Bubble algae woes

[Hellion179]

Looking for help with bubble algae. Had one come on a free frag. When pulling it popped, I must not have dipped well because months later I started seeing them pop up in the tank.

Manual removal results in about 1/5 popping. It is so bad now that some rocks are completely covered. Still manually removing but my 150 is taking out 4 or so cups at a time.

Fish I have are not reef safe so I can't do emerald crabs. Any suggestions on fish aside from foxface and tangs? Tsnk is medium stocked with 5 fish, largest about 4". Feed once a day with pellets. Oversized skimmer. Water changes every two to three weeks. Noticed an explosion with the stuff after manual removal and going to LEDs.

 

[Whiterabbitrage]

AlgaeFix.

 

[inthedeep2]

ohh bubble algae sucks, spent about 2 hours scrubbing frags and rock on a recent tank transfer and still have some.
keep up with water changes and manual removal

 

[Reef Frog]

Low phosphates & detrius removal from rock surface will slow them down. They seem to diminish with time.

 

[Hellion179]

I wish they'd go away on their own...been about 6 or 8 months I've been manually pulling them and I'd say the problem has gotten 70x worse. If I didn't have such huge rocks I'd pull then snd scrub then.

I'm going to look into making a phosphate reactor and step up to more frequent water changes.

Also ordered some of that Algaefix

 

[g_langley]

Low phosphates & detrius removal from rock surface will slow them down. They seem to diminish with time.

This, and suctioning them out on water changes without bursting them.

 

[outy]

Looking for help with bubble algae. Had one come on a free frag. When pulling it popped, I must not have dipped well because months later I started seeing them pop up in the tank.

Manual removal results in about 1/5 popping. It is so bad now that some rocks are completely covered. Still manually removing but my 150 is taking out 4 or so cups at a time.

Fish I have are not reef safe so I can't do emerald crabs. Any suggestions on fish aside from foxface and tangs? Tsnk is medium stocked with 5 fish, largest about 4". Feed once a day with pellets. Oversized skimmer. Water changes every two to three weeks. Noticed an explosion with the stuff after manual removal and going to LEDs.

After battle for 25 years I can tell you when tank conditions are not great you get them.

To battle I have a sandbed under 5 years old, and water must be perfect to stop them from spreading.

I do 50-75% water changes.

If your not aggressive towards then they will be aggressive to towards you

 

[den75]

I didn't have a huge outbreak and still get a few to pop up now and then. What works wonders for me, hydrogen peroxide. Get yourself an insulin syringe. They have a tiny needle and hold about 3/10 of a cc. Pierce the bubble with the needle and inject a small amount in each. You can treat 6-10 bubbles with one syringe full. Bubbles will start turning white in a day or so and whither away and die.

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

I didn't have a huge outbreak and still get a few to pop up now and then. What works wonders for me, hydrogen peroxide. Get yourself an insulin syringe. They have a tiny needle and hold about 3/10 of a cc. Pierce the bubble with the needle and inject a small amount in each. You can treat 6-10 bubbles with one syringe full. Bubbles will start turning white in a day or so and whither away and die.

Yep, this is what I did too. Works great!

 

[Buzz1329]

I didn't have a huge outbreak and still get a few to pop up now and then. What works wonders for me, hydrogen peroxide. Get yourself an insulin syringe. They have a tiny needle and hold about 3/10 of a cc. Pierce the bubble with the needle and inject a small amount in each. You can treat 6-10 bubbles with one syringe full. Bubbles will start turning white in a day or so and whither away and die.

Cool! Never heard of this trick before so thanks.

I get them in both my tanks but they have never reached nuisance proportions, but I will still try this. (And, annoying as it is, I am required by my OCD to add as I do to every discussion of bubble algae, that in my considerable experience, emerald crabs do not eat bubble algae.)

BTW, in response to an earlier post, Algae Fix Marine had no effect on bubble algae (or cyano) IME. It worked well for me with green/brown hair algae and ChemiClean did amazing job of clearing one of my tanks of mutant cyano from heck.

Mike

 

[Cope413]

I had a mini tank crash 6 months ago and bubble algae came on with a vengeance. I'm only now starting to get on top of it. Manual removal, h202, and lots and lots of GFO.

The h202 definitely works, but careful not to do too many at one time, and also be careful when going after bubbles near coral. H202 will kill or **** off corals very quickly.

I got a little overzealous and ended up killing about 5 heads of an echinata that was near a patch of bubble I treated.