way to tackle a full tank restart

[Hyperion1337]

I'm gonna restart my tank shortly because I have given up trying to deal with bubble algae and rather quit I'd like to give my tank one last try. Aside from setting up a holding tank for my survivors (not many fish/sps colonies), draining and letting my tank stay dry for 1 week+, is there anything else I should keep in mind/do for this reset?
Any advice is greatly appreciated hahaha.

 

[young_reefer]

Following...

Wow! Sorry to hear. I had bubble algae issues but, after trying a few things (manually removing it, emerald crabs, water changes, feeding and light schedules changes, etc.) seems like it’s gone for good (fingers crossed). Good luck with your restart.

 

[geoplane2]

I had a hair out break and my Builder of my tank told me to use reef flux I’m not sure if it works on bubble algae but you might want to look into it because ofter the two treatments in my 220 I no longer have any hair algae just follow the instructions on the bottle good luck

 

[dadummy]

what size tank? how much live rock? How much are you willing to spend and/or work are you willing to put into it?
Like geoplane suggests, have you tried remedies, such as rabbitfish? They say emerald crabs eat them but to me that's a joke. I have an orange spot rabbit and a fox face with no visible bubble algae. It grows inside the overflows and in the algae scraper along with other crevices the fish cant reach. They do a great job keeping it in check and it will become a problem again if I remove the fish.
There is also some other crap in a bottle, Vibrant I think it is, people have had succes using that, I didn't.
As for restarting, remove rock give it acid then bleach bath. Clean and disinfect the tank and all equipment that will touch water. Or start over with new dry base rock.

Here's the catch, any corals that are kept in holding tank and are attached to a substrate or have a dead skeleton such as some lps. When place in the new tank have a great potential to introduce the algae right into the new system.

I have started over a few times over the years. AEFW, Vermetid snails, bubble algae, bryopsis , monti nudi's or just burned out with maintaining full blown sps tank.
My suggestion is to try to remedy the bubble with some manual removal and rabbit fish. If definitely starting over (i get it) start with clean dry rock and clean scaping of coralline to seed the new rock. Cycle the hell out of it as it will take some time to become stable and mature enough to support SPS. Then when you do restock use fresh cuts with no substrate or plugs. Can scrub lps skeletons and or substrate with peroxide being careful not to kill the polyp to remove potential bad algae. Chances are with doing above you may introduce bubble algae into new tank and be back where you left off

 

[geoplane2]

I agree with dadummy try other Remedies first before you do a reset because you just might introduce it all back in to the new aquarium

 

[Systemwizardinc]

Previously known as Algae Buster, Reef Flux is an aquarium fluconazole treatment that is effective against fungal fish infections. To avoid unintended nutrient spikes it should not be used in tanks with refugiums that have Caulerpa and Bryopsis. Note: Not effective against hair or other turf style algae. so it sounds like it may work on bubble algae

 

[dadummy]

I used fluconazole to get rid of bryopsis that I battled for years and it was magical. At the time I had dragons breath and blue ochtodes growing in the sump and the fluca did not effect them. That may be worth looking into if it does work on bubble, I don't recall. There was a stupid long thread on the other reef site..

 

[Hyperion1337]

I've tried emerald crabs + manual removal, but the instant I eased up on the removal due to a busy schedule, it exploded and here I am hahaha. Ive used fluconazole in the past and man its amazing for bryopsis.

The tank is about 100g with at least 40ish pounds of LR. I might try one last attempt with either the foxface or the orangespot rabbit as I havent fully committed to the restart.

If I can find a drug solution to the bubble algae I will also try that out too. Its just really depressing looking at my tank and seeing it completely screwed by bubble algae lol.

 

[dadummy]

sounds good, there's also the two barred rabbit that will eat it. May be difficult to find the orange spot, but any of the foxface would be good

 

[Ocean Mang]

I'd give Vibrant a try. Pretty sure it works on Bubble algae.

 

[Hyperion1337]

I ended up picking up vibrant and a foxface lo rabbitfish. Fingers crossed that it handles the situation. Bubble Algae really is a different beast to tackle in terms of nuisance algae.