Bubble Algae Problem

[JusJim]

My saltwater tank is starting to become overrun with green bubble algae. At first I was able to let them grow a bit and then just pick them off.

Now, they're just popping up everywhere.

I have a 65 gal, established about 2 1/2 years, 100# of live rock. I'm not wanting to kill off the live rock if possible.

Is there any chemicals or treatments to get rid of this?

ON A SIDE NOTE......what happened to the picture ID's of all the different things that you might find in your tank?

[Raibaru]

http://www.melevsreef.com/id/

That's the page I think most people use to ID stuff these days.

What kind of water do you use? I had massive algae problems when I used tap water, but since I've gotten my ro/di up and running things have slowed down (not disappeared) and slowly turning around.

It's most likely a nutrient/phosphate problem.

Phosban, carbon and the like will all help. RO/DI is a must if you're not already though.

[crvz]

No chemicals really, just good sound husbandry; water changes, siphoning collected wastes, good skimming, and light feeding. The solution to almost all algae issues is getting ridding of excess nutrients.

[Mariner]

Emerald crabs have a reputation for eating valonia, and I've read that an occasional tang will (but I wouldn't count on that).
Good husbandry, siphoning out what you can, etc. is a good way to go.
FWIW,
Mariner

[sps1-2-b]

I've read that people with low nutrient tanks still have bubble algae problems. I think manual removal may be the only sure solution. I might try a red sea sailfin tang for mine; I don't trust emerald crabs in a reef.

[Raibaru]

I've had emerald crabs eat it, but they couldn't keep up with it really. My large emerald died after about 6 months or so and didn't cause any problems really. I bought 2 small emeralds to replace him about a month ago that disappeared and haven't been seen since so who knows what they're up to.

But emeralds do work and I didn't have any other problems with them in my reef.

[paraletho]

If you have rocks that you can pull out try cleaning them in a five gallon bucket during water change. For in tank cleaning I use my syringe that I have for killing Aptasia. INSERT IGNORE IGNORE INTO BUBBLE AND SUCK IT DRY THEN PICK IT OFF WITH TWEEZERS. This too shall pass. I think I have every algae known to man and kind of enjoy the diversity. Caterpillar algae, Caulerpa, short green turf, red shelf. The pods love it therefore the mandy is happy

[paraletho]

One word of warning donot remove rocks that have sponges you wish to keep. They dont handle air exposure well even short time periods.