Pitho/Bubble algae not working

[SaltyCrew4u]

I have ordered pitho crabs from SaltwaterAquariums.com and Tropical Fish plus. Both sets of pitho have not touched my bubble algae. My first order would be my first order devoured the bubble and eventually I had to give them to my LFS because there was none left. These last two batches would rather die before they touch it. I only have a 36 gallon. Does anyone know where I can acquire some pithos that actually eat bubble algae? I have plenty of it.

 

[reefernc02]

What is the bubble algea on

 

[SaltyCrew4u]

What is the bubble algea on

Pretty much just on my rock and heater.

 

[SaltyCrew4u]

What is the bubble algea on

You can see they attempt because the algae shell it there but popped. If that makes sense. But my prior pitho ate everything.

 

[reefernc02]

With the heater take it out and use hydrogen peroxide as for the rocks you could spot treat them with hydrogen peroxide on a soft brush I did that to kill it on my frag plugs just out of curiosity what is your phos and nitrate levels

 

[SaltyCrew4u]

With the heater take it out and use hydrogen peroxide as for the rocks you could spot treat them with hydrogen peroxide on a soft brush I did that to kill it on my frag plugs just out of curiosity what is your phos and nitrate levels

Phos is roughly .06 and Nitrates are between 17 and 19 PPM.

 

[SaltyCrew4u]

With the heater take it out and use hydrogen peroxide as for the rocks you could spot treat them with hydrogen peroxide on a soft brush I did that to kill it on my frag plugs just out of curiosity what is your phos and nitrate levels

I just need a good source for pithos that eat bubble. My first batch cleared my tank in a week.

 

[BriDroid]

My pitho crab won’t leave the sand to eat it. It’s funny though, if I pick some off and offer it to him on tweezers, he’ll happily eat it. The lazy bum just won’t leave the sand to eat it off the rocks.

 

[reefernc02]

I had the same problem and neither emerald or pithos helped you just have to be careful not to soak the rock in peroxide as that will kill the biological filtration but spot treating the algea won’t hurt

 

[SaltyCrew4u]

Yea I'm trying to avoid treating the tank. I had suck good success with my first batch. Its almost as if these recent batches were tank grown and fed.

 

[reefernc02]

That’s how every annoyance is in this hobby seems to come back mean and harder to deal with kinda like my ex come to think of it

 

[Ziggy17]

I’d just keep doing manual removal for a few months. It goes away for good.

 

[melfy]

We don't have pitho crabs but got 4 emerald crabs for my 10g, had bubble algae everywhere, all gone within 72 hours! Haven't seen any in over a month (fingers crossed)

 

[SaltyCrew4u]

We don't have pitho crabs but got 4 emerald crabs for my 10g, had bubble algae everywhere, all gone within 72 hours! Haven't seen any in over a month

 

[SaltyCrew4u]

Where any corals affected?

 

[SaltyCrew4u]

I purchased an emerald and it ended up dieing

 

[melfy]

So far they leave the corals alone. They will pick stuff around them, climb on them and sleep on them but they don't eat them. That being said most of my corals are leather so not sure how "tasty" they would be

First time I only bought one crab, did nothing and died. Fast forward few months later decided to get 4, hoping that at least one would eat those bubbles!! And it worked. Lost one crab during a tank transfer but the other 3 are doing great! One is currently taking a snooze on a capnella branch lol

 

[slingfox]

Yea I'm trying to avoid treating the tank. I had suck good success with my first batch. Its almost as if these recent batches were tank grown and fed.

Why did you give your functioning pythos away? If you find a good one you can just keep it and have it continue to clean the tank. If you worry about it starving you can buy sinking algae pellets which is a common food for freshwater fish.