rid of bubble algae w/o crab?

[reefworm]

I'm starting to see some bubble algae near the bottom of a base rock. Fortunately, I've never had to deal with this stuff much. I know there are those who introduce an emerald crab to deal with it, but I'm reluctant in that I'm leery of crabs of any sort [maybe just paranoid, but you know the saying, " Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you."] Not wanting to pluck it and spread it, how about kalk paste [recipe?] or boiling water in a syringe?

[Pheeshes]

manual removal...it's the only way to be sure to get rid of it. emerald crabs sometimes eat it, usually only the small pieces though, some foxfaces have been known to eat it, but again not all and sometime it'll grow in places they can't get to it, kalk paste probably won't kill it, but you could certainly try, and the boiling water syringe would be just as bad as poping them and taking the shell out of the tank.

can you tell i'm going through the same thing, haha. i just took a couple of rocks completely out of my tank. i scraped off all the bubble agea and popped and removed the pieces that wouldn't scrape off. then i dipped it in a bucket of salt water and swished it around to get any stuff that might have come out of the bubbles when i popped the ones i had to pop. i'll let you know how that works in couple of weeks...i've got my fingers crossed

[46FiatYamaha]

I've battled with some serious bubble algae before, and if it's a large amount, the easiest way is to take the rocks completely out and scrub them clean like pheeshes said. But if it's only a few, it's not too hard to get some fine point tweezers and dislodge them, and even if you do bust a few it's not the end of the world. I manually remove any that may show up from time to time and havn't had any issues for a few years now with this method

[reefworm]

Thanks! Given that the rock is on the bottom I'd rather not tear it all down if I don't have to. It is only a few at this point, so I'll get them now and hope I have the same luck you've had 46Fiat. Thanks also for the reassurance that a popped bubble won't cause an outbreak. I see you're nearby in Matthews!

Pheeshes - thanks for the clarification on the crab, kalk and boiling water methods. I'll take advice from both of you and carefully remove them manually.

[46FiatYamaha]

It's a small world after all, glad I could help

[Merfin70]

A slight hijack but doesn't an Emerald pop the bubbles to eat them? I've popped more than my fair share of them in my tank in and effort to go the manual removal route. I can't say as they are all gone but I certainly don't have a plague of them from doing so. I was always wondering why people recommend an Emerald to pop them but also cringe at the thought of popping one by accident in their tank.

[James77]

If it is just a couple- Ive used a 3/8"-1/2" hose with siphon to suck them out- crap gets sucked right out if it pops. Ive also attache a pointy tip(off salifert syringe) to a hose, pierced the bubble, and sucked out the insides and let them wither away.

[James77]

Originally posted by Merfin70
A slight hijack but doesn't an Emerald pop the bubbles to eat them? I've popped more than my fair share of them in my tank in and effort to go the manual removal route. I can't say as they are all gone but I certainly don't have a plague of them from doing so. I was always wondering why people recommend an Emerald to pop them but also cringe at the thought of popping one by accident in their tank.

You speak as theough the crabs actually eat it in the first place- - Ive NEVER had an emerald crad that ate bubble algae. I'd hazard to guess that they go after the tiny new bubbles, so there is not much to pop- could be wrong though.

[noboddi]

All I can figure, is that emeralds pop them, but eats the new ones as they scavenge. I have an emerald living in my sump, and cycle rocks from my fuge for him to munch on. If I get a bubble, I move him into the reef for a while.

[Toddrtrex]

This just my experience/thoughts.

When I had a really really bad outbreak I re-did the tank, there was just too many of them.

Now I will notice one or two in the tank, and have a couple of emeralds in that tank. I have actually watched them eat the bubbles. My theory on why they work is that they only eat the smaller ones. When I had my bad outbreak I would pop them outside of the tank. I noticed that only the large ones would have a green liquid in them --- whereas the smaller ones had clear liquid -- and the green liquid was the spores.

[Frick-n-Frags]

maybe a pin on a long stick. or a siphon hose rubberbanded to a pointed stick to dislodge and siphon them

^ yes, they make spores when they get bigger. get them while they are small

mithrax crabs munch up most everything they can munch up. they can't get around valonia once it gets so big, so they mostly dont mess with it because they can't.

IMO, you should take valonia very seriously. it really has no enemies and grows in nice clean water just fine.

[strtrodreefer]

Frick is spot on. Very few enemies.
I had bubble so bad 2 years ago, I sold everything in my tank except for the fish. Cleaned as well as I could, many water changes, phos media etc. heavy uv for a month. Bought outstanding Marshall rock to start over and within 2 months it was back.

I fought with manual removal to the point of exhaustion. In november I was ready to take it down for good, but my wife convinced me to try one last time. I never had faith in emeralds as I figured a crab large enough to eat some of these is too big for me!! Broke down and put 4 emeralds in. I still believe they are hit and miss, however they have made a HUGE dent in mine. I continue with manual removal, but feel confident they are getting much of the new, smaller growth. I've got a long way to go, but at least I see some light. I have a maze brain coral that sits on the bottom of my bb tank. The bubble had grown so bad under and around it that it raised it 1 1/2" up from the glass. Within 2 weeks of adding the emeralds, they ate doorways right through it until it finally sat on the bottom again.

They do go for the small clustering type, but the big stuff is up to manual removal.

[DiverD]

I always pinch them with the end of my siphon. It sucks away the liquid cellular residue and takes the cell wall with it. It is a pain when they are in those crevices though...

[reefworm]

weapons of choice - sharp tweezers, pipette and small juice glass. Scrape, pick with tweezers, suck up with pipette and drop into juice glass sitting on the sand. Took about one hour to get all I could see - three small patches pretty close together. I think only one bubble burst, maybe two. Largest bubbles were just under 1/16" dia. by just over 1/16" length and only a half dozen or so of those. Very light green color, apparently from the skin, as burst bubbles were same color as non-burst. So I would assume the liquid inside was clear and not the green, spore-laden stuff. Again, thanks for all the advice. I'll keep my eye out for any others.

[Lotus99]

My rock was covered in it. I seriously considered breaking it all down.

I had some emerald crabs that didn't seem to work, then I got a foxface. I've never seen him eat it, but it has all disappeared from the tank, except for the odd one here and there among the corals.