Green vs Red Bubble Algea

[LeannaBanana]

First of all, I didn't know there were different colors. But, after some research after my mild "oh crap" moment this afternoon, I see that of course there are different types of bubble algae. FUN!

Background: I've had a small crop (5-8 bubbles) of green bubble algae on one rock for about a month. It's been controlled/not growing larger and sometimes eaten by the freeloaders clean-up crew in my tank, but I had been considering a female emerald crab just in case. (And putting off you know, just pulling the dang rock out and removing the algae...)

Today, there's a rather alarming amount of pink/red bubble algae (35+ and growing) in a totally different part of the tank. I would love to say "IT CAME OUT OF NOWHERE," but obviously that's untrue.

My main questions here are, in YOUR experience:

1) Best eradication? Manual removal? I have a couple of corals glued onto the rockwork, so should I remove those and clean the rock from there before replacing the coral? Or just remove the whole kit and caboodle from the water for a good toothbrush scrub as fast as possible and then return it? (The latter is my thinking, since I have a bit of frag plug left (I chop most of it) underneath, and I'm betting it's also on that)

2) Reproduction speaking - do red and green bubble algae proliferate similarly, or should I focus more on the red for now and let the green hang out and worry about it second?

3) Popping bubbles. Seriously, is that going to spread it more? I read that it's a myth and that it's gospel. Which is true?

Tank parameters are normal for my system. I run a fairly "dirty" tank so I'm not terribly surprised by the bubble algae. (Tank age ~ 11mo. 1.025, 78.9*F, NO3 20-25 (22.1 today), PO4 0.15-0.2 (0.24 today - higher than usual), Alk 10.2 dkh, Mg 1320, Ca 445, pH 8.2)

 

[Privateye]

Good questions. Here's my take:

1. I'd do the latter.

2. They seem to spread similarly, but this extends into 3.

3. I've heard both as well. As someone that's seen both types appear and disappear in tanks, I'm not really sure. Some always seem to burst when I foray into the tank. Some do not but still reappear.

IME I'd to manual removal as much as you can, but these, like other algae, tend to come back. Fortunately they grow slowly. I think they have some sort of spore stage or something in the water column though, so it's rare to eliminate them entirely with this method. Emerald crabs can help, but what I usually see get rid of them entirely is another algae. When they get covered with GHA/cyano/dinos they do not survive. Not a great control method, but it's what I've seen eliminate them completely.

Something I've been toying with is Greenclean. It's marketed for ponds and not reefs, but when I called to ask about it they said "We don't market it for that, but I don't see why it wouldn't work. Let us know what you find". I tried it with some soft corals in the tank, fish, and CUC. The first time I dosed a little heavy and my one fish jumped into the overflow. Everybody did fine though (this is common with a peroxide bath, and this is basically powdered peroxide). The second test was in another tank with heavy bubble algae. I try not to dose at their volume amount anymore, but I can safely say that if you get this product on the bubble algae itself (it's somewhere between a powder and a granule so it sinks) it melts.

Proper use of the product would be to add it to the water every "x" days because the idea is to maintain a concentration. Carpet bombing the bubble algae worked for me though. It's not like they deal with bubble algae in ponds.

 

[ElementReefer]

It’s a scourge. Tank parameters don't seem to predict it in my experience. I’ve been battling it for months. Started with manual removal when it was sparse, we’re talking tweezers and a siphon, but it comes back every time. I’ve researched this topic silly. The highest rated treatment I’ve found, although I haven’t yet tried it:

Vibrant