New to reef tanks
 

I have been talking about wanting salt water fish for a long time. After alot of research my wife got me a 125g tank for christmas. So I proceeded to setting it up with most of the trimmings. Sump, fuge, skimmer, metal halide lighting, overflow box, live rock, base rock and ro unit. Well the tank went through the first couple of months no problems, so I added a hippo tang. He was the reason for the 125g in the first place. He has been in the tank for about 4 months now doing great (grew about an inch). Around the 3rd month came the algea problems. I now face a huge tank full of bubble algea. No sign of any other kind, just bubbles everywhere. So after alot of reading and long nights of trying to manually remove them (I can take out nets full of the stuff from the bottom), I deceided to try some crabs. I have recently gotten 6 emerald crabs. The crabs have been going at it for about a month now. I can see some rocks that I could not before but not the light at the other end of the tunnel. I have reduced feedings from 3 times a day to twice a day. What is causing these bubbles? Could it be my lighting? Please advise.

Welcome to the Board :n00b:
Feeding 3 times a day... :eek: I also have a 125 with a hipo in it. I only feed my fish once every 2 days and have no problem. This allows my tangs to be tangs and actualy be forced to eat any algea in the tank. All my fish are very healthy and are nice and fat. I would cut right back on feeding.I think that may be the largest problem you have in my opinion. What are your levels at?

Thanks
Rob

definitely agree... 3 times a day, you mad man! :lol: hehe

definitely cut down those feedings man... haha once every two days sounds good to me too.

smallllllllll portions too, dont overfeed!!! it is MUCH better to UNDERfeed than to OVERfeed... just to clarify.

get back to us with those paramaters, nitrates, phosphates if you can, nitrite, ammonia, all that fun stuff

I have had bubble algae in my old 42g hex that I kept trying to scrape off that only got worse with each scraping :eek: :evil: I tried an emerald crab that forgot about the bubble algae and began eating coralline algae and then my galaxea :confused: It got so bad that I eventually tore down the tank, boiled each rock for 3-4 minutes, the cured the rock again and used it as baserock in a larger tank.

I admit, those were drastic measures. Since your emerald crabs are doing a good job so far, though not good enough, I would get a half dozen more to see what they can do for you.

Dang, sounds terrible :eek: Good luck :smile:

As far as paramaters go, yesterdays test results were:
Ammonia 0ppm
Nitrites 0ppm
Nitrates 10ppm
Phosphates 0ppm
Alk 8.0
Ca 380
SG 1.024
Temp 81F

Here are a couple of pictures to give you an idea of how bad it is. I even have bubbles in my deep sand bed.

http://www.canreef.com/photopost/dat...ubble3-med.jpg

http://www.canreef.com/photopost/dat...ubble2-med.jpg

http://www.canreef.com/photopost/dat...ubble1-med.jpg

http://www.canreef.com/photopost/dat...ubble4-med.jpg

take out everyting after the .jpg and your images will work.

holy jebus thats a lot of bubble algae!

You only saw about half of it. lol

Man, that's BAD :eek:

I hope someone else has a solution for you other than the rock boiling I did :eek:

:eek:
I would say the only way to get rid of that is a tear down and a good hard scrubbing with a nail brush

Been there, done that, got tons more valonia :eek:

its almost pretty :biggrin:

Thats what people that come in and don't know anything say. I guess its a good thing, I get to show off and say they are priceless and hard to grow. lol

Welcome to Canreef! :biggrin:

Well I'll say, "it could be worse" :razz:

Cut down on the feedings. Manual removal if possible and good luck!

Christy :)

yeah im not sure how worse off a position he could be in so it might get him over the hump so the emeralds can stay ontop of it.

also you might consider using some rowphos or phosban to help cut down on the food the algae is getting. the reason your test kit is saying 0 phosphates is because your valonia is using it all up. also if you dont have a fuge consider getting one, macros will also help starve off the bubbles food source and help kill of your remaining nitrates.

yeah and as said feed way less!

gah, that is unreal.. personaly, I would boil it.. thats just crazy.

Either that or add a ton of other macro algae and remove as much of the bubble algae as you can.

Test your water sources also, the reason for your good levels is because that bubble algae is eating it all up. Do you use straight tap water or do you have an RO/DI?

Can stop feeding so much, a huge part of your problem for sure.


gah, what willow said :)

I do have a fuge, its about 15g with cheato and some red hair algea. The cheato is growing to be preaty big. I use only RO water for top ups and water changes. I guess I chould get one of them meater to check the water comming out of my RO unit.

If it were me I'd make my whole tank a fuge for a month or so.. just get lots of macro algae in there... except calurpa (sp)

do you have a tds reading of your source water? where abouts do you live?

reply
 

First of all Scott said:Thats so wrong its almost funny. Its not better to starve your fish.

Secondly, WOW :eek: I've never seen that many bubbles outside of my kitchen sink! If you are feeling adventurous you could get yourself about three or four buckets of RO ready, and take a Saturday afternoon to scrub them outside of your tank. If you scrub in one bucket, rinse in the next and so on you'll give yourself and your crabs a head start on it.

Did you pop many of those bubbles when you first started to see them in your tank? Thats a sure fire way to spread them.

Re: reply
 

Sorry Danny thats a Myth. :neutral:

I dont think it a myth....... I believe by popping them it would somewhat equates to spawning. The liquid inside is not clear but is thick and some what green.

How do you think an Emerald Crab eats them... they don't swallow them whole thats for sure. :razz:

No... but they do pop them and eat the skin, therefore releasing the liquid into the water colum

Really, it is a myth.....

I have had a few before (2 or 3) and I popped them and removed what I could. I have never seen any since. :cool:

It started as a couple on a single rock and next thing you know bam, the tank was full of them. I don't have a tds meter to take a reading, will look into buying one soon. I myself never poped any inside the tank, but they pop when thay get big and they do get big. The crabs don't pop or eat any of the big ones, it seams they just like the ones starting out. Would it be a good idea to get another half dozen crabs to bost my total count to 12.

reply
 

Not as mythical as you'd think.

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-02/hcj/feature/

Do you have a good skimmer Gringos?

Thanks Danny. I was starting to think I was making it up :biggrin: Nice try boys :biggrin:

Wholy bubbles batman, i think theres only a few solutions for tha depending on how much time you have. You could take out all the rock scrub and do a dip in really hot water to take care of any spores or you could shut down the lights compleatly on the main tank for a long time and leave the lights on the fuge. This will stop the bubble algea but it will take a while.

or just nuke the rocks.. boil and burn :) lol

that'll get rid of em.. nasty.. Never seen it so bad before.

Danny as far as the skimmer goes, I have one if it is good I do not know. It is a diy ventury style. It is powered by a quietone. The collection cup holds about 2 1/2 cups and I pull out a full one a week and it is dark skimmate.

I guess I could do a lights out kind of thing, but wont the bubbles come back when I bring my lights back on. Could my broblem be nutrients. I do a 5g water change every 2 days. It might not have been enough with all that feeding.

I don't realy want to go the nuking way. I would have to remove all the rock and need temporary housing for my fish.

Having had a look at the pics and thinking about the enormity of the problem, adding a few more emeralds isn't going to do much :sad:

If this was my tank here is what I would do:

- remove half the rock from your infested system, boil each piece for 3-4 minutes, then put in a curing tank with tapwater (no dechlorinator) with a spare or new powerhead for a week. This should kill EVERYTHING :evil: DO NOT USE any powerheads or heaters from the infested system during the curing tank.

- after a week, remove the tapwater and replace with new saltwater. DO NOT USE WATER FROM YOUR MAIN TANK :exclaim:

- To seed this now dead rock with bacteria, get some detritus from a friend's tank that has NO VALONIA ANYWHERE and spread all over your rock and let it re-cure. (Don't know your location, but if you are in Edmonton, PM me for detritus. I have lots :biggrin: )

Now comes the hard part:

- Once the rock has fully cured, set up a temporary tank for this rock and for your livestock. Acclimatize your livestock carefully, but ABSOLUTELY DO NOT use any water or equipment from the infested system in the temporary tank.

- Frag any corals that have valonia on their bases. This is going to be very tricky because you want the frags, but you don't want ANY WATER from the valonia infested system. I'd suggest rinsing the frags several times in clean batches of new saltwater. You ABSOLUTELY DO NOT want any possible contamination from the infested tank going into your temporary tank with your frags.

- Remove the last half of the rock in the infested system, boil it and go through the same procedure as you did with the first half of the rock.

- Tear down your infested system completely.

- Remove and discard any sand, macroalgae or other living thing not necessary in your temporary tank from your infested system.

- Scrape off the walls of the display tank, and sump/refug if you have them, then rinse the system well with tapwater. Siphon out the remaining crud from the bottom of your tank(s). By the time you are finished, your system should look like new :biggrin:

- Fill the now clean tank with tapwater and run for at least a week. Two weeks would be better. If you want, add a little bleach. Bleach is a better disinfectant than tapwater and you can use dechlorinator to nuetralize the bleach when you are finished.

- Powerheads, heaters and other equipment used in the infested system should be broken down to their basic components and soaked for a day or two in vinegar. After it has soaked, scrub all coralline and other algae from each component. Rinse well, or soak for a day, in tapwater, then put the powerheads and other equipment back together. They are now suitable for use in your cleaned up system.

- Drain the system of tapwater. You may want to let it sit dry until the second half of your rock has fully cured, or you can set it up and put your livestock in it.

Above all, TAKE YOUR TIME and make sure your system is thoroughly clean before setting it back up.

I realize this is a very drastic way of getting your tank back so it does not have valonia in it. However, the pics you've posted depict a drastic situation and only methodical, thorough cleaning will help you in the long run.

I hope these suggestions are helpful to you. Let us know what you decide to do :smile: The very best of luck to you :smile:

Thats sounds like a shure way of iradicating my bubble algea. But some of my rock has very nice yellow, blue, orange and grey sponges. I would hate to loose those...

boiling your rock will kill all life on it. it will no longer be live rock but baserock.

Thanks for all the advice it is apreciated. I will give the existing crabs a chance because I have been seeing improvement over the last couple days. And the way things are now, it can't realy get worse than it already is. I will post some curent pictures this week-end.

Here is an idea of how big they get.

http://www.canreef.com/photopost/dat...bubble-med.jpg

I have had it bad too my friend , in my 280 gal one of the reason's i tokk it down. I cleaned it and stuck it in the 75 gal for my sps and it still came back what i did was dried it out for 9months when me and my wife was separated ,and now its all gone..


mike

Well about a week has passed since I reduced to a single feeding a day. My tangs (hippo and yellow) both started to nip at the bubble algea. Not just little bites either, my hippo often turns around with a bunch of bubbles sticking out of his mouth. I guess withough the food from me they are doing what tangs do best.

Valonia is a harmless algae and easy to remove. just pull out the larger ones. I went on a poping rampage and eventualy got mine under control, its hard to find one now with the help of two emerald crabs, I take care of the big ones they take care of the baby ones.

Steve