Bubble algae

[7faces]

My tanks been up just over a month, I dont even have fish yet, but i already have bubble algae comming in...:mad2:
My brown diatom bloom started last week, and seems to be subsiding..
I fired up my metal halides this weekend, and i dont know if that made them pop up, or if i was just able to see them better afterwards:confused:
my water test showed
0 amm,
0 trite,
25 trate...
phosphates were .4, (i plan on running phosban once the sump is running)
How do i get rid of this stuff?
fish that eat it?
crabs that eat it?
or just take out any rock with it on it, and pick it off? (id hate to kill my zoanthids my messing with the rock they are on)
or will it just go away once i get my phosphate in check?

I was prepared for the brown diatom, even the greeen hair...heck..id take my chances with the cyano...but this is one algae i did not want to get!..:wall:
its ugly and i want it gone quick, before it gets out of controll!!!:help:

[7faces]

Oh, come on!...someones gotta have more expierience with this stuff than I do..(NONE) I dont want to start this thing out with an plague epidemic, so I'd like to know how to stop it before it gets bad!
ANY help, opinions, or advise is greatly appreciated!

[skippy2]

Emarld crabs are reported to eat it but that is really just a hit or miss. You could gently pry the bubbles off. I had an infestation and all I did was manual removal. I still get bubble algae popping up once and awhile but don't consider it a big deal as long as I stay on top of it.

[BToast]

You can remove them by hand, just don't pop them. Once your tank balances out they won't be an issue.

[Catpicklesdog]

Agreed. I am currently going through a bad patch of bubble algae (as well as hair and cyano) due to high phosphates and nitrates. I've been running Rowaphos for a week and already all the algae is starting to dissipate. I have 2 emerald crabs but have to admit I haven't seen them for ages and am not convinced they were of any use:grinyes:

[Andrew7769]

lol lazy inverts, it so hard to find good help these days.

[7faces]

So if I bring the phosphates and nitrates down, that might get rif of it?

[Catpicklesdog]

Certainly seems to be working on mine. I did have one last year that was the size of a large marble which disappeared. Don't know if it was the emeralds or the tank conditions.

[jencheung]

I had all of the same questions as you about a week ago when I saw that some had come in on a clove polyp rock I'd added. I've heard that the risk with emerald crabs is that when they get a little bigger they'll often start picking at some of the more desirable things you have, like your zoos. What I ended up doing was during a water change I took the rock out of the tank, put it in the bucket and gently pried off the bubbles off with a tiny pair of scissors (that way if they popped it wasn't in the tank, but I didn't have the polyps out of water for more than a couple of seconds). I took off a little bit of the rock at the base of the bubble too just to be sure. They came off pretty easily and actually didn't even end up popping. Of course water conditions are the long term solution, but for aesthetic purposes if you want to get rid of them now, that's how I did it. Hope that helps!

[7faces]

Great!...Thanks for the help...
I just hooked up my sump, and added about 30 gallons of new water...still need another 30 or so tomorrow...
then ill aquascape this weekend hopefully, and ill pick em off then...
so between the manual removal, and better water, hopefully they will go away