Help - I now have Red & Green Bubble Algae

[koda_dad]

Okay, as some of you know I was away for a month and my wife was watching the tank.

Now honestly, she did an amazing job. All of my levels are perfect. Phosphate and Nitrate are 0

Now that said....my skimmer is still not pulling a lot out of my tank. Maybe getting a 1/4 full /week-2 week. (Remora Pro Skimmer)

I don't have a ton of either but it is there and it is spreading. I might have 8-10 red bubbles, and maybe 6 green bubbles.

So what do I do?

Tonight the skimmer and all powerheads were cleaned and a 30% water change was done.

I know both red and green bubble algae can get crazy out of control....and I really want to stop that from happening.

Advice?

 

[Bifferwine]

Remove as much of it by hand as you can, trying not to pop the bubbles in the tank. Tweezers help to grab them. Then get some emerald crabs. They usually will eat the bubble algae.

 

[crazy cajun]

+1 Biff, emerald crabs for the bubble algea it helped me

 

[koda_dad]

I purchased an emerald crab today....hopefully that will help.

here is few pics of the weird red bubble algae.

And here is the typical green bubble.

How long before I should see the emerald crab work on them?

 

[yote]

I'm not so sure that,that red is algae.
But the emeralds should start working on any bubble algae as soon as they get settled in.

 

[koda_dad]

It is soft...and pops :)

but I hope your right..


I added one emerald....is that enough for a 33? honestly, I am not a fan of crabs...so the fewer the better.

 

[yote]

Depends on how big that emerald is.:D
Emeralds aint bad for crabs.They actually perfer algae and noramlly dont cause any problems.

 

[reeftanker84]

i agree that red sure dont fit the typical bubble algae description,matter of fact ive never seen anything like it,may be some kind of sponge or something

 

[Nemo10]

Yea emerald crabs are the only thing that will eat the buble algea from what i read. They actually take it apart from the underside and eat it Inside Out so they dont waste the spores..

 

[vicki]

I had the worst plague of Green bubble Algae (Valonia) on the planet! There were BILLIONS everywhere and I use to laugh when people told me to pick them out! In New Zealand we cant get emerald crabs, so this is what I did.
I added phosguard in to my sump in case that was the issue. I raised my kH level to 10 or 11, my Mag to a minimum of 1250, and calcium to 450. I added a the max dosage (every 3 days) of algacide. I cut out Iodide because I read it can feed algaes.
I dont know which of the above did it (would love feedback if anyone knows) or if it was a cobination, but the pink coraline algae started growing thickly and smoothered all of the buble algae out. It took 2 months. Theres the occasional new bubble but it isnt an issue anymore.

 

[koda_dad]

I have been doing a lot of reading and I think magnesium plays a big part... I am slowly raising mine to 1400.

I have also been removing as many as I could easily get rid of manually.

Unfortunately, today was a bad day.... I found about 50 red bubbles on the top of each of my powerheads... I took the powerheads out , removed the bubbles and cleaned them thoroughly. I now have maybe four or five more red bubbles left.... and all the standard green bubbles thankfully appear to be gone.

But............................

 

[koda_dad]

I have 3 patches about this size of this...and about 3 more that are about the size of an eraser on a pencil.

What is this type of algae called? Any suggestions on getting rid of this?

 

[wontonflip]

Dang...they look like green maggots :shock:

 

[dcantucson]

The red stuff do not look like bubble algae to me either.

 

[koda_dad]

Dang...they look like green maggots :shock:

yes indeed they do... I have been googling and googling and i cannot find anything like them

 

[koda_dad]

I had lots that do much more like the regular stuff too though... I removed it all except for a few that I cant reach....

 

[Bifferwine]

That green stuff is not bubble algae... It's another type of algae (I can't remember the name), but I have seen it before.

 

[koda_dad]

Good or bad :)

 

[Bifferwine]

Well, algae so bad. But I can't remember what kind... Let me do some research.

 

[koda_dad]

Thanks... hopefully you have better luck than me