I have couple problems and would like some advice from pros!

[Mikey0909]

I have a 30 gallon mixed reef tank about 1 year old with a couple of things I would like advice about. First I have quite a bubble algae problem, i have two emerald crabs but they don’t even seem to make a dent. I manually remove them once every few weeks but there is still so much. I’m thinking about removing all of the rocks and taking all of it off best as possible but I’m not sure that’s a good idea. I have a protien skimmer running and I also have a refuge with macro algae so phosphate and nitrate stay almost zero. My light is on for 10 hours with no sunset or rise features.

I also have some sort of slime or mucus on some of my rocks, not sure what it is but it seems like it would be bacteria but it has been around for months so i really don’t have much of an idea what it
is or what to do

Thank you for your help in advance!

 

[blaxsun]

You could try cutting your lights back a bit - maybe to 8 hours.

 

[Sebastiancrab]

I had an outbreak of bubble algae and tackled it rock by rock by pulling them out of the tank. I used a pointed metal finger nail file to pry each bubble off. Then rinsed with RODI or saltwater before putting it back in the tank. I continue to have a couple here or there pop up and tackle them as soon as possible.

 

[Montiman]

I normally just manually remove bubble algae. If you are worried about it spreading then you can hold a syphon next to the area you're pulling it off from and let the syphon suck the loose algae out. It might take several tries but if you do this once a week for a month you can really turn the tide on the bubble algae.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

bubble algae caused me to close my tank and put me out of the hobby for a few years, it was worse than yours, but your getting there. Honestly, if I was you, at this point, I would try some kind of bottled chemical, maybe someone can advise you on the best one, but you will not beat it manually now, in my experience.

 

[dvgyfresh]

Emerald crabs ,urchin ,. I had a little outbreak in 40b , bought 6 emerald crabs and urchin , they ate it. I don’t think two emeralds is nearly enough

 

[Sabellafella]

I have a 30 gallon mixed reef tank about 1 year old with a couple of things I would like advice about. First I have quite a bubble algae problem, i have two emerald crabs but they don’t even seem to make a dent. I manually remove them once every few weeks but there is still so much. I’m thinking about removing all of the rocks and taking all of it off best as possible but I’m not sure that’s a good idea. I have a protien skimmer running and I also have a refuge with macro algae so phosphate and nitrate stay almost zero. My light is on for 10 hours with no sunset or rise features.

I also have some sort of slime or mucus on some of my rocks, not sure what it is but it seems like it would be bacteria but it has been around for months so i really don’t have much of an idea what it
is or what to do

Thank you for your help in advance!

If your tank isn't super jammed pack with expensive stuff, just swap the rock for some new clean liverock.

I've been dealing with bubble algae close to 6 years now, and quite possibly gave up after the first 3 trying to manage it. If it gets out of hand, most of the predators will just farm from it opposed to completely eliminating the algae all together. Best option would be to remove the rock and start with new. Otherwise 10 15 emerald crabs and some plucking to keep its population down would somewhat help.

 

[Wasabiroot]

Manual removal is your best bet. Vibrant works also BUT is an algaecide and comes with inherent risk. It also can mess up your biome so much that you get different, worse problems. I would not rely on the emeralds ro reduce it - manual removal with a tool, nutrient control and persistence are the answer

 

[sixty_reefer]

As above removing the rock and giving it a scrub can be helpful with bubble algae in addition I would also do:

• never let nitrates and phosphates hit zero
• use a good quality granular activated carbon
• reduce white light if possible

 

[jda]

Get more emeralds and let them get to work. If you can get them from the Florida Keys - they eat it the best. The emeralds that I get from ReefTopia make quick work of it. Most urchins will eat it as well.

A few notes about emeralds. They seem to live about 3 years. They need to be replaced. Where they come from matters, so try and get them from the Florida Keys. You are going to need more than one or two. Once the algae is gone, keep them fed with flake food or other extra food and they will be cool - if you force them to live on fish poop, they can sometimes eat corals, but so would you or I.

I would get half a dozen emeralds from ReefTopia, an urchin and why not some crabs and snails while you are there.

 

[GK3]

Your phosphates and nitrates are near zero because they get consumed asap - by your filter, by your refuge, and by all your algae.

my recommendation is to use some of the methods above to manually remove as much bubble algae as possible. Then get a few more emerald crabs and let them tackle what you can’t get.

while that is going on, you need to see if your system can maintain the low phosphates and nitrates with all the algae removed. If not, and they climb, you need to figure out why, are you over feeding?

once you do the manual removal, you could also cut your lights way back, couple hours a day, to slow regrowth, while the emeralds do their thing.

 

[ZombieEngineer]

This is what I would do.

Check your cheato for bubble algae. If there is any in there remove it from your sumo and replace with clean cheato or self cleaned cheato (grab cheato from a local reefer or LFS, soak in tap water and coral dip for an hour, place in sump).

Grab a siphon hose and a filter sock. Put one end of the siphon in the filter sock and the other end in the tank. Siphon the living tick out of it until you are as close to 100% removal as possible.

If that doesn't work, get another emerald crab and maybe an urchin too and try one more time.

If that doesn't work, use API algaefix (same thing as vibrant but cheaper). I tried vibrant at 2x recommended dirty dose before we found out it's actually API algaefix in a more expensive bottle and it had no ill effects on my tank but did kill bubble algae.

 

[Mikey0909]

If your tank isn't super jammed pack with expensive stuff, just swap the rock for some new clean liverock.

I've been dealing with bubble algae close to 6 years now, and quite possibly gave up after the first 3 trying to manage it. If it gets out of hand, most of the predators will just farm from it opposed to completely eliminating the algae all together. Best option would be to remove the rock and start with new. Otherwise 10 15 emerald crabs and some plucking to keep its population down would somewhat help.

Thanks for the idea! What should I do about the other stuff on my rocks?

 

[Sabellafella]

Thanks for the idea! What should I do about the other stuff on my rocks?

Which stuff? The corals or? The price you might pay for the live rock might just be worth getting the bulk in emerald crabs

 

[Mikey0909]

Which stuff? The corals or? The price you might pay for the live rock might just be worth getting the bulk in emerald crabs

No, the layer of mucus on some of my rock

 

[Sabellafella]

No, the layer of mucus on some of my rock

That stuff would just go away eventually. Unless it's like the white hairy stuff you get from carbon dosing which I assume you havnt been doing.