odd silvery black spheres

[jedimaster1138]

Can anyone tell me what these are? They started cropping up a while back...now they are expanding quite a bit. They are dark, nearly black, but almost metallic looking. Seem to like attaching to crevices on rock work, but some are more out in the open now. I have a few pieces that are starting to get covered. Some kind of snail egg? Or something evil?

 

[brandon429]

Do a search for Valonia infestation see what you think

Those may be another species of unicellular macro algae but the outcome is predictably similar

 

[thegrun]

bubble algae

 

[jedimaster1138]

That must be it. The bubbles are HARD. I can't rub them off with a brush...I could probably scrape them with a knife/scalpel etc...but not anything soft, that's for sure.

So... emerald crabs? Darkness? Both?

I actually don't have any crabs in my reef anymore. I had a few each of blue and scarlet but they were jerks and I banished them to the sump.

 

[dmh41532]

Mr. Saltwatertank tv on youtube shows a good way to remove bubble algea. If you just pop the bubbles in the tank, it will spread. I had some on an acan frag, I was able to remove the frag and clean it off.

 

[rrasco]

I find it interesting that my fuge and ATS sucked the life out of all the algae in my tank, except bubble algae; and it's still spreading. I don't like emeralds, but may have to try a few again.