Trying to start over...again.

[somewhereinri]

Hey guys and gals,

I have a multi-part question that I was hoping the club members could help me out with.
For months now, I have been battling bubble algae in my tank. I had gone as far as a tank breakdown, discarding all of my LR and substrate. I purchased a beautiful piece of dry rock and added it to the tank with new water.
My corals were transferred, but I had to do so with small amounts of old rock at the base.
Shortly afterward, the BA started to pop up near the base of my corals. Months of manual cleaning, moderate volume water changes on a bi-weekly basis, and the BA is winning. It's rally irritating my corals, and irritating me.

So that's the background story, now the questions:

 

[Turbosnail]

There are no questions. Emerald crabs will eat the ball algae. Remember that if you break the balls open in the tank your just spreading the ball algae around.

 

[somewhereinri]

First, I want to try to save my corals if at all possible, however I feel the only way to do so is to detatch them completely from the rock, and adhere them to new rubble. They are just mushroom corals(bullseye, red, and green hairy).
Will I be able to carefully cut them from the rock with a scalpel and have good odds of them surviving and re-attaching to new rubble? If not, what are other options?

Next is cleaning the rock. If once the rock is free of corals, and I have manually scrubbed all visible BA from the surface, what is the best way to clean/kill any leftover algae or spores? I was thinking of baking the rock, but I am open to suggestions.

Finally cleaning the tank and filtration. The tank setup is a stock biocube 14 with the biocube protein skimmer. I was thinking (beyond obvious brushing) running vinegar and fresh water. Will this work?

Thanks in advance for any and all help.

 

[somewhereinri]

There are no questions. Emerald crabs will eat the ball algae. Remember that if you break the balls open in the tank your just spreading the ball algae around.

Sorry put them on separate post.

 

[Turbosnail]

mushrooms can be cut into peices and still survive so cutting them off the rocks wont hurt them. But I would try a couple of emerald crabs first they are cheap money.

 

[Edward]

emerald crabs should solve your problems, mushrooms are hardy so don't worry about hurting them. How big is your tank?

 

[somewhereinri]

Thanks, guys, I'll try a crab. I was a little concerned with how close the BA was to the base of the coral, that a crab either may not clear out that spot, or might damage the coral.

Edward, my tank is a 14gal BioCube.

 

[Turbosnail]

The crabs won't bother the coral and if your have a big problem with BA I would get a couple crabs.

 

[Edward]

If the algae really is that bad i'd say get 3 or so...just me though. When I first started my 10 and had a bad BA problem I got 3 and the algae stood no chance.

 

[somewhereinri]

Thanks guys

 

[Jim Tansey]

"There are no questions. Emerald crabs will eat the ball algae. Remember that if you break the balls open in the tank your just spreading the ball algae around."

How do the crabs swallow those big bubbles without breaking them, I always wondered about that....

Jim

 

[Bruno]

What happens when the crab pops the bubble??? Doesn't that defeat the whole purpose???

 

[Turbosnail]

I don't get it either. I just know that I had ball algae and someone told me that emerald crabs eat ball algae.So I got some they ate the ball algae and I never got it again.Plus they eat other kinds of algae to.

 

[rmhgold1]

I had a BA problem a while back. Emerald crabs only do the job on small bubbles. I had to take the LR out get the bubbles off with a good scrapping then a minute FW dip and they havent come back(knock on wood!! lol)

Rich

 

[somewhereinri]

Dropped three crabs in the tank this evening. I'll let you know how I make out.

 

[somewhereinri]

Update: Almost 4 days deep and the tank is almost cleared out. Man those crabs are good!
It's funny, I don't see them much, and when I do it looks like they're cleaning themselves more than anything, but a few hours later, another section of algae is gone...
And they're methodical too. They started on one side of the rock, and are working across to the other, like a strategic attack. It's amusing.
Anyway, thanks for the suggestion, it's working out well.

 

[Andy V]

From Reefkeeping Magazine:

"Much has been said about the danger of liberating spores when popping the vesicles of bubble algae. This is particularly true for members of Order Valoniaceae, but even then, the vesicles are said to be a sporulant risk only when having reached at least a third of their full size. Even if spores escape when you botch the job of vesicle-removal ('vesectomy', anyone?), those escapee spores have to run the gauntlet of herbivorous filter feeders, filtration equipment, and the wild lottery of hitting a good, unoccupied spot to settle and grow. Those spores will eventually be released anyway if you don't remove the vesicles."


The max size is 2" per bubble so the bubbles would have to be at least 1.25" in diameter just to be sexually mature enough to produce spores.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-02/hcj/feature/index.php