creeping bubble algae

FishN00b83

FishN00b83

New member
I've had my tank up for a year and a half now and I've gone through the common cycles...cyano, hair, bryopsis and even dinos. I just finish fighting dinos and now I'm seeing bubble algae creep up around the tank. I have been using gfo/carbon and keeping up with weekly water changes but it's still popping up. I feed frozen mysis twice a day, put a small square of nori on a clip, and have a feeder drop a small amount of food 3 times a day (it's the apex feeder).

what can I do to get rid of this stuff. I've been manually removing some of it with the pumps off. I take a airline tube, start a syphon, and dig them out of the rocks as much as I can but I still see little ones around the rocks. can I do anything else to fight this stuff? I know lights out doesn't help at all...
 
I suspect that the feeding level is higher than the filtration can handle. I'd probably cut the feeding in half, and see how the tank responds, personally. How much live rock is in the system?
 
bertoni said:
I suspect that the feeding level is higher than the filtration can handle. I'd probably cut the feeding in half, and see how the tank responds, personally. How much live rock is in the system?
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it's a 125 with about 150-160lbs of live rock. I have 2 tangs, 2 clowns, royal gramma, six line, and 2 fatheads with a bunch of corals. I feed like I said a 2x3 strip of nori, about a quarter cube of frozen a day, and about 45 1mm NLS pellets.

Budman422 said:
Emrald crabs, foxface, urchins longspine. And control nutrients. Manual removal
Click to expand...

I was thinking about an emerald crab but I have SPS and I'm kind of nervous about the smaller fish. I have 2 cleaner shrimp and crabs make me very nervous.
 
+1 for the fox face. Mine eats it if I dislodge it and let the bubble algae float in the water column. My fox face never touches corals, but I have that some do. My vlamingi tang also eats it, but they get pretty big.
 
I'd stop feeding the pellets, and see how the tank responds. That's a lot of food. I might add 20 lbs of live rock, too, to try to provide more filtration. Better skimming sometimes helps, too, although I don't know much about appropriate skimmer models.
 
bertoni said:
I'd stop feeding the pellets, and see how the tank responds. That's a lot of food. I might add 20 lbs of live rock, too, to try to provide more filtration. Better skimming sometimes helps, too, although I don't know much about appropriate skimmer models.
Click to expand...

I'll stop the pellets tomorrow and see what happens. I am trying to get the fatheads to eat them so I can feed frozen every so often but only one has taken to them so far.

ghostman said:
+1 for the fox face. Mine eats it if I dislodge it and let the bubble algae float in the water column. My fox face never touches corals, but I have that some do. My vlamingi tang also eats it, but they get pretty big.
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I'd like to try to get it under control without adding a fish. I am tempted to get an emerald crab just to see if it works, but I'm afraid of the coral/little fish thing...
 
FishN00b83 said:
I was thinking about an emerald crab but I have SPS and I'm kind of nervous about the smaller fish. I have 2 cleaner shrimp and crabs make me very nervous.
Click to expand...

My emerald loves birdnest polyps. The little jerk is fast or he would have been hauled out to the sump by now.
 
jayball said:
My emerald loves birdnest polyps. The little jerk is fast or he would have been hauled out to the sump by now.
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that's what I'm trying to avoid lol would you happen to know if it's a male or female? the reading I've done supports that males are the ones to go after corals more than the females? apparently if it has a column looking indentation on its underside it's a male.
 
after doing some reading I have slowed down my eheim 1262 pump to about half, I had it almost full throttle. my turnover was about 900gph and my skimmer (reef dynamics 180E) is rated for 400gph.

I have to return lines running to my sump, one to the skimmer and one to the fuge. I throttled those down as well to see if more contact time with both chambers will pull anymore crap.

I decided to feed frozen once a day in the am and let the feeder feed once at night. I will still put in one small piece of nori a day for the tangs.

do you guys agree with this? am I going I. the right direction? I'd like to try to control the algae without adding any more inhabitants because I do have a few fish I would like to add in the very near future. thoughts?
 
I know my foxface eats the small bubble algae, I was watching him when he pooped and little green pearls of bubble algae floated out of the poop. They looked intact so i wonder...is he reducing or spreading...lol fricken Johnny Appleseed foxface
 
I had a bubble algae problem with a 20g long mixed reef several years ago.

I added two different emerald crabs and both of them decimated the coraline algae and nipped at the SPS in the tank, but didn't touch the bubble algae at all.

My 2 cents.
 
airtime23 said:
I had a bubble algae problem with a 20g long mixed reef several years ago.

I added two different emerald crabs and both of them decimated the coraline algae and nipped at the SPS in the tank, but didn't touch the bubble algae at all.

My 2 cents.
Click to expand...

this is what I'm really trying to avoid...that would really drive me crazy

Savant said:
I know my foxface eats the small bubble algae, I was watching him when he pooped and little green pearls of bubble algae floated out of the poop. They looked intact so i wonder...is he reducing or spreading...lol fricken Johnny Appleseed foxface
Click to expand...


this is actually really funny lol
 
I'm really battling the stuff right now too. I feed very light, and run an ULN SPS system, yet the damn bubble algae thrives. I tried manual removal. I reduced my nutrients to 0 ppm (phosphate and nitrate) only to see a very negative reaction from the corals. I just put in an emerald crab a couple days ago basically out of desperation. So far the only thing I've seen it eat is a bristleworm...

My hope is that someday the corals overgrow all the algae and shade it out until it dies. Dunno what else to do at this point.
 
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