Red Bubble algae. What to do?

[jong101]

So, i am revamping my tank right now. I just redesigned my sump with a 30 gallon long instead of the 20 that i was using. I am basically completely re-doing my tank. I am having an issue with red bubble algae. I have never had it before. I went through the whole cyano thing, and fixed that, but now I am having to deal with the red bubble algae and it is taking over. any help would be appreciated. I hear it is bad to pop the bubbles, so i haven't touched it yet

[jonbry123]

Yes that is correct if you pop them they release millions of spores. Your best bet is to remove the rock and clean in a bleach/water solution. I know this may not be a happy scenerio especially if it is LR but having had a lot of experience with this algae I found no other alternative. I have a very large filtration system and skimmer but couldn't get rid of the algae. If someone has a better solution please post.
Scott

[kevin2000]

Difficult to get rid of - biological controls (emerald crabs etc) don't work very well.

You should consider removing the rock and scrubbing off the bubbles in a seperate SW bucket ... then rinse the rocks in another "clean" SW bucket before placing back into your tank.

Keep on top of water quality ... like other algae it likes nitrates and phosphates (plant fertilizers).

Good luck.

[jonbry123]

Kevin, I tried that but without killing all the spores washing in saltwater will just reintroduce the algae back into the tank and the whole problem will begin again.

[kevin2000]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11991490#post11991490 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jonbry123
Kevin, I tried that but without killing all the spores washing in saltwater will just reintroduce the algae back into the tank and the whole problem will begin again.

Nuking your live rock is an expensive/extreme measure and even that doesn't gaurantee the elimination of bubble algae - algae spoors may be in your substrate or ST water ready to re-infect your sterilized live rock. The elimination of bubble algae may not be an easy goal .. but getting it down to nominal level without nuking is achievable.

[Young Frankenstein]

Manual removal I think is the only think that will work :D

[jong101]

I herd that you can use a uv filter for a week after physically removing them outside of the tank. I am Definitely not using bleach on my LR, that would be costly in my circumstance I have a mature tank now, that really keeps well with some water changes and top off, and i never had a problem with them before. The only way i could imagine that i got the red bubble is if it came from a purple gamma that i took off of a friend, i did acclimate it out of the tank, and didn't take any of his water, but its the only thing i can think of.

[jong101]

anyone try the U.V. thing?

[jwb0126]

I went through a horrible bubble algae problem with my curent 55. I tried SEVERAL different methods before finally getting fed up and going at it with a flathead screwdriver. I had added about a dozen emerald crabs and had a good cleaner package established before going at it this way. I pulled as much of the rock out of the tank and removed the bubbles by hand with the screwdriver and a knife to minimize the spreading of spores in the tank. However, I did go at quite a bit of it actually in the tank as it was so widespread that removing all the rock was impossible. I know that I popped countless bubbles in the tank but since resorting to this extreme measure I haven't had a single bubble and its been about five months. From what I've been able to gather, the emerald crabs aren't too much for actually removing the bubbles as some claim, but they seem to be able to control the spread of any new growth from any spores that may be spread. I do certainly reccomend trying some other less risky routes first, and I know some may not approve, but this is what worked for me.

[jwb0126]

Oh... And knock on wood about the whole no new bubbles thing.

[kevin2000]

Off the top of my head I suspect a UV device would help ... most of the inexpensive ones sold to SW aquarist s/b powerful enough to kill the spoors.