algae creating air bubbles?

[bamse]

Hi,
I have a 30g long tank with a WM H1 HOB. There are 40# of LR inside, and part of them are covered in macro algae, hair algae and others I can't id.
Every other day the algae is full of small air bubbles. Every time is the same, I use the turkey baster to blow most of the bubbles off the rock and algae and next day it is back where it was.

I was blaming the skimmer for it, but I have stopped it for two days after cleaning the bubbles and it was still happening.

I have two PH-s in the tank (a Maxi-jet 1200 and a 6025 Tunze), sitting in the opposite corners of the back panel, and I keep them towards the middle of the tank and up. They are lowered like 8-10" inside the water, since I was thinking that the bubbles might be the result of the water surface rippling.

I am out of ideas, unless macro-algae are creating bubbles of air over night.

I am staring at the water trying to see the source of the air, but it seems that the bubbles are growing very slowly, from nowhere.


Does anybody know what is happening? TIA

[Tuscaquatics]

It's normal for algae to do this, especially cyano and filmy stuff like that. Algae breathes CO2 and releases O2. But are you saying you blow the algae off then let it just float around willy-nilly? It should go without saying that if you just leave it in the tank it will break down and create more algae.

The bigger question is, why are you concerned about bubbles when your rocks are covered in algae?

And what do you mean by 'macro algae' on the rocks? What kind of algae are we talking about?

[75gsalt]

I have the same bubble algea in my tank. It's part of a new tank. If you blow it off the rock then you also need to remove it, or it will just spread. I cut my lights down when it shows up. Right now I am leaving my lights off four 3 days. Then on the fourth day I will vac or pull out as much as I can. How old is your tank? What are your params?

[Tuscaquatics]

Originally Posted by 75gsalt

I have the same bubble algea in my tank. It's part of a new tank. If you blow it off the rock then you also need to remove it, or it will just spread. I cut my lights down when it shows up. Right now I am leaving my lights off four 3 days. Then on the fourth day I will vac or pull out as much as I can. How old is your tank? What are your params?

I'd forget about killing the lights. If your goal is to harvest the algae and get it out, I'd actually try and let it grow and soak up all the nutrients it can before I pulled it out.

And I don't think he's talking about "bubble algae" but other stuff like cyano that actually starts releasing little air bubbles that get trapped on top of it.

[bamse]

I was talking about macro-algae. I use the turkey baster to blow the bubbles off the algae and rocks. I kinda like the looks of it, so as long as it will not grow out of control or crash my tank I'd like to keep it since it adds a very natural look.

Plus, I prefer to have nutrients used by something I can actually trim and remove from the tank

I did not know that the algae actually generates bubbles, seems to be happening more over night.

I will post some photos once I get home. I have some nice things growing on the rocks that I cannot id, but they are quite nice and don't want to remove or kill them (not sure if they are algae or something else): transparent blue or brown ear-like leafs, some pinkish bubbles, green stems that are slowly growing for example.

[bamse]

Here are some photos:

(bubbles, bubbles):



better bubbles (what is that pink bubble stuff?)



Top middle there are some intent blue ear like algae (not very good shot, they're facing the back of the tank) I'd like to id as well:



Other stuff I have not clue what it is, but it is very slowly growing:



More annoying bubbles here:



More algae and some brown ears (with air bubbles ( ):

[bamse]

Whole tank photo:




Detail left:



Detail right:

[75gsalt]

The pic that has the green cndy cane looking stuff, well I have that to. It is a weed that (from what I understand) when broken off will multiply rapidly. I think the lights out will help you alot. Make sure your skimmer is working good and clean out all filters everyday.

[bamse]

Thanks gsalt. My tank is only one month old. I've kept testing the water parameters, like every other day, mostly out of curiosity, and also because I wanted to do something while waiting.
These were values last Sunday:

Sg is 1.025-1.026 (top off every other day or so with RODI)
Temp: 78-80 (lowered from 79-81 since I've added the snails)
Amm: <0.25 (undetectable)
Nitrite: <0.01 (undetectable)
Nitrate: 0.2-0.5
Ph: 8.0-8.1
Alc: 8.0
Ca: 390-400
Mg: 1230


I did between 20% and 30% weekly water change, trying to remove as much of the nutrients as possible ( I was also not quite happy with Alc/Ca/Mg which seem a bit low or lower than I wanted).
I will do another set of tests tonite when I'll get home.

I did kept my 4xT5 on a 12hour schedule, and this might explain the green algae. I do not have a power filter, I was planning maybe for a canister in the future. I run the skimmer all the time, and now that I have played with the cup position for awhile, it collects like one cup per week (very dark foam and water).

[lcs]

I wouldn't worry too much right now; you're tank is still cycling and settling in. If it's anything like mine was, you'll see all sorts of stuff grow and then die off. I agree that the extended light period is helping to fuel the algae. You don't need to have your lights on that long with no livestock. Going lights out for 5 or 6 days would probably help.

The "slowly growing stuff" in one of the pics looks like aiptasia. Nuke it while you can. People have had success with Joe's Juice, hot vinegar, lemon juice, kalkwasser, basically anything that is a strong acid or strong base should work.

Love the rockwork! It makes the tank look much bigger than it is. The fish will love all the spaces to swim around.

[rayn]

In that first and third pic, is that hair algea? The stuff I have is much shorter and almost like a grass plug in thickness.

[bamse]

rayn: I believe it is some flavor of hair algae, given the looks of it. Though some patches tend to remain small and mushy, while the other are growing long threads that are not breaking that easily when pulled.
lcs: I really hope that some of the stuff that grows now we'll survive, since they are quite nice (I am not crazy about the barren coralline covered rocks in general); though the hair algae seems very fast growing and pretty invasive.

I do have a blackcap basslet in the tank, and I do not intend to keep him in the dark for days I'll have to find a different way to change the light schedule. For now I am leaving half of the lights out (the actinic white among them) and only keep a superactinic and a blueplus. I hope the fast growing hair algae will need more middle spectrum lights and will be affected by this.