What's is this?

[Surfside74]

Okay. I have battling this type of algae for the last few months. I have a 60 gallon tank with a skimmer and I do a 10 gallon a week water change. I get this green algae with little air bubbles in it that looks almost like green cyano. I blow it off of the turkey baster on water change day and it comes right off (almost looks like nori or sea veggies) and I suck as much as I can out but yet it comes back. My fish get fed with an auto feeder set at the lowest setting just one time a day and I feed once a week with some Reef roids made into a paste and given to the corals. Also every now and then I add a little bit of rods food in. Have a lot of corals in the tank but only two fish some shrimp and crabs. My po4 is. 08 and my nitrates are around 1ppm. Does anyone know what type of algae this is and how to get rid of it for good? The last picture is a few hours after a water change as it starts to come back. Thanks

 

[chowwil]

How old is your tank. It looks like the tank is still cycling.

 

[Surfside74]

Been set up for years. This just started around November. I added about a month or so ago some mangroves in the overflow for absorption but now kind of thinking I am running tank to clean. I went from running bi weekly water changes to weekly ones around that time when it started. I am using red sea coral pro salt and have been since the start so that is not the issue. Not sure what is going on but I cant seem to get rid of it.

 

[Surfside74]

It does not have branches from what I can see so not thinking dinos

 

[Mikedawg]

Looks like bubble algae; emerald crabs are supposed to eat it.

 

[Danh Ngo]

Looks like bubble algae; emerald crabs are supposed to eat it.

+1 bubble algea, careful when trying to remove them

 

[Danh Ngo]

This is what I have done
- remove this by hand as much as possible, not to break the bubble. If you pop it, algae will spread even worse.
- use a rigid tubing, connect to an airline, siphon like doing water change, then break the bubble (only those that cannot remove by hand)
- checking for nutrient level in tank, try to lower slowly if nutrient is too high.
- adding some Emerald Crab, they love bubble algae, I add 2 for a 20G tank, and never see bubble algae again. However crab is just a control method, manually remove is the best way.
Also, people have found success with Hydrogen Peroxide, but not for me.

 

[Jeepj667]

This is not bubble algae. It has air bubbles under the algae. I have been battling this too.

 

[Danh Ngo]

This is not bubble algae. It has air bubbles under the algae. I have been battling this too.

What do you mean Air bubble under algae

 

[Surfside74]

What do you mean Air bubble under algae

Ok. It is not bubble algae. I know what that stuff is and i do have an emerald crab already in there already. Like said above, it is green algae with what looks like air bubbles underneath it. After a water change, the air bubbles are first to appear then the algae starts to grow over it again. It is green like cyano and wont go away. I have done water changes, added mangroves, etc...and it still comes back. I have never seen this stuff and so far no one has been able to tell me what it is or how to fix it.

 

[AdamPhe]

I had the same stuff in my tank. Don’t know what it is but I increased and changed the direction of flow and that got rid of it.

 

[rkpetersen]

Definitely not bubble algae like valonia; there are no individual bubbles. Likely a blue-green form of cyanobacteria, as you've already guessed. (That is where the name of the phylum comes from, although most that we see is reddish.) The way it grows in mats with entrapped oxygen is typical. Would need to put it under a microscope to be sure. Increase water flow across the rocks and/or sand where it's growing, stop any amino acid or carbon supplements for now, keep doing water changes with siphoning, should vanish pretty quickly I'd think.

 

[Danh Ngo]

Ok. It is not bubble algae. I know what that stuff is and i do have an emerald crab already in there already. Like said above, it is green algae with what looks like air bubbles underneath it. After a water change, the air bubbles are first to appear then the algae starts to grow over it again. It is green like cyano and wont go away. I have done water changes, added mangroves, etc...and it still comes back. I have never seen this stuff and so far no one has been able to tell me what it is or how to fix it.

Okay, do you have any clearer picture of that

 

[Surfside74]

Definitely not bubble algae like valonia; there are no individual bubbles. Likely a blue-green form of cyanobacteria, as you've already guessed. (That is where the name of the phylum comes from, although most that we see is reddish.) The way it grows in mats with entrapped oxygen is typical. Would need to put it under a microscope to be sure. Increase water flow across the rocks and/or sand where it's growing, stop any amino acid or carbon supplements for now, keep doing water changes with siphoning, should vanish pretty quickly I'd think.

I have 2 mp10 running in the tank. Not sure how i can increase it anymore. I dont dose except for once a week with cal and alk when do water change. Ive been doing water changes of 10 gallons a week. Kind of confused on it

 

[Surfside74]

I just moved my mp10 in a little closer to the rock to see how that goes. Any other ideas?

 

[Surfside74]

Okay, do you have any clearer picture of that

Not right now. Just previously posted pics

 

[Surfside74]

This is not bubble algae. It has air bubbles under the algae. I have been battling this too.

Any success in getting rid of it?

 

[rkpetersen]

I'd keep doing what you're doing. Have you tried the toothbrush attached to the end of a hose trick? Scrub the rocks a bit underwater and siphon up all the loose algae.

 

[Ubergroover]

Looks like bubble algae; emerald crabs are supposed to eat it.

works..that is GBA and when I had it the emerald crab did its job...

 

[aquatony]

Looks like something a crab could no way keep up with.