Bubble Algae !!!!!!!!!! HELP

[ckeep24]

I have a 180 gallon twin overflow reef tank for over 3 yrs. never had a problem with bubble algae. I guess I picked it up on a coral purchase. Anyway it's taking over my system. It’s crazy. I took some pc’s out of the tank scrubbed them down back in the tank, 1 week later it’s got new bubbles all over it. I see them popping It’s spreading like wildfire. LFS says to put emerald crabs in they’ll fight over it. Well, I’ve had them (12) about a week now and their eating everything but the bubble algae. Is there some sort of dip for the rocks to get rid of it? Cause I’m to the point of drying the rocks out to kill the algae. Please HELP.
Chris

[vtec si]

Chris,

First off, WELCOME to REEFLAND!

Now for the BA. You said that you have 12 emerald crabs in your 180 and they have been in there a week and they have not touched the BA. Well this is normal for them not to touch it at first. The crabs will go after a lot of the other stuff first and a few weeks later when that runs out they will eat the BA! That is what happened in my 180 with 18 emerald crabs! Just remember to feed them after they do eat all the BA.

JMO and good luck,
Martin

[scubadude]

I took some pc’s out of the tank scrubbed them down back in the tank, 1 week later it’s got new bubbles all over it. I see them popping It’s spreading like wildfire.

Hi ckeep24

When you say pc's im assuming you mean bubble algae pieces? If you took the rock out of the tank and removed the bubble algae then scrubbed the rocks then chances are you busted a bubble or two and it spread the juices from within the bubble which is like a big mother algae releasing a ton of babies which during your scrubbing session could have very well pushed the babies into the porous holes inside the rocks thus protecting them. I know your effort was to eradicate them but it very well may have encouraged them. My approach to fix the situation would not only be the emerald crabs but a strict control of the water purity being used for topoff and/or water changes, making sure that you have very clean (low TDS readings) water as your source like RO or RO/DI would even be better. After doing a healthy water change or two with known good water I would probably upgrade my skimmer cleaning regimine and clean it more often. You could also try utilizing some other macro algaes that may help outcompete the nutrients in the water column, but here again that would not fix the source like the water purity issue. Hope that sheds some light on your issue