bubble algae infestation

[swpassion]

I just got a 26 bow front with built in sump (on back of tank) about 40 lbs of LR and 40 lbs LS for free BUT, it is completely infested with bubble algae. Any tips on how to resolve this? I know they can be remove without popping, but there are WAY to many to take that approach, they are EVERYWHERE, on the rocks, powerheads, even the sand and walls of the tank. It also has apastasia lots of anenomes, but I will likely use Joe's Juice to eliminate that. The rocks have beautiful coraline build up, LOTS of purple so I would like to try to keep that if possible.

[MrsHaggis]

I would get an emerald crab for the bubble algae (that is the right one I think....someone will correct me if I am wrong) and a peppermint shrimp for the aiptasia and give those two "natural" solutions a chance before adding any "chemicals"......

[bogg]

You can manually remove them outside of the tank manually if you want.

[stingythingy45]

You can sharpen the end of an airhose.Start a siphon with it and use it to scrap the bubbles off the LR.
It works pretty good and many hobbyest have had success with this method.

[swpassion]

There are literally 1000's of spores, They are Botryocladia skottsbergii doing some research.

[PRDubois]

emerald crab for the bubble algae

[Brandon M]

I have the same problem in my 26g bowfront...I made the mistake of attempting to manually remove them in the water and accidentally popped one, maybe two. They have now spread and are EVERYWHERE, literally everywhere. On my powerheads, all over more rocks, on the overflow, and taking over my refugium.

I added two emerald crabs a couple weeks ago but they don't seem to have any interest in them.

I have been battling them for months and am not sure if there are many more options, besides ditching the rock and starting over. It's extremely frustrating.

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-02/hcj/feature/images/image018.jpg

This particular bubble algae is nasty stuff that spreads VERY easily.

I wish you the best of luck and will continue to follow your thread in hopes of more advice.

[IslandCrow]

I've felt your pain, and the way I solved my problem was a combination of bogg's and stringythingy's suggestions. For the first 2-3 weeks, I removed the rocks that had bubble algae (this is a time when a small tank is a blessing), and manually removed as much as I could. I then rinsed the rock thoroughly and put it back in a tank. Once I'd gotten things to manageable levels, I used the end of my siphon hose during water changes to scrape them off the rocks. Since the siphon is going, even if you pop it, the siphon will suck up the spores (or whatever they're called). After that, it was 20% weekly water changes until I was happy with my water quality. I'll tell you right now, that you'll never completely get rid of them, but you can definitely make them very manageable. An emerald crab may or may not help, but it definitely won't be enough for a large outbreak.

As for that red bubble algae, I have some of that too. Fortunately, most of my coraline is dark red, so it blends in quite well. Mine hasn't spread very much, but I'd suggest the same strategy as what I suggested for the green stuff.

[Brandon M]

bump

[jhoff]

For the bubble algle go with what (stingythingy)said siphon them out into a bucket and for the aiptasia (aiptasia x) by red sea works great for me but you must turn pumps off for at least 30 min after treatment

Jimbo