Bubble Algae question

[Jakesaw]

54 minutes ago, Naekuh said:

I have female clown that likes to throw the entire sand bed upside down next to her hosted dunkin coral whenever something gets near it (Astrea Snail for example). All that sand lands on my Acan next to it also.   lol.

 

Re: ACANS I have one that I have given up on.  My Talbot damsel always moves the sand so it's under a rock.  It's a decent sized ball that sat in corner of my tank.  Sand keeps getting arranged til the ACAN slides under ridge of rock. or gets burried by Talbot.  Larger tank I'd separate it from my rock work, but in 10 gallon not really an option.

 

 Only half my acan gets light now.  I tapped out.

[Jakesaw]

Still dealing with bubble Algae in my tank.  It's crazy infestation.  Broadly covers all rocks, frags / powerhead / Snailscovered with BA.  

 

Tank water has been much improved since adding a skimmer, and dosing Nitrate / Phos.  My small numbers of frags are improving visually again.   Decided to re-arrang and replace Hammer skeletons up front. 

 

When I removed sandbed frag stand - it was absolutely covered with Bubble algae colonies.  On the skeletons, on the base, everywhere.  I removed Red candycane frag & base for scrubbing / rinsing / Hydrogen Peroxide bath.  Hope I killed off all the BA - but based on tank - I'm sure it will re-grow. 

 

I have purchased Vibrant " Marine " to kill off the BA.  Not yet committed to using it yet b/c it's over a year old in maturity.   Probably will remove all the rocks and scrub all the rocks down / Remove BA / dose with Hydrogen peroxide with new sand as an attempt to deal with BA before doing a Vibratn last ditch effort

 

Feeling like the best long term solution is to start Clean again - and QT everything that goes in tank.  Avoiding BA is the best way to deal with BA is the lesson I have learned.  

[DevilDuck]

Sounds like a pretty bad infestation. I also have bubble algae, but my species seem to be the larger, slower growing variety. I've read that removing bubble algae is where Vibrant shines, but there are other inherent risks at using an algaecide. 

 

Starting again is an option, but it's very hard to avoid recontaminating your tank, all it takes is a couple of cells to ride in on a frag plug, coral skeleton, rock etc. 

 

Good luck and keep up us in the loop! 

[Jakesaw]

30 minutes ago, DevilDuck said:

Starting again is an option, but it's very hard to avoid recontaminating your tank, all it takes is a couple of cells to ride in on a frag plug, coral skeleton, rock etc. 

 

I will start again with new tank / rock and nothing from BA tank will go into it when I do.  IMHO - not worth the risk. 

 

The current tank is more of an experimental tank for me to learn from at this point re: Bubble Algae.  Whatever knowledge is gained, can only be helpful in the long run. 

[Jakesaw]

Here's what a crazy let to grow out of control Bubble algae infestation can look like. 

 

More 

 

[Jakesaw]

More

[Jakesaw]

 

Above is Trochsu Snail with BA all over his shell

[Jakesaw]

 

I'm pretty sure This all started with 1 Bubble I left on a frag for a while that spread throughout tank.  I ultimately removed the Bubble and slowly saw them in other areas of the tank.  

 

My 10 gallon has 2 x Emerald crabs and most of the spead happened with them in the tank.  They do eat BA but not fast enough and I don't know if their popping bubbles were contributors to making the spread worse.

 

Posted pics for others to see what BA can turn into pretty quickly when ignored. 

[Jakesaw]

After looking at those pics, I decided to throw in the towel and try the Vibrant.  I already ordered it from amazon - and it can't get much worse than it is now.  As long as my fish can stay healthy during the process, I'm prepared for anything. 

 

First dose of .7 ml was added today

 

Wish me luck

[Tamberav]

It just needs an emerald crab army!

[Jakesaw]

Update on the tank after dosing vibrant on Friday.

I picked up the Vibrant MARINE at Amazon- the Vibrand reef seemed harder to find.

 

My red candycane coral which has always been healthy is losing the red flesh pretty aggressively.  I think I'm going to end up losing the 3 headed frag.   Will post a pic later but it's not looking good.  Green candycane so far is hangin in there.

 

Will put up a pic later.

 

Anybody else have experience with Marine or Reef versiion god or bad.

 

Thanks

 

 

[Jakesaw]

Before

 

After

 

 

 

[Pjanssen]

That happened to the candy cane after 1 dose of the vibrant?

[growsomething]

Wow, not liking the chemical effect, but it's a good experiment.  

Have you seen all the controversy with Vibrant lately?  Appears it is just an overpriced algaecide.

I had an infestation about as bad.  Added a 2nd emerald and it is making headway, about half gone in 6/8 weeks.  I don't really notice BA anymore, it's just a part of the tank.

[Jakesaw]

4 hours ago, Pjanssen said:

That happened to the candy cane after 1 dose of the vibrant?

Yes,

 

It was the " Marine " variant and not the " Reef " Variant. I don't know the ingredient differentiation, but had read it was a matter of concentration a few places online. 

 

My Green Trumpets were not as affected, but the red one was getting trshed a couple days in.  We got new windows installed so my tank has been moved and gotten only indirect sunlight the past week. Going to fire up the reef light today and see what damage I have.

[Jakesaw]

4 hours ago, growsomething said:

Wow, not liking the chemical effect, but it's a good experiment.  

Have you seen all the controversy with Vibrant lately?  Appears it is just an overpriced algaecide.

I had an infestation about as bad.  Added a 2nd emerald and it is making headway, about half gone in 6/8 weeks.  I don't really notice BA anymore, it's just a part of the tank.

Yeah I was aware of controversy and algacide.  I've been holding off using the stuff for a long while b/c of it. 

 

Ultimatly, it seems to be the only thing that absolutely kills off BA for good.  I want to go into a bigger tank and there is no way I'm bringing BA into it. Need this stuff dead and gone - or I'm starrting over with new dry rock.  

 

I tried the manual removal ( early on ) and adding emerald crab ( I have 2 in my tank ) but it's completely out of control in there.  Every rock is covered in the stuff as you can see in my pictures.  I think in my tank crabs actually made it worse in spreading.  

 

Most of my snails were even cruising along the tank with BA on their shells.  - Awful

 

Added second dose Saturday and crossing my fingers on any damage it does.  I can lie with losing all my corals if need be.  Only cheap ones left in my tank at the moment.

[Jakesaw]

Turned light back on today after a week off -

The DINO has died off completely and I have some nice dark skim in my collection cup.

 

Here's some updated pics from when I turned my light back on after a week's break

 

 

Red Trumpets look to be flesh recovered - but no puff at the moment

Green Trumpets alive but retracted

 

Bubble algae still alive and plentiful more doses needed

 

 

[Pjanssen]

Those trumpets definitely look better. Can you remove them, and any other coral while dosing the vibrant? Then you could go dark for longer periods.

[Jakesaw]

41 minutes ago, Pjanssen said:

Those trumpets definitely look better. Can you remove them, and any other coral while dosing the vibrant? Then you could go dark for longer periods.

I've got no where to move them to. 

 

Yesterday I dosed with the lights off and wondering if the product needs light to absorb into flesh / algae?  With lights on I'll be looking forward to Friday's dose to see how things go again.

 

I only turned lights out b/c of tank being moved.  Dark out did help with DINOs though.

[Tired]

I hadn't realized that there were different species of bubble algae, but that makes a lot of sense. The stuff in the above pics is definitely not a bubble algae I've seen; weirder shapes, different color. Would also explain why some people have entirely cooperative bubble algae, and some have it go nuts. 

 

I have one of those more cooperative species. A cluster of it popped up on a new piece of heavily established live rock, got knocked off by a hermit, and is now hanging out on the sandbed in a couple pieces. It's not done much in the past couple months- there's maybe twice as much of it as there was before. I'll probably pull it out eventually, maybe stick it in a jar. 

[Jakesaw]

3 hours ago, Pjanssen said:

Those trumpets definitely look better. 

I may have found the culprit with Red Trumpets.  I saw one of my Emerald crabs today on it's stalk reaching up.  No damage yet, but his claws could have easily ripped the flesh like in prior photo.

 

 

[Jakesaw]

36 minutes ago, Tired said:

I hadn't realized that there were different species of bubble algae, but that makes a lot of sense. The stuff in the above pics is definitely not a bubble algae I've seen; weirder shapes, different color.

My BA starts out as a single bubble and then forms a nest and puts out a wall of Bubbles out of the next.  It  happens pretty fast. Emerald crabs have nothing on this stuff.

 

Vibrant or throwing the rock out was really my only 2 options. 

[Tired]

Does anywhere near you sell live rock? Maybe you could set up a coral holding tank to avoid the Vibrant killing the corals off. Or you could try and cycle some sponges in a dark place where the bubble algae won't grow, though the Vibrant may not help with that.

[Jakesaw]

coral is looking ok at end of day.  I'm gonna hang with the path I've chartered for a bit  I saw of of my Emeralds surfing on the Green candy canes tonight.  Maybe he doesn't like the taste of Vibrant flavored bubble algae and is looking for other things to eat.  The lights being off + vibrand did drop my tank algae to about nil.  

 

May have to thin the CUC a bit

 

 

[Jakesaw]

 

candy cane surfing