Moving stock problems

[asylumdown]

There are a bunch of different species of bubble algae, and it's the one thing I have yet to find a silver bullet solution to. It seems that these days there's either a guaranteed predator (if your tank is large enough) or a chemical treatment for every single kind of aquarium pest except bubble algae (and hydroids).

I've got it in my tank. It's grown when my tank's nutrients have been on the high side, it's grown when it's nutrients have been so low my corals go in to suspended animation, it grows where there's lots of light, and it grows where there's almost no light at all. I've got bubbles that reach the size of mandarine oranges underneath my rocks in the caves my fish sleep in at night, and popping corals off of rocks from underneath the epoxy.

This is one of those things that you can only get if you introduce it to your tank. It doesn't matter what your nutrient profile is, if you don't import it, you will never have it. I introduced mine as two tiny little balls on the exposed skeleton of a frag of frogspawn, and I don't think my tank will ever be free of it.

If you really don't want it in the new tank, I think you only have one option - don't put anything with bubble algae on it in the new tank. Otherwise you will almost certainly get it, and whether or not it becomes a persistent problem in the new setup will depend more on luck than anything else.

If it were me, and I was very attached to the clams that it's growing on, I would take the clams out of the water, annoy them until they sealed themselves up tight, take a fine pick/point tool (the kind you get in a frag kit) and scrape the h*ll out of the shell ridges, then VERY carefully, with a fine paintbrush clean the outside of the shell with a dilute bleach solution, being extra, super duper careful to not get any bleach on the foot. Then I'd put them in a QT tank for a couple of months to make sure I got it all. Anything else, (rock or easily replaceable LPS) I'd either toss, sell, bleach or frag to the point where no exposed skeleton was left.

If you hate bubble algae enough for it to make your break down a tank and leave the hobby, I don't think any piece of livestock you currently own is worth risking bringing it in to the new tank. It's almost better to start over completely than risk it IMO. I know I've said it a million times, but you can't have a problem with problem algae, unless you have a problem algae.

I wouldn't take anything but my SPS fragged off their bases from this tank to my next one because of this very same problem.

[Doug]

Originally Posted by Reef Pilot

While still being hesitant to draw any clear conclusions, here is what I have observed with my bubble algae (and other algae). I've had it, went away, and then it came back.

My main DT tank (10+ year running) was initially full of bubble algae (and many other nutrient related pests). I eventually got the nutrients under control, and when the phosphates reached zero (Hanna checker), the hair algae let go, and the bubble algae disappeared. So, removing P04 definitely seemed to make a difference. I should mention here that the colour chart phosphate P04 test kits read zero long before the Hanna checker. You need the latter, before you know for sure your phosphates are fully under control.

I should mention, too, that at the same time, I had set up a 2nd tank downstairs using 1/2 the live rock and sand from the initial nutrient laden upstairs DT. But since I only have 1 GFO reactor (being used for the upstairs DT), high phosphates (>1.0) remained in this tank. But what was interesting, I did not have a bubble algae or HA algae problem in this tank, despite the high P04. However, it may also be because I had a Kole Tang and Foxface in this tank,... more on that later.

Then this past summer, I had to combine sumps because I only had one chiller, so my upstairs tank now had higher P04 water again, too. It did not take long at all, probably within a couple weeks, when algae returned with a vengeance to my recently pristine upstairs tank. And bubble algae started to appear again. But my downstairs tank remained the same, with no algae.

With frequent GFO changes (and using Foz Down) my P04 eventually came down to below 0.10, but not consistently zero like before. However, the algae and bubble coral persisted, but only in the upstairs tank, despite both running off the same sump and water.

Not long ago, I moved my Kole tang to my upstairs tank, and within days, he cleaned up most of my film and glass algae, but not the HA or bubble algae. And since that move, I have started to see algae appearing on the back glass of my downstairs tank. But still no bubble algae.

Meanwhile, my upstairs tank continues to gradually improve with less algae. I give the Kole tang a lot of credit for that. But I think the lower P04 is also helping. It is still not zero though, like I had it before. But I expect to get there in the next month or so, and see what happens then.

So what does all this mean? I think there is no doubt that P04 contributes to algae problems including bubble algae. But the P04 needs to be right down to zero (as read by the Hanna checker) before the algae is completely defeated. However, that doesn't explain why my previously high P04 laden downstairs tank didn't have the algae problem. I think perhaps the Foxface might have something to do with that, and maybe he eats the bubble algae. And there is no doubt the Kole tang helped keep it clear of the regular algae.

Needless to say, I am trying to get another Kole tang. Have been looking for a while, but all the LFS's seem to be out of stock for now.

Having said all that, I don't think these observations or results are necessarily conclusive, and am still waiting to see what happens in a few months. Hopefully when my P04 consistently stays at zero, my bubble algae will also disappear again.

Thanks for the reply. I only use a Salifert kit ,so cant be sure mine is close to zero. I do run gfo aggressive, so much so at times I can tell by my green/purple cap loosing colour.
As the next poster says, nothing seems to help at times.

Originally Posted by asylumdown

There are a bunch of different species of bubble algae, and it's the one thing I have yet to find a silver bullet solution to. It seems that these days there's either a guaranteed predator (if your tank is large enough) or a chemical treatment for every single kind of aquarium pest except bubble algae (and hydroids).

I've got it in my tank. It's grown when my tank's nutrients have been on the high side, it's grown when it's nutrients have been so low my corals go in to suspended animation, it grows where there's lots of light, and it grows where there's almost no light at all. I've got bubbles that reach the size of mandarine oranges underneath my rocks in the caves my fish sleep in at night, and popping corals off of rocks from underneath the epoxy.

This is one of those things that you can only get if you introduce it to your tank. It doesn't matter what your nutrient profile is, if you don't import it, you will never have it. I introduced mine as two tiny little balls on the exposed skeleton of a frag of frogspawn, and I don't think my tank will ever be free of it.

If you really don't want it in the new tank, I think you only have one option - don't put anything with bubble algae on it in the new tank. Otherwise you will almost certainly get it, and whether or not it becomes a persistent problem in the new setup will depend more on luck than anything else.

If it were me, and I was very attached to the clams that it's growing on, I would take the clams out of the water, annoy them until they sealed themselves up tight, take a fine pick/point tool (the kind you get in a frag kit) and scrape the h*ll out of the shell ridges, then VERY carefully, with a fine paintbrush clean the outside of the shell with a dilute bleach solution, being extra, super duper careful to not get any bleach on the foot. Then I'd put them in a QT tank for a couple of months to make sure I got it all. Anything else, (rock or easily replaceable LPS) I'd either toss, sell, bleach or frag to the point where no exposed skeleton was left.

If you hate bubble algae enough for it to make your break down a tank and leave the hobby, I don't think any piece of livestock you currently own is worth risking bringing it in to the new tank. It's almost better to start over completely than risk it IMO. I know I've said it a million times, but you can't have a problem with problem algae, unless you have a problem algae.

I wouldn't take anything but my SPS fragged off their bases from this tank to my next one because of this very same problem.

I could not have said it better myself. And yes, mine was an import on frags also. Still debating on which to transfer and although I kind of agree with Brad, Im leaning in your direction, as I cant fight it again. Especially in the larger tank with all Pukani, which the bubble algae just loves to infest.

If some starts somehow, so be it. I cant try stop it before it gets going perhaps but at least I have tried to not import any. I have been cycling the Pukani, plus branching and Fifi, to either go in the refugium or sell. None of my current rock will go in. The coralline covered bottle I have was a gift from a friend and has been in my tanks for about 15yrs. so going to be sad to not keep it to.