Bubble algae treatment

[Terry Martin]

I had a devastating bubble algae in my 70 gallon tank. Literally bubble algae over every single rock and squeezing out and killing zoas. I tried everything. Emerald crabs were eaten by my eel. A rabbitfish showed no interest in them. I used Vibrant at high dose level for several months with zero impact (also zero impact on other algae - my experience is it's useless but there are plenty of success stories on Reef2Reef; fake news?). I took every single rock out of the tank and manually removed the bubble algae. It was back taking over the tank in a matter of months.
Finally I saw thread by Chris A on his success with Reef HD so decided to try it. I ran it four weeks at 4x (no skimmer, chaeto removed from refugium, no water changes) and it wiped out all the algae in tank but not the bubble algae though it looked less healthy. I gave the tank two weeks with water change and skimming, then ran REEF HD at 8x for 4 weeks. Within two weeks the bubble algae was completely gone. Two weeks after treatment still don't see any. Highly recommend it though it's not cheap. I have refugium sump and 40 breeder in system so cost me about 150 dollars to run the treatments. Tank has large quantity of zoas, euphyllis and hardy sps and none of it was affected at all.

 

[JeanR]

Thanks for sharing! Great to know and super handy as it is reef safe. I have used Fluconazole a few times with great success to get rid of Bryopsis. I had bought it first in blister packs online (similar to this https://www.fishdoctor.us/product-page/flucon-200) as well as in the Reef HD bottles.

I did notice the Reef HD pills were more expensive and significantly weaker than than the blister packs and required 2-3X as much to give the same effect.

If you have a vet who is willing to write you a script the best and cheapest would be to just buy the $1 Fluconazole 200mg tablets from chewy.com

 

[BiGGiePauls33]

I have a bit of a valonia issue currently. Damn foxface eats them if I pick them off the rocks with a razor but doesn't touch them on it's own. Had one emerald in there but caught it on the base of my 21 tail torch one night. Not a few days after, the torch died. Could be coincidence but not really trying that route again with the other torches in there. Maybe I'll look into this treatment. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Terry Martin]

Thanks for sharing! Great to know and super handy as it is reef safe. I have used Fluconazole a few times with great T

Thanks, Jean. It's good to have that link as the Reef HD is pretty pricey.

 

[serwobow]

Thanks for the info. I am wondering about your statement, "it wiped out all the algae in the tank, but not the bubble...". Did it wipe out any brown algae, or just green? I have read that fluconazole will wipe out all green algaes, but not touch the browns or reds, so I am curious what you saw at those high doses. (I am wondering for selfish reasons, as I have a weird brown slime attack happening in my tank right now).

 

[Terry Martin]

Thanks for the info. I am wondering about your statement, "it wiped out all the algae in the tank, but not the bubble...". Did it wipe out any brown algae, or just green? I have read that fluconazole will wipe out all green algaes, but not touch the browns or reds, so I am curious what you saw at those high doses. (I am wondering for selfish reasons, as I have a weird brown slime attack happening in my tank right now).

Sorry, you're correct. It wiped out all the green algae. There is some fuzzy reddy brown stuff that wasn't affected.

 

[FREAKINRICAN69]

Thank you for the info just ordered some for the nano

 

[BiGGiePauls33]

I had a devastating bubble algae in my 70 gallon tank. Literally bubble algae over every single rock and squeezing out and killing zoas. I tried everything. Emerald crabs were eaten by my eel. A rabbitfish showed no interest in them. I used Vibrant at high dose level for several months with zero impact (also zero impact on other algae - my experience is it's useless but there are plenty of success stories on Reef2Reef; fake news?). I took every single rock out of the tank and manually removed the bubble algae. It was back taking over the tank in a matter of months.
Finally I saw thread by Chris A on his success with Reef HD so decided to try it. I ran it four weeks at 4x (no skimmer, chaeto removed from refugium, no water changes) and it wiped out all the algae in tank but not the bubble algae though it looked less healthy. I gave the tank two weeks with water change and skimming, then ran REEF HD at 8x for 4 weeks. Within two weeks the bubble algae was completely gone. Two weeks after treatment still don't see any. Highly recommend it though it's not cheap. I have refugium sump and 40 breeder in system so cost me about 150 dollars to run the treatments. Tank has large quantity of zoas, euphyllis and hardy sps and none of it was affected at all.

Was there a difference in your Po4 reading before, during or after treatment? Curious to know as I don't want top starve the sticks.

 

[Terry Martin]

Was there a difference in your Po4 reading before, during or after treatment? Curious to know as I don't want top starve the sticks.

I did not measure as it's kind of a junkyard coral tank. I just put zoas and then frags from the main tank that no one wants. SPS there's hollywood stunner, various bird's nest, pocis, some plating montis; absolutely nothing fancy. They were all one hundred percent fine. Chris A knows more. YOu could check with him.