Any tips on removal? It's on the biggest rock in the tank.
gunna be alot of opinions on this. it comes from phosphates leaching out of the rock. no matter if you use dry or live there is phosphate in the rock.
now on to what everyone will probably jump on me for. (some) ppl claim that if you bust bubble algae in a tank it will spread and cause a mass invasion of the stuff i find this not to be true and when i find one show up i just pick it off if it happens to bust o well no biggie.
what i find is that if you dont pick it off they will just keep multiplying and create a huge mass of very small one that then separate and then float around the tank get stuck in rock crevices and then thats how they spread
with that said thats just my opinion and some will not agree
That about says it...maybe one or two other things...
First, it pays to be a little Zen about your algae...a little isn't a bad thing. In fact it can be quite beneficial...especially when you consider that the presence of the algae you have (kinda nice looking, clustering, red bubble algae) will do a LOT to obscure any other types from getting a (better) foothold in your tank. Most other algae are super ugly and a huge nuisance. Bubble algae is not ordinarily like that. In fact I have an old Baench Marine Atlas that talks of bubble algae as a "jewel of the reef" and it was considered a desirable algae.
Having said that, the presence of any algae indicates that things
may be slightly out of balance in your reef. If your bubble colonies
don't grow much, or spread (
likely if your tank is relatively clean and balanced) I wouldn't do a thing about them. I wouldn't even add a clean up critter. I have actually
enjoyed all of the few bubble algae I've had grow in my tanks. One (unitary colony) got as large as a ping-pong ball and actually had significant coraline algae growing on it....which continued growing long after the bubble was gone. How cool!! (I've got a photo or two of that around here somewhere...)
If, on the other hand, you continue to notice new colonies, or that the colonies you have continue to grow in size (which if conditions are right, they will do one or both whether you squish them, remove them or not...remember they appeared out of nowhere)...you know there's a balance issue that needs correcting.
There are a host of possible explanations if you find yourself in this boat, but in no particular order the most likely are low or swinging alkalinity (dose as-needed or daily to 11 dKH, 4 meq/L), and/or over stocking of the tank, and/or overfeeding the tank. Some of these even go hand-in hand and compound each other as problems, so make sure none of these are factors in your system.
People have mentioned dusting your rocks...another thing to look at is your sand bed. Swirl around and dig up some sand at various places in the tank, especially around the bases of rocks and under flow pumps. If you find much or even any detritus, get out your gravel vac at minimum...or do what I'd probably do and just siphon out all the sand in the area(s) that appear dirty. If the whole sand bed seemed dirty by this test, I'd suck out the whole sand bed. This also makes a good time to swish off your rocks if they are coated in any detritus. If you do find yourself wanting to remove significant portions of the bed, do it gradually over a few days' or weeks' time to allow your biofiltration (live rock, etc) to rebuild and compensate as you go. Replacing the sand bed is optional, but relatively inexpensive to do.
During this whole process, you have to figure out how to fix what led to the sand bed fouling - whether over-feeding, or whatever you find - or the same problems will crop up again or elsewhere in the system if you don't install a new sand bed.
Hope this helps! :-)
-Matt
