Bubble Algae

Dave H

Non-member
Does anyone have any tips on either killing or removing Bubble Algae. I had a hitchhiker I removed a couple weeks ago and now it is just about everywhere
 
I have used the product Vibrant in the past. It works.

In my experience, the negative side effect I've encountered was a little bit of Cyano when the treatment was finished.
 
I've heard vibrant is good but never used it myself. I had a nasty "quit the hobby" breakout. Took some time but
1) manual removal using toothbrush in a bucket
2) immediate water change right after
3) aggressive wet skimming
4) Then I added 14 mithrax to a 93 gallon. They actually worked.
5) feed less. Maybe 4 times a week depending on fish
Repeat .
It took time but I took the approach to leave it cleaner than I found it.attack big patches.
 
Im fighting that same battle right now, I’ve been vacuuming with a siphon every weekend and it seems to be working. A little like shoveling poo against the tide though
 
When they've popped up in my tanks, i use a small pair of scissors, and snip at the base for removal, be careful not to puncture the bubbles or siphon it at the same time while extracting.
 
From my understanding of bubble algae, it doesn’t contain spores but the flesh itself will grow anywhere it lands. So taking the flesh out of the tank is more important than popping them. Realistically not a crab or a Red Sea tang can eat those bubbles whole lol
 
Be careful with Vibrant, I went that route and was about 6 weeks in when I noticed my mandarin was down to skin and bones, I've never had an issue keeping pods and my sump has always had tons of pods but taking a flashlight to display and Sump after lights out last weekend there were none left. I really dropped the ball not noticing it sooner.
Reading different forums this can happen over time apparently and after 6 weeks I still have bubble algae, I would say about 75% less than when I started but at the expense of my mandarin I am afraid as i am not sure he can recover. My blennies and wrasse are noticeably thinner as well but confident they will be fine.

I bought 12000 pods from algaebarn and put them in Thursday and I do not see any of them this morning. In the past three days I have done a 100% water change hoping to get this product out of my tank and went to visit Dong today to get some seeded rubble to build my bio diversity back up. I will be placing another 12000 pod order this week. I believe it is the microfauna that was wiped out by vibrant that impacted the pod population but what was weird is my cheato was not affected at all by Vibrant and maintained its size the whole time just not growing like usual.
Lesson learned, let nature work it's magic and a little more elbow grease. I added 5 emerald crabs so hopefully with less BA they will take care of the rest.
 
Crabs will only eat small pieces IME. But as you manually remove. It will start to grow back. This is where the crabs work. They never touched the big bubbles...
 
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