I've just noticed a very small patch of bubble algae forming on one of my rocks. Is it best to remove the rock and then remove the bubble or is it safe to pluck it from the rock inside the tank? Thanks for the help.

I hate bubble algae so much that I break off and discard any piece of rock that has this algae on it.

I haven't personally dealt with it, however I have a few friends that have. One swears that if he doesn't touch his, it doesn't spread. Another swears by his mutant sized emerald crab. The 3rd one swears he tried everything, finally gave up and tore the tank down and sold it after 6 months.

If I discoverd it in my tank, I would do the wait and see approach. Do nothign to see if it spreads or not. If it does, then I would get an emerald crab. If that didn't do it, I would research on vodka dosing again and highly consider that. There are several people taht say pop it with a vac right over it to suck it up when doing water changes. I'm not quite sure if I would do that becuase popping them is when they spread.

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I've heard it's not an easy fix. It is a very small patch so far. I think I will keep and eye on it and if it appears to be spreading take seabass's approach and nuke the rock. I may do that anyway with the next water change. Thanks again for the help.

mt friend said he took a paintbrush and painted the spot with bleach and then rinsed it off. it worked for him...

Mine has slowly grown in different places. The main thing is not to pop the big ones. I sometimes use a pasteur pipette attached to an air pump hose to puncture and siphon out the internal part of the algae. Then I remove the outer part. Some info:
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-02/hcj/feature/index.php

I took the rock out and carefully removed each one with tweezers. I wouldn't attempt removal in the tank. I was afraid to burst one and let out spores. Some say emerald crabs but I had 3 and they never showed an interest.

Thanks for the link laks. I am definately going to pull the rock to clean it. Just want to nip the problem in the bud.

Bubble Algae can be an absolute nighmare!!! I would either remove the rock or try to break the piece with the bubbles off. If any of the bubbles pop from a crab or you or anything inside the tank it will release hundreds of pours into your tank and before you know it your entire tank will be infested with bubble algae. I had an enormous infestation in my 24g nano cube. I tried everything from removing them with tweezers to spending a significant amount of money on emerald crabs. I'd dump 5 in at once and nothing would happen. I even tried a couple red emeralds and nothing happened. So I highly suggest just removing the rock completely and safe yourself the nightmare I had. You can do what you want and try the emerald route or the tweezers, I'm not a pro but that is one thing I never want to happen again. If I ever see one bubble again the rock is coming out ASAP.

You got me running scared now. haha! I have a 24 gal nanocube. sounds like chucking the rock is the easiest a surest way. Can I replace it with a piece of cured rock?

That's a little extreme. Just get an emerald crab.

Had a couple. They actually did appear to control the algae; however, after crabs died, the algae appeared everywhere. They released the spores when feeding (helping to ensure that more algae would be available for them to eat). Also it took hold in areas where the crabs couldn't easily get at. All in all, the crabs made the situation much worse.

+1

I had bubble algae once. I removed the rock and took a screwdriver to it and chipped off the piece of rock it was attached too. Rinsed the rock with water removed from a water change and put it back in the tank. Never saw the algae again

bubble algae is one of scary things in reefing... Once it gets out of hand, there is nothing you can do. It seems to be ok at first but it will spread. After what I and other members here went thru, I would take that rock out now and just ditch it... that rock is gonner.... just dump the rock! And Minthrax crab will not touch the bubble algae unlss its very very small....

Ok, I've decide to just chuck the rock when I do my next water change which will be tomorrow. Can I replace it with a piece of cured live rock? The cured rock won't cause another cycle, will it?

At water change use the siphon hose to suck them out. That way if they do break all the spores go out with the water.

If the rock is already cured then you will be fine. If it's a nice piece of rock, rather than throwing it out maybe chip off the areas of the rock were the algae was and put it in a bucket of salt water with no lights for a few weeks. If you are not concerned about keeping it "alive" you can also throw it in the oven for awhile and use it as base rock.

dont ask what i was doing on guppies.com but saw this and i had a thought...

so i was lying in bed dreading the prospect of tearing my aquascape down and chipping rock,(putting it off for months) and thought maybe this could work.....

suck out the jucie from the BA then inject with h2o2....let the rock bubble for a sec....then rinse....



!!!dont go trying this till i know it works and does not hurt the tank!!!!

Honestly guys, throwing out the rock is a lazy approach to this whole thing. At the least you could just boil it.

I agree that you don't have to discard the whole rock. By chipping off the effected piece you can save the life on the rest of the rock (which would be otherwise lost by boiling), and you don't have to replace it with another piece of cured rock. I've had limited success with other types of manual removal.

I'm sure that there are other successful ways to rid your tank of bubble algae, but once it gets established it's a real pain to deal with. It was tough to cleanup (and I lost a number of frags) after my Emerald crabs spread it everywhere.

However a hammer and flat chisel can be your friend:


I've also used cable cutters for smaller rocks and frags:

ive had it in tanks in the past, but it wasnt really a problem id just pull them out if it bothered me..

i spread mine changing tanks (popped some i guess) and being lazy.......no WC for a month

freshwater kids were using the peroxide with some success on tougher hair algeas, but they would just pour some into the tank.....with livestock in it......higher plants were not affected, nor were daiphna and shrimp....

naturally, this being a reef tank, its probably not a good idea to just straight dose the tank....
i want to use it to cook the spores and holdfasts......im gonna "spot treat" some and let you know how it goes.....


i really dont wanna chip or boil rock

linkys
http://www.theaquariumwiki.com/H2O2

http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/Algae/hydrogen-peroxide.html#0

again kids, dont go putting peroxide in your reef tank! i will be trying this out side of my system
ill make a thread soon to document it

I had the smaller bubble algae for a while in my 24g and it went away after I added a few emerald crabs and stopped over feeding.

wow... this pops up alot these days...

If you have a tree growing in the yard, and you take away one of the 4 elements it needs most (air, water, food, sun) the tree will wilt away and die. Bubble algae isn't some strange mutant alien species that somehow averts natural laws... Take one of the 4 away and it will wilt away and die as well.

My Live Rock is old... real old. It leeches out phosphates and all kinds of other crap non-stop. So i have to over-compensate. I feed little, and less frequent. I clean often and hard. I change 20-30% every 5 days and run chemi-pure elite.

Get mad... get stingy... pluck and pluck and pluck some more. Eventually one of the 4 things it needs will be depleted.

Try shorter light cycles, less food, different types of food (meaty foods are worse than veggies), smaller bio load... do something smart.

My bubble outbreak is finally dying off. The bubbles are turning white and falling apart. 2 HUGE colonies are gone and the rest are dying fast. Patience and determination will always win.

Probably releasing spores.

Wow, such extreme approaches, I heard injecting kalk into it will destroy the spores. I am going to try because this stuff is in my sump and everywhere. Burning the tank down isn't an option

I'd be afraid to puncture it. Since you can't see the spores, I wonder how you'd know that they are destroyed. I know some say that you can just restrict nutrients and/or light, but that's kind of hard to do with corals in the tank. I personally find it difficult to control (much more so than other macro algae that I've dealt with).

it is a VERY diffuclt pest.. and I have just about epidemic porportions from neglecting my tank... throwing out 12" diameter rock isn't really partical. Well I have punctured ALL of them with a surgical pick inside the tank before and they don't show up again until much later, but that is only because my water was dirty and I basically let it grow again, and I don't have any crabs to handle any young growth. This time I will puncture and poison them.

They are indestructable in no light condition.. it will take months of darkness before it will dissolve.

I have also seen when the water condition is good, coraline will grow over the bubble algae and cover them up, and eventually kill them I suppose. I believe it's more about trying to tip the balance to favor the organisms that you want. Keep the nutrient level really low, unfortunately not everyone can do that.

Here is a theory I am trying out, if you saturate the water with alot of spores it should actually harder for each spores to survive. I think some will land on the rocks, I imagine when a snail is going over it it would have eaten the spore or a very tiny beginning stage of tiny algae when it is still pliable. So I think increase of clean up crew will also help. I have nothing to loose and I have seen the worst of it already.

Wow... I always had some bubble algae in my tank and I never realized it was such a pest as mine hasn't spread at all. The main cluster I have in my tank is on a flat rock sitting on the sand band. Would covering the bubble algae with sand take care of it? Or should I take out the chisel and be more proactive?

Amen to that. I took a rock covered with them and threw it in my sump (no light) hoping they would just go away... three months later I find that they are still there, just that they have lost most of their color.

I just take the piece of rock off, pluck off the bubble algae, then scrub the affected spot a little with a toothbrush. I get a green gazing ball every once in a awhile, but as the tank matures it happens less often. I don't freak out unless I see more than one. Sometimes, if it's not wedged in very tightly, you can gently remove it in the tank. If it's not coming off easily, then take the rock out of the tank to remove it so it doesn't break inside the tank.

Someone at Foster and Smith told me that emerald crabs only eat bubble algae on a microscopic level (not sure how true this is, but it makes sense)- so it's a good preventative but not a cure.

What I want to know they say "small" ones don't have spores inside, how small is small?

I would think that any size would have "spores", but the spores need the right conditions to grow. If your water is good and nutrients are low, you shouldn't have problems.

My mithrax eats bubble algae up to about marble sized. He keeps them in check very well.

This will seem like a dumb request, but could someone post a picture of their bubble algae problem? My camera is not working right now or I'd snap a picture of my tank, but I want to make sure the algae I have popping up isn't bubble algae. Thanks!

The link I posted above has pictures of various bubble algae types.