Bubble Algae

reef keeper

Super Active Member
Joined
Nov 19, 2014
Location
Hamilton, Ontario
i got some bubble algae somewhere - I think from a frag. I added some emeralds, but they do t do anything. I added a hermit. Nothing. Snails do nothing.

Without using chemicals- how the hell do you get rid of this crap!
 

BigReefer

Super Active Member
Joined
Jun 1, 2011
Location
London, Ontario
also you can manual remove it as well by scraping the rock ... in which i know you don't wanna hear but yea ... you can also get a copper band butterfly fish and or a naso tang sometimes they will eat it ... or a file fish ..
 

MrHermit85

Active Member
Joined
Mar 19, 2013
Location
London, Ontario
My foxface would eat it too. I occasionally get a few bubbles here and there in my new tank so I pull the rock out and carefully remove them without popping. Then rinse the area in syphoned tank water and return rock to tank. I don't take chances with bubble algae lol it was my nemesis in my last tank.

I luckily have a small tank and can remove rock easily which is not the case in some instances. I guess that's why QT is so important.

I have tried emeralds and they seemed to prefer coralline algae, my rocks were stark white except where they had eaten around the bubble algae lol
 

TORX

Administrator
Staff member
Website Admin
Joined
Nov 27, 2010
Location
Blenheim, Ontario
Website
www.thefragtank.ca
Kill_67426c_5585591.jpg
 

reef keeper

Super Active Member
Joined
Nov 19, 2014
Location
Hamilton, Ontario
Uh..... Nuke the sonofabitch?

It's on 2 rocks. By some miracle, those rocks have no corals on them, so getting them out is easy.

So scrape em? Then burn em?

Autobots. Let's roll
 

rockworm

New Member
Joined
Jan 1, 2016
Location
Ottawa
Hydrogen peroxide worked for me. I had a large clump on a single rock. Poured some hp on it and put rock back in tank. They whitened and my purple tang ate them all. Obviously this wont work if you cant take the rock out, but for the odd rock, it is an easy way to tackle the odd bunch.
 

Kman

Super Active Member
Joined
Apr 15, 2014
Location
KW
I find if I pop them and break the tough outer membrane the normal cleanup crew and fish will take care of them pretty quickly. They just have a hard time getting past the outer membrane wall on the algae to eat it when it is not popped. When popped they can get the the softer inner cell membrane wall. Just make sure your skimmer is on because popping them can cause them to spread through the spores that are released.
 
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