Vibrant vs Bubble Algae

[DEL 707]

I have quite a bubble algae infestion in my 55l tank.
I decided to try dosing Vibrant to see if it would deal with it. But after 6 weeks of dosing weekly. I'm not seeing any change.

It says 1ml weekly for every 10g, so since my tanks only 12g (UK), I've been dosing 1ml every Sunday.

Am I doing something wrong? Do I need to up the dosage or dose more regulary?

 

[DanyL]

I never used it myself, but from what I know 4-6 weeks is the broad treatment for most algae types, except Valonia.

I doubt the 1ml vs 1.2ml would have much difference, but could be.

I’m usually against the usage of algaecides in the tank, but given that you don’t have much stock and already been doing it, I would say keep going. You can look up the average eradication time for Valonia on the forum (or maybe someone with first hand experience may chime in here and share).

 

[rtparty]

I believe it’s one of the last types of algae to work on.

I’ve been dosing AlgaeFix to fight bubble algae but I dose every 3 days

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Grab a butter knife and scrape them off the rocks, then do a water change and siphon up the bubbles. This is the fastest way, and with such a small tank, you would be done in 2 or 3 water changes. The water changes will have the added benefit of reducing the dissolved organics in the water which will help prevent the bubbles from spreading too fast.

 

[slingfox]

With that size of tank with limited coral, why don’t you just remove the rock, manually remove, and spray down the rock with hydrogen peroxide?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I have quite a bubble algae infestion in my 55l tank.
I decided to try dosing Vibrant to see if it would deal with it. But after 6 weeks of dosing weekly. I'm not seeing any change.

It says 1ml weekly for every 10g, so since my tanks only 12g (UK), I've been dosing 1ml every Sunday.

Am I doing something wrong? Do I need to up the dosage or dose more regulary?

While I wouldn’t use vibrant for any purpose based on the misdeeds of the company, I’m curious what a bottle in the UK says is in it?

 

[DanyL]

I contemplated suggesting manual removal too, but honestly - he doesn’t have much to lose, and already pretty much at the finish line. I think that at this point it would probably be worth it to keep going and complete the treatment.

 

[DEL 707]

Think the reason I've not been seeing any results is because I've been running active carbon in my filter.

I'm going to try to pick off as much algae as I can this weekend and remove my carbon. I'll try dosing again after that.

 

[gbroadbridge]

Think the reason I've not been seeing any results is because I've been running active carbon in my filter.

I'm going to try to pick off as much algae as I can this weekend and remove my carbon. I'll try dosing again after that.

Carbon will remove Vibrant from the water very quickly.

I'd just brush off the bubble algae with a toothbrush and forget the algaecides.

 

[Miami Reef]

Think the reason I've not been seeing any results is because I've been running active carbon in my filter.

I'm going to try to pick off as much algae as I can this weekend and remove my carbon. I'll try dosing again after that.

Keep us posted!

 

[ColorMeGone]

I have not had any luck eliminating bubble algae from my nano and started out with a few bubbles, I do small water changes every day anyway and scaping them off and scooping them up with a net does not work well. Every part of my rocks that has no corals is covered in this stuff. I see no cure for it and cannot remove the rocks to clean them off. It's frustrating for sure.

 

[rtparty]

I have not had any luck eliminating bubble algae from my nano and started out with a few bubbles, I do small water changes every day anyway and scaping them off and scooping them up with a net does not work well. Every part of my rocks that has no corals is covered in this stuff. I see no cure for it and cannot remove the rocks to clean them off. It's frustrating for sure.

API AlgaeFix could be the answer. Just go super slow and stop dosing if you see any negative reactions for corals or livestock

I’ve been dosing it to my nano for over a month with zero issues.

 

[Rhetoric]

I have not had any luck eliminating bubble algae from my nano and started out with a few bubbles, I do small water changes every day anyway and scaping them off and scooping them up with a net does not work well. Every part of my rocks that has no corals is covered in this stuff. I see no cure for it and cannot remove the rocks to clean them off. It's frustrating for sure.

It took me 3 emerald crabs before I found one that ate bubble algae. Once I found it the problem went away. I gave them a month, if I didn't see them eating it, back to the LFS.

Totally worth the effort

 

[John Neuzil]

While I'm still not happy with the parent company that makes vibrant Iused it years ago and it did work. I would first remove as much of the algae by hand first. It is slow acting so expect it to takes weeks to work.

 

[ColorMeGone]

It took me 3 emerald crabs before I found one that ate bubble algae. Once I found it the problem went away. I gave them a month, if I didn't see them eating it, back to the LFS.

Totally worth the effort

I do not have a LFS to deal with so all my stuff comes in the mail. I thought about these crabs but like you say they don't all eat this crap.

 

[JoJosReef]

API AlgaeFix could be the answer. Just go super slow and stop dosing if you see any negative reactions for corals or livestock

I’ve been dosing it to my nano for over a month with zero issues.

From what I understand, Vibrant IS API AlgaeFix.

@DEL 707 do they sell API AlgaeFix in the UK? If so, I would support them instead of Vibrant, who allegedly misled the community for years claiming their product was something that it definitely (allegedly) is not.

I prefer Fluconazole for bubble algae if the problem is out of hand. I run it at 4x the recommended dose for Bryopsis == 80mg/gal actual volume. You have to turn off any skimmer during this period, and it's a 6 week course. 30% water change at 3 weeks and replenish Fluconzole with half of the original mg. Or in your case, since the tank is so small, you could do a complete water change and add 80mg/mL to more precisely replenish levels. Of note, Fluconazole works best with high light, so bubbles in shaded areas might not die and should be manually removed during the process.

Whatever route you take, good luck! It's a difficult one!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

@DEL 707 do they sell API AlgaeFix in the UK? If so, I would support them instead of Vibrant, who allegedly misled the community for years claiming their product was something that it definitely (allegedly) is not.

I prefer Fluconazole for bubble algae if the problem is out of hand. I run it at 4x the recommended dose for Bryopsis == 80mg/gal actual volume. You have to turn off any skimmer during this period, and it's a 6 week course. 30% water change at 3 weeks and replenish Fluconzole with half of the original mg. Or in your case, since the tank is so small, you could do a complete water change and add 80mg/mL to more precisely replenish levels. Of note, Fluconazole works best with high light, so bubbles in shaded areas might not die and should be manually removed during the process.

Whatever route you take, good luck! It's a difficult one!

There’s nothing alleged about it. The epa dealt with them. Anyone continuing to use Vibrant is basically saying it is ok to lie to reefers to make money.

It is the same as API Algaefix. Not alleged, but proven in government filings. rtparty knows this, which is why he recommended API.

 

[JoJosReef]

There’s nothing alleged about it. The epa dealt with them. Anyone continuing to use Vibrant is basically saying it is ok to lie to reefers to make money.

It is the same as API Algaefix. Not alleged, but proven in government filings. rtparty knows this, which is why he recommended API.

Thanks for the clarification. I only followed some of the narrative, including the mass spec analysis (I think it was Taricha who posted).

Glad this has been dealt with.

 

[DanyL]

Think the reason I've not been seeing any results is because I've been running active carbon in my filter.

I'm going to try to pick off as much algae as I can this weekend and remove my carbon. I'll try dosing again after that.

That makes sense. As others mentioned - carbon absorbs it, so it is very likely the reason why you haven’t seen any change.

Manual removal is what I usually recommend for Valonia. Remove everything you can see and reach - and for hard to reach locations, use a long needle to puncture the bubble - this allows fish and CUC that doesn’t usually eat Valonia to munch on it (as the bubble itself serves as a defense mechanism, making it hard to eat for most fish/CUC).

Also, as others mentioned - Emrald crabs can sometimes work. I had bad luck with them personally, with 4 that barely touched it (and each costs around 70$ here, so it was a pricy investment that didn’t work out). However, I’ve found that some hermit crabs (which I can get for free), as well as sally lightfoot crab (semi reef safe), and Pitho crabs can be very effective too.

For fish, most tangs can be trained to eat Valonia if they aren’t already, simply tear a few bubbles and throw them back in like food. You can mix it with dry food too. After a few times they will learn that it is a food source and start munching it themselves from the rocks. It’s not a 100% guarantee, but has a high success rate in my experience. Once one tang is munching, the others are usually joining in too.

 

[Rollnwthdatide]

Think the reason I've not been seeing any results is because I've been running active carbon in my filter.

I'm going to try to pick off as much algae as I can this weekend and remove my carbon. I'll try dosing again after that.

Vibrant never works. I was one of the testers when they initially released and they sent me numerous bottles for free..did absolutely nothing.