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Bubble Algae?


Bamzam

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I just noticed this at the bottom of one my frags today. I think this hitchhiked into my tank from a frag and has grown. Is this bubble algae? Any advice for how to get rid of it? I don't test for nitrates but I was pretty confident that my system has low nutrients until I saw how much this has grown. I don't think I'm over feeding as there are no leftovers. I have 2 clowns that I feed daily about 4 or 5 pellets each. I feed one at a time and as soon as the first one is allowed to touch the floor I stop (the cleaner shrimp eats that one). I also change water twice a week, about 3 gallons on Sundays and 1-2 gallons on Wednesdays. Thanks in advance!

 

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Reef Hollister

The bad news is that it is bubble algae. The good news is, that of all the algaes I've battled, which is most of them, this one was the easiest to deal with. Like Tristan said, an emerald crab should be all it takes.

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Break off the coral and throw the plug away ASAP. Better to get rid of it now than battle later.

 

THIS!

 

Emerald crabs have their own associated risks. I see no point to add them unless you want one.

 

FYI bubble algae will grow in low nutrients and low light.

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Break off the coral and throw the plug away ASAP. Better to get rid of it now than battle later.

 

Have to agree. Been slowly ridding myself of the junk. I have had several various algae battles over the years and this one has been the slowest and most time consuming battle by far.

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Thanks all. I broke off the coral so hopefully I won't have to deal with the bubble algae. One of the branches broke off in the process, so hopefully the piece survives and I end up with 2 frags. The frag is only 3 weeks old. The polyps are still bright green, but the tissue looks like it's bleaching a bit. I dropped both pieces down to the sandbed since I made the mistake of not acclimating it there in the first place and moving it up slowly.

 

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brandon429

there is no other way to battle valonia and win. thorough/exclusion/break or scrape off is what works, even if some still pops up=attack early like you've done, and you change your tanks destiny. this is a tank wrecker, and you had the dense high number of vacuoles type I assure its mean.

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What Brandon said. That's the worst kind. It's hard to remove them without popping them and making the situation worse.

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Elizabeth94

I have a little bit of bubble algae in my tank. Nothing that is crazy, but a few bubbles here and there. During every water change I will pick the ones I can get to out and siphon them out. That way if I pop them I feel like the "juices" are being siphoned. I never really had an issue with it since it grows slowly for me. I suppose there are many different kinds though- some worse than others.

 

I wouldn't be too stressed about it. Just manually remove them when you see them pop up. Just the nature of reef keeping.

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I had 1 bubble of bubble algae I got from a frag I bought once. I got placed the frag in my tank and then immediately saw the bubble, picked the frag back up, removed the bubble (outside of the water), then placed the frag back. That was a couple weeks ago and I haven't seen any since, so I'm guessing my manual removal before anything got out of hand did the job.

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there is no other way to battle valonia and win. thorough/exclusion/break or scrape off is what works, even if some still pops up=attack early like you've done, and you change your tanks destiny. this is a tank wrecker, and you had the dense high number of vacuoles type I assure its mean.

 

100x this, I have some in my tank and I constantly removing it as I see it, soooo annoying.

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brandon429

agreed that online we have thread examples where it stays controlled and looks nice. when I was diving in the caymans I saw sparse large vacuole valonia here and there, they belong on a reef for sure. Its only the risk am addressing, to farm them at all simply takes the risk of balance vs takeover and I opt out. for the ones where it balanced, no harm came, must roll dice.

 

the funniest example of this is neomeris annulata, what I consider to be the most dangerous hitchhiker we can import. above dinos imo.

 

the marine plant database lists them as marginally easy to care for lol and several posters have neo rocks that look like neat plants they trade around among tanks so the crazy killers look crazy to them. but take a 10 thou sps reef with a valonia invasion or a neo invasion...to have ever farmed a single sprig was the death knell that manifested way on down the line. we choose/farmers but there are no bad organisms that's for sure.

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squamptonbc

I found a few bubbles today on a rock full of mushrooms. Not many and likely came in with the mushrooms and their rock. I took it out, used tweezers to remove them, then flushed the area with saltwater to rinse off any left over stuff. Hopefully it stays away. I've never had any major issues before, just seems a bubble or 2 pops up every so often.

 

One benefit of not having live rock from the ocean easily available, is little to no risk for hitchhikers anymore.

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  • 1 month later...

I have some bubble algae in my tank,a col I can't get to without popping it in the water,most of it has been easy,growing on the sand bed I just use the turkey baster and suck em right out,I will however be getting a emerald crab to deal with the stuff I can't get but I'm kinda skeptical about emeralds I had one go rogue and started eating my zoas! Saw her munching them myself,lol

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