FishN00b83
New member
I did the water change and manually removed what I could see...of course today I see some I missed sooooo I guess I'll see what happens this week. this stuff is just a big PITA...stupid tank herpes lol
creeping bubble algae
- Thread starter FishN00b83
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Bilk
New member
Yeah everything in that article is pretty accurate. They need to be attacked directly with implements of destruction LOL
FishN00b83
New member
great article. I'll be keeping up with the manual removal and see where that takes me. I did put some sps in the tank over the past few months, hopefully that helps some.
Scott07
New member
I've been dealing with the stuff pretty hard core for about 6 months or more now. I haven't learned much unfortunately except how to make progressively better impliments of destruction. I change my GFO frequently, and it does help slow it down but won't bring it to a halt. A couple of weeks ago i too resorted to an emerald crab sort of out of desperation. He kinda sorta picks at it... but i don't think anything significant. He does eat all sorts of other detritus and any single stray strand of hair algae that should manage to pop up. He also picks at my SPS from time to time... but i wouldn't be worried. I haven't seen him do enough damage to a SPS that I'd even be worried about small frags... but he does break off very tiny pieces from time to time. I also feel at a loss... is it dominating my tank? No. Is it there, and I feel like always will be? Yep... sure is. By far the most annoying part is when friends come over and would rather ask you about your bubble algae than about that beautiful monti or tri-color you've worked SO HARD to color up. I feel like we should start a living with bubble algae support group lol.
FraggledRock
New member
this thread title has "best horror movie" title written all over it LOL
FishN00b83
New member
I'll be sitting in the couch and out of no where a pin head sized sphere gets hit by the lights and drives me crazy. one thing I can say as of now is I haven't let it get big. I obsess over it during a water change and find 98% of them. then during the week I'll find a few and keep a mental note until the next change lol.
lol a few of us are living the horror...terrible
asylumdown
New member
+1. If you can find some sort of a balance with the stuff, there's no reason to want to completely eradicate it, IMO. If you're able to keep it out permanently - lucky you, but at least they're kind of pretty under the right light. It's when they grow faster than everything else, crack your rocks and pop corals out of their epoxy that it starts to become a real nuisance.
I just thank my lucky stars the population in my tank seems to have settled down all on it's own. There's some of the little ones on every single rock, but the older patches all have delicate sponges weaving amongst them and they're no more prevalent or noticeable visually than anything else that lives on the rocks. When it was really bad and the super big ones were blowing up like popped corn, you could see them from across the house, but even though there's probably 10,000 individual little bubbles in there now, you have to look close to notice them.
Scott07
New member
The problem I've been having with manual removal is that i can only take so much water out of my tank during water changes. With it only being a 20 gal tank... I change 5 galons weekly making it difficult to syphon as much bubble algae as I'd like to out. I've just started a new strategy of knocking as much as possible of the stuff off the rocks and onto the sand... then coming through with the syphon hose and collecting all the loose stuff i knocked off. I think I got about twice as much this last weekend as i've been previously, so I'll see how much of a cumulative effect it is over a few weeks.
As asylumdown is saying... I'm fine with living with the stuff to some degree. Just really hoping i get to that balance stage sooner rather than later. I'm determined not to let it win though. Everything else is doing so well it would be a real shame.
As asylumdown is saying... I'm fine with living with the stuff to some degree. Just really hoping i get to that balance stage sooner rather than later. I'm determined not to let it win though. Everything else is doing so well it would be a real shame.
FishN00b83
New member
I'm not ok with living with it. if you use a piece of airline tube cut on an angle at the end, you can get em loose and suck em up in one shot. if you're still taking out too much water, get a filter sock and put it on the bucket end. once the bucket it like half full put the water back in the tank and start over.
Maybe it is mentioned already but you can use NaOH for killing them (and a lot of other stuff as well). Best suited for local patches.
Learnt this from GlennF.
Turn off all pumps.
Take a small syringe with NaOH solution (strong).
Cover the bubble algae with the NaOH solution (it will become like a soft gel in seawater).
Leave sitting 10 mins.
Turn on your pumps and all gel-like stuff will disappear.
Two days later your bubble algae are gone from the spot you treated.
Don't use a lot at once (I only use max 5 ml for a 200 gallon tank per day) due to pH swings.
Link to original idea: http://dsrreefing.nl/forum/index.php?topic=97.0
Learnt this from GlennF.
Turn off all pumps.
Take a small syringe with NaOH solution (strong).
Cover the bubble algae with the NaOH solution (it will become like a soft gel in seawater).
Leave sitting 10 mins.
Turn on your pumps and all gel-like stuff will disappear.
Two days later your bubble algae are gone from the spot you treated.
Don't use a lot at once (I only use max 5 ml for a 200 gallon tank per day) due to pH swings.
Link to original idea: http://dsrreefing.nl/forum/index.php?topic=97.0
Last edited:
tkeracer619
New member
I'm pretty happy it has been growing unchecked in my reef for the last 72 days. My foxface is going to be so happy to get back into the display with all those munchies. It will be fun to watch him and the butterflies team up to get the aptasia and bubble algae that lives together.
FishN00b83
New member
this hasn't been mentioned...idk where to get that stuff. would hydrogen peroxide work the same?
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