Bubble Algae. 3 years. Done all kinds of things. Give me all you have.

[Oshengems]

Vibrant did NOT work for my bubble algae. Going on 3 months, and it doesn't appear to be doing much. I have emerald crabs slowly chipping away....it really just looks like the vibrant stopped the spread of it.

How often are you dosing ? Took about 2 months for me to start seeing the color change on the BA and my emerald started eating it once he was able to pop them

 

[Birddog]

I've always kept emerald crabs in my displays and I never have bubble algae in there. I get it in my refugium sometimes, but there aren't any emeralds in there. How many emeralds have you tried and how big is your tank? I have about 10 in my 190 gallon display. They are also great for other types of algae.
Also, have you ever tried an urchin or two? They are AMAZING algae eaters. I have a pin cushion urchin that literally cleans the rock until it's pure white. I have like 4 different urchins in my tank. They are by far the best clean up crew member I've seen.

THIS

 

[Oshengems]

Foxface or emerald crabs work. I tried Vibrant and it killed my chaeto. The Foxface was what worked for me.

Yes Vibrant will kill off your macro algae as well only downside my dragons breath was completely dissolved I had just added before I started using purge

 

[w2inc]

Vibrant!!! Just finished a bottle and I will buy another just for weekly doses maintance, I was cleaning my glass every 6-7 days! I was dosing every 3 days took about 2 months it’s completely out of my tank, from what I saw it slowly dissolved the BA in my system, they went from dark green to shiny to lighter green until I noticed they started popping, another thing I noticed it wasn’t that emerald crab didn’t eat BA they were too big and smooth and probably a tad too hard for him to pop becaue once they got light in color and started popping he would go downtown on patches

Edit: in case you wanted to know, my tank is mostly sps, acros, montis, have zoas mushrooms small maxima clam, chalices, and sea fan, this doesn’t bother anything

I have to admit that I am watering at the mouth a little over the vibrant.

My system grows is SPS dominant, and grows Cheato. It has a calcium reactor. Has more fish than it should. Hasn't had a water change since it was set up as an octopus tank back in early 17. I have lot of concern about putting magic potions in it. Does anyone know what it is and how it does what it does?

The goal is to migrate clean frags over to the new build and one day if all is clear, I will hook the tanks together. So there is the in between moment that the original tank will be pretty empty and I would feel like I can roll the dice with it.

Anyone have thoughts on what's in it and long term effects?

 

[Jason mack]

Heres the thread for it ..you can read up or ask questions here...
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/vibrant-liquid-aquarium-cleaner-discussion-thread.271428/

 

[TexasReefer82]

I feel the same about them on the SPS, but I am starting to reconsider. I cut back on feeding and ended up with a bald spot on one of the corals. I am not sure who to blame on that.


Knowing that they have to pop them to eat them, what do you think about all the spores getting released?

That Coral looks like a purple Stylo that had a polyp bail out event. I wouldn't blame it on the crabs.

I forget were i read it but popping the bubbles is fine. They don't make spores on the inside. The spores are made on the skin of mature bubbles that have reached a certain age/life stage. So pop away! Better to pop them small before they've had a change to make any spores.

 

[samnaz]

That Coral looks like a purple Stylo that had a polyp bail out event. I wouldn't blame it on the crabs.

I forget were i read it but popping the bubbles is fine. They don't make spores on the inside. The spores are made on the skin of mature bubbles that have reached a certain age/life stage. So pop away! Better to pop them small before they've had a change to make any spores.

hm. on the contrary, I have only ever read that popping the bubbles causes them to spread. can anyone else confirm or deny this?

 

[Jason mack]

hm. on the contrary, I have only ever read that popping the bubbles causes them to spread. can anyone else confirm or deny this?

Yes popping them will cause them too spread ..as spores are released....

 

[w2inc]

That Coral looks like a purple Stylo that had a polyp bail out event. I wouldn't blame it on the crabs.

I forget were i read it but popping the bubbles is fine. They don't make spores on the inside. The spores are made on the skin of mature bubbles that have reached a certain age/life stage. So pop away! Better to pop them small before they've had a change to make any spores.

I don't have a lot of experience with polyp bail out. What might trigger an event like that? What else could I look for to help me rule that out?

 

[w2inc]

Yes popping them will cause them too spread ..as spores are released....

According to Reefkeeping online. in an article by:
Horge Cortes-Jorge Jr., there is a chance you may both be right in the right circumstances.

"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."

It answered the question I had about fish and crabs eating the bubbles. It looks like they may not have spores to release when they are small. Thus, herbivores can eat them without spreading them. After they are whatever "1/3rd full size" is then popping them can cause cause issues.

Thanks for the feed back from both of you.

 

[w2inc]

Yes Vibrant will kill off your macro algae as well only downside my dragons breath was completely dissolved I had just added before I started using purge

Bummer about the dragons breath. That is awesome looking stuff. Did you have any Cheato in there?

 

[w2inc]

THIS

Thanks for pitching in. I have 2 pincushions and one tuxedo in my 20 that I moved from the main display. There are a couple male emerald crabs, turbo, hermits, and a yellow and purple tang. It gets ignored and has minimal food going into it, but still growing bubbles. The livestock in there handles diluted peroxide dips pretty well and I did 2x about 9 months ago and thought I had it beat. It made a slow comeback. Could just need a good cleaning and a skimmer, but I am thinking that it is a good tank to try Vibrant on.

 

[Oshengems]

Bummer about the dragons breath. That is awesome looking stuff. Did you have any Cheato in there?

No, no chaeto I had removed my refuguim from my sump and converted that area into my frag area I hate the look of frag racks in my display, a fellow reefer was giving out free dragons breath and decided to give it a try since my nitrates and phosphate were creeping up, that was another thing with Vibrant it lowered my No3 and po4, also may not be related but I had dynos(bad case) as well all gone too, but all I wanted was to rid of that pesky Bubble algae it was taking over, you see a patch here another there and don’t think much of it but once it takes off it multiplies fast! My last never was kicked when it started covering the encrustation of my JF flame it started pushing it back it killed about half of what encrusted in my rock didn’t realize it until I started doing some maintenance


The below pics were the 3rd and 4th week I started taking pics to see the difference but once they started popping they disappeared fast

week 3

week 4

Notice the left of week 4 how there’s a few popped bubbles already and the dynos started disappearing as well

 

[DivingTheWorld]

After years of trying everything, Vibrant worked for me. It wasn't quick and took a couple months with a gradual build up to a dose every 3 days. My BA laughed at low nutrients, Emerald Crabs, manual removal, Foxface, Urchins, Fluconazole and Tangs. I did not lose any acros during treatment, or even have any adverse reactions other than snails (IMO due to less micro algae). But read all you can on it and use at your own risk.

 

[Vin's Reef]

Vibrant works. It takes time. Like 6 weeks. But dose as instructed and be patient. Also, remove all Chaeto. It will turn it white and slowly dissolve it. Measure nitrates if running an ULNS. May need to dose or feed more during treatment. Six weeks and not one to be found. Cyano on the other hand....

 

[rkpetersen]

I have lot of concern about putting magic potions in it.

I'm with you on that.
I've never used Vibrant and would be far too concerned about unintended effects, both short term and long term, to do so unless circumstances were dire.
I occasionally get some bubble algae, here and there. As soon as I see it, I'm in there with a forceps prying it loose and popping the bubbles.
I have a Foxface that won't eat them when intact, but that gobbles them up greedily the moment I pull them off the rocks and rupture them.
He actually hangs around waiting while I'm pulling them off.
The ones I rupture and let the Foxface eat are always small. I haven't seen anything to suggest that rupturing them causes them to proliferate faster.

 

[w2inc]

I'm with you on that.
I've never used Vibrant and would be far too concerned about unintended effects, both short term and long term, to do so unless circumstances were dire.
I occasionally get some bubble algae, here and there. As soon as I see it, I'm in there with a forceps prying it loose and popping the bubbles.
I have a Foxface that won't eat them when intact, but that gobbles them up greedily the moment I pull them off the rocks and rupture them.
He actually hangs around waiting while I'm pulling them off.
The ones I rupture and let the Foxface eat are always small. I haven't seen anything to suggest that rupturing them causes them to proliferate faster.

Thanks. That is new information for me about the fox face. It makes sense. I will keep that in mind if I give another one a try.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Time for me to get vibrant. I bought some if the laziest emeralds on earth I believe

 

[MabuyaQ]

I have no experience with bubble algae, but whenever I found something I wanted to get rid of I used an old, cheap steamcleaner. No aiptaisia, hydroid, vermitid snail or pink cotton algae survived my 'cooking' technique, and I can't see how bubble algae could.

 

[authentic]

Get a hypodermic needle and puncture then draw out the inside spores,once empty you can pick the bubble off with tweezers,,,saw this awhile back and it worked for me