Bubble Alage ??????

[TandN]

Ok what causes this wonderful alage lmao. I get it I have 0.00 PO4 w/ a hanna test nitrates .5 everything else 0 and I still get it.
WHY WHY WHY
TIA

 

[bertoni]

Moved to NTTH for more views.

The alga is getting nutrients from somewhere. The water column is clean because the alga is consuming nutrients about as quickly as they are released. The usual issue is too much food going into the tank for the nutrient export system to handle.

Can you provide more information on the setup?

 

[JetCat USA]

you get it because you have the spores in your system, and any time one is popped it releases just that many more spores. you need to try to pull the bubbles out without popping them and it'll disappear. as Johnathon mentioned, the algae is superior to pulling the excessive nutrients out of your system then any means of filtering or chemical medias.

 

[Peter Eichler]

Bubble algae is one of those algaes that you'll never defeat or prevent with lack of nutrients IMO/E.

 

[TandN]

well my system has plenty of exports one is the extremely HIGH flow that allows the bigger detruis to be caught in my dual filters socks which then goes into the skimmer section which I have a HUGE skimmer for my tank a bubbleking 250 I also have a dialyseas which I have setup to change out 5 gallons of water everyday

 

[JetCat USA]

a low nutrient system causes the nutrients deep within your rock to leach its way out of the rock, bubble algae gets allot of its nutrients directly from the rock it's attached to. also how often do you clean the filter socks??

 

[hensleyrobw]

just have to keep taking it out without popping the bubbles, some algae are just a pain to get rid of once there in the tank.

 

[kaihonu82]

try an emerald crab!

 

[Sk8r]

It's just a plague that will recur cyclically; I got some at 1 month of tank age, and it's now wearing out and dying at 4 months. I'm sure it will be back now and again.

I'm not so sure about the methods of removal. It's almost impossible to pull them off without popping the tiny ones; it's impossible for a mithrax to eat them without popping them. And the mithrax I had ate more coralline than bubble algae, if you can judge by where she was picking.

Patience and good water quality. This thing is not as much an extremophile as, say, red slime, but it can find sustenance where there is very, very little, imho.

 

[JetCat USA]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10557920#post10557920 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Sk8r
......... It's almost impossible to pull them off without popping the tiny ones;

that's why you let them grow to big ones then they are easily removed without popping and they are sucking up excessive nutrients during the process, a win/win

 

[bertoni]

Whether they pop or not doesn't matter all that much, in most cases, since the spores inside are viable only when the alga is full-grown. I have been successful in reducing bubble algae by limiting nutrients and growing Chaetomorpha, along with a bit of hand-pruning.

I like the large green bubbles, so I don't go after all of them.

 

[seapug]

Bubble algae = Reef Herpes. Once you've been "infected" it will come back. It's just a matter of time so do whatever you can to remove them when you see them to keep it under control. Popping them when they are small is less likely to release spores. Emerald crabs do not swallow them whole, they pop them and eat them over a period of hours. My handfish and netfish do the work of a hundred starving emerald crabs in minutes.

 

[JetCat USA]

when I've watched an emerald crab eat bubble algae they pop it and suck the contents like a beer, I'm gonna just take a stab in the dark and say they are consuming the spores.

 

[doadster]

My long spine urchin thinks there real tastey and i also vacuumed them out with small tubing.