bubble algae...

[phunkie99]

I have lil' bubble algae poping up everywhere in my tank. I have chateo growing in my sump. Anyone know why this is happening?? I thought I read somewhere that there was a crab that eats bubble algae. Is this true or is it one of those "well some of them eat it" kind of thing????
thanks

 

[spike78]

My green mithrax cleared my tank of the small amount I had.

 

[afernandez]

question : is that the only algae you have growing? checked phose levels? got a clean up crew? if not these are thing you should looking into first ...oh and how long are you lighting periods?

 

[Vitaly]

Emerald Crabs (Mithrax sculptus) are reported to consume bubble algae, but that it it never a 100% guarantee that the one you put in your tank will.

Getting bubble algae (Valonia) is not a huge disaster and can be controlled. You can gently pick the larger off the rock if you are gentle. Careful not to pop them...as the released contents will lead to the growth of more. Check your phosphate levels,, check your waters TDS, maybe add activated carbon (if you are not using it already) and consider reducing your tanks light period until things get under control.

 

[webbstock]

Vitaly in my experience, reducing lighting does not really affect bubble algae as they have low light requirements. I agree with the emerald crab (make sure that you get a real one). Also don't feed the crab until the bubble algae is gone. The crabs do prefer eating krill, mysis etc. over bubble algae.

 

[Sk8r]

Bubble turns up in the best of reefs: it's capable of thriving on impure thoughts and moonbeams, so far as I can determine, because it's one algae a fuge only slightly discourages. Scarlet hermits and mithrax crabs with both eat it, but only the mithrax consumes enough to be significant. But they're iffy: my scarlets outperformed my mithrax by eating about 10 bubbles.

 

[Porkreefer]

my mithrax has yet to touch my bubble algae

 

[Canarygirl]

The thing that confuses me about the crab solution is that they can't eat it without popping the bubbles, right? Not possible. So why should we worry about popping the bubbles when we remove it?

Not that lack of worrying has helped me; I tried removing with syphon hose and not worrying but the valonia has been spreading.