Bubble algae

Jstn

Member
For the last 6 months i have been battling bubble algae, every few days im pulling it off the sand and the rocks (careful not to burst it). This is the only nuisance problem i have. I have to scrape the tank glass maybe twice a week, any ideas how to effectively reduce this algae from my system?


Setup: 40 breeder 15 gal sump
Filtration: Filter sock, chaeto 10 tbl spoons rox GAC, 7 GFO,
Skimmer: Reef octopus nw110
Dosing: .2ml of glacial acetic acid a day (equivalent to around 5ml of vinegar)
Livestock: Clown pair, Mandarin dragnet pair, chalk bass
Feeding: pellets once to twice a day (fish are hungry), a squirt of blood worms for the madarins daily with pumps off. Most of this food is consumed right away. twice a week rods food (quarter size chunk) followed by spot feeding my lps mysis.

Water change, every five days, five gallons.

I test Mg Ca Alk, I dont have an accurate phosphate or nitrate (api) test.


TIA
 
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So you can see the amount of algae i have
 
Lol, thanks gary, does that todds look familiar? Btw let me know when you are coming to buffalo, i still have that graduated cylinder for you.
 
justin tank looks great! I am having the same issues with bubble algae so I will follow along. .
Dan
 
This counts as an "issue?" :D I can't find any.

At any rate, green mithrax crabs often seem to eat the stuff. If I were in your shoes I would try one and see what happens.
 
Some people have used emerald crabs to get rid of small amounts. Never has worked for me though... If I find any in y tank, I just remove it manually before they start to spread.
 
Thanks Dan, hows your tank doing?
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I may try the emerald crabs, never tried em before but heard alot of horror stories about them.
 
I've had one or more emerald crabs in pretty much every tank I've owned and I've never had a problem I could trace to them. I have seen many of them eating bubble algae. But of course, YMMV. I don't see how it could hurt - they're pretty easy to get back out if you decide it's causing problems. If you were closer I'd lend you the emerald that's in my 360g, as I've watched him pick bubble algae off new frags several times so I know he likes the stuff. :D
 
I used emeralds once in my parents tank, it was a 50/50 type of thing, and I'd be a little hesitant if your spot feeding your acans mysid, I had two in my 90 and when I spot fed my acans the emeralds would stop everything they were doing and race to the acans and start picking out the food I had just spot fed them... That's just my experience but you don't seem to have a ton of the bubbles, I wod just try to manually remove it for the time being unless it became a real issue and began to spread... I've herd Sailfin tangs to a great job but have never tried them out myself, good luck, shawn
 
i had it relly bad once. I took a turkey baster and put it on the end of my water change hose and beat them up a little this will suck all the crap it releases when you pop it out
 
The todds and the acans I bought from you look great. I have heard of a place called reefcleaners.org that will guaranty emeralds that will eat bubble. I'm thinking about ordering once it warms up.Let me know when your going to frag again
Dan
 
i had it relly bad once. I took a turkey baster and put it on the end of my water change hose and beat them up a little this will suck all the crap it releases when you pop it out

great idea..I just suck them up at water changes..little suction,pry it loose and the get sucked right up..
 
Yes I can attest to the fact that hydrogen peroxide works for bubble algae but it will kill all the coralline on your rock. However when I tried it, the paly's and GSP on the rock survived just fine.
 
i had it relly bad once. I took a turkey baster and put it on the end of my water change hose and beat them up a little this will suck all the crap it releases when you pop it out

Great idea, Im going to fabricate a devise using syringes and tube.

Im also going to read up on the hydrogen peroxide method.

I really dont want to purchase livestock, but next time im at a LFS i may grab one to see how they do.
 
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