Bubble Algae question

[Jakesaw]

Weekly update on Bubble Algae and Vibrant " Marine treatment" to my reef tank.   Yesterday was a full 2 weeks of treatment and I added a third dose  ( 1 ml per gallon of water ) today after photos.  My phone camera updated with some wierd filters I haven't quite figured out so I'm pretty unhappy with pics but here's a few. 

 

 

 

[Jakesaw]

 

My corals seem to have all recovered - and one of my Emerald Crabs seems to spend all his time on the two candy cane corals.  Either on them or under the.  You can see his claw from below on the Green Candy Canes in prior post 

 

The actual Bubble Algae seems to have gotten worse so far.  I've read 6 - 8 doses for Bubble Algae with this product.  I was expecting to see a bit more effect after 2 doses, but holding out hope.  

 

I may remove a few rocks and manually clean the rocks - during the treatment cycle as the BA is simply out of control in there.

 

Wish me luck !

[Jakesaw]

After 3rd dose. my BA have turned a nice dark blackish color.  Hopefully it's an early sign of good changes in the tank.

[Tired]

Probably time to start mixing water for water changes, just in case they start rotting and mess things up.

[Jakesaw]

8 hours ago, Tired said:

Probably time to start mixing water for water changes, just in case they start rotting and mess things up.

Thanks for the suggestion. 

 

Checked their    Vibrant Website   and it does mention keeping up with WC and regular tank maintenance.  I hadn't planned on that.  Will be ready when i get some die off.

[Tired]

I've seen a few threads scattered around where people had die-off of desired organisms due to the decaying algae causing an ammonia spike. Or just in general; Vibrant is an algaecide, despite claiming otherwise, and is damn hard on your biodiversity. Though, in your case, I'm not sure what other options you have, barring shutting off the lights for a few months. 

 

Basically: watch out for any signs of distress in anything, and consider transferring any un-infected rocks to a holding bucket for a bit to retain biodiversity. 

[Jakesaw]

I went into the process eyes wide open on the product.  Fully prepared to have to deal with bad DINO and re-grow good algae after the BA is dead.  I'm watching closely the Coraline algae as well.  Ammonia spike wasn't something I had considered.  I'll keep an eye on my aquatic life for signs of stress.  So far everything seems to be doing fine. 

 

I have seen my Emerald crabs a whole lot more in the tank since starting the dose.   Several times a day I see crabs vs rarely catching one out feasting.  

[Tired]

Weakening the algae probably makes it easier for them to chop up. I know that's what happens to bryopsis when treated with fluconazole- the medication weakens its anti-predator defenses, meaning it's suddenly delicious. 

 

[Jakesaw]

 

Crab on Red Candycane - while cleaning bubble algae off a snail's shell.  

Candy Cane surfing

 

 

[Jakesaw]

23 minutes ago, Tired said:

Weakening the algae probably makes it easier for them to chop up. 

 

I have noticed other algaes appear to have weakened the past week.  The base of my Green candycanes was an area I had noticed this. 

 

The Red candycanes were recently cleaned with hydrogen peroxide and have a pretty clean stem.

BA has just turned black.

[Jakesaw]

Cleaned my front glass for first time since starting treatment.  It appears I have been getting some green coraline algae growing on the surface - even thought i'm dosing an algacide.  It was pretty hardened layer on surface and was green when I scraped it off with blade.  Decided to leave back and sides untouched for observation.

 

No Dinos yet < crossing fingers >

[Jakesaw]

The Algae has been changing since last Friday's dose. 

 

The Bubbles turned black - and now some of the BA are releasing the fluid from within leaving an empty clear shell behind.  I still have some black Bubbles / and some new Green ones, but getting rod of the big of the old Bubble Algae - thinning into clear shells.

 

Clear empty bubbles above on left and bottom right 

 

 

Some empty bubbles ( bottom right )  among the green ones

 

 

Mix of empty / Green / and black bubbles

 

The empty ones are not from Crabs / as I haven't seen empty shells in long while they were expanding across tank for months.  This is first day of empty bubbles since dosing.  My crabs lately have been eating everything but BA in the tank lately.

 

So far - so good !

[Pjanssen]

hopefully it is finally turning around for you. Thanks for journaling your experience.

[Jakesaw]

13 hours ago, Pjanssen said:

Thanks for journaling your experience.

I was quite hesitant on the product - so figured I could help others with my experience.

 

 

Coral looking healthy 

 

 

 

[Jakesaw]

[Jakesaw]

More melting bubble algae today

 

[Jakesaw]

Also tank is starting to get some signs of DINO showing up again.  It's early stage so I'm not going to worry about it right now.  Can always do another extended dark out.  

 

Pulling a nice dark skim out of tank water.  Have not done any water changes yet. 

 

[Jakesaw]

I've been overfeeding Frozen at night and tested water today

Nitrate = 25

Phos = undetectable on Salifert test kit ( Dosed on week 1 - have not since ) - added some Neo Phos and will add re-test tomorrow.

 

So Vibrant is not bottoming out my Nitrates = but the Phos maybe / Maintaining Phos has been an issue for my tank since inception.

 

Added weekly dose of Vibrant Marine today - tank feels like it's improving on the BA.  Will take / add pics for a confirmation / comparison.

[Jakesaw]

Today's updated Photos

 

Pic above with clownfish shows a New thing - yellowish chalk dust color on surface of upper rocks in my tank.  It's on alot of the rock in pic ( above fish and to right of Duncan )- but you can see it in only a few places via the photo. 

 

 

 

It looks like the empty bubbles disappeared and the new Bright green BA hasn't really taken hold - it doesn't appear I'm growing any " NEW BA "   I anticipate another round of " clear bubbles " tomorrow - we'll see how it goes. 

 

Ignore the dead Hammer Skeleton.  It's been dead for a while, I don't even know why it's still in my tank.   

[Jakesaw]

Today, No more clear bubbles, but more have turned black.  

One of my snails covered in BA has his BA melting off it's shell.  

 

My tank is getting a bit more of the stringy DINO today than yesterday.  We're into week 4 starting Friday / 4 doses of " Vibrant Marine" once per week - 1 ml per gallon of water. 

 

Still no water change.  Will probably do a partial WC this week to bring down Nitrates a bit from my overfeeding of Frozen.  Fed frozen Mysis more sparingly today. 

[Tired]

If you have dinos, Vibrant is the last thing you want to be dosing. Vibrant kills off the competition you need to fight dinos. Good luck, and you should probably try to source a chunk of rock or whatnot from someone else's established tank, to add some algae back in.

[Jakesaw]

On 7/10/2022 at 2:17 AM, Tired said:

If you have dinos, Vibrant is the last thing you want to be dosing.

It's why I waited so long to do the Vibrant. 

 

I was leaving hobby, starting over from scratch or nuking with Vibrant.  I chose latter path as a learning opportunity. 

[Tired]

Should be interesting, at least. And I guess if the Vibrant kills the bubble algae, you'll just have bubble algae, not bubble algae and dinos.

[Jakesaw]

23 minutes ago, Tired said:

I guess if the Vibrant kills the bubble algae, you'll just have bubble algae, not bubble algae and dinos.

[Tired]

Ah, geez, and I can't even blame being up late. That was a perfectly reasonable time in the afternoon to not be saying silly things.