Red Valonia cure?

[Yash]

Hey everyone,

Looks like I have a pretty bad problem of Red Valonia in my tank! HERE is a picture of the problem. Its in different areas of my tank.

I thought I might post this here to get advice on cures, what to do, what not to do etc etc.

About the only think I know is not to pop them else the spores will spread all over the tank. I tried to pick one off but it seems to be attached to the rock quite well. So, not sure if I should have a siphon in one hand next to it, and tug it out with the other hand, so that if it were to pop, the siphon might take most of the gunk out?

If anyone has dealt with this or other bubble algae before, I would love to hear about how you got rid of it.

Of course, I would like to get to the root of the problem as well, once I have removed the bulbs in the tank. Here are my latest water params:

Temp: 78-77
SG: 1.025
NO2: 0 ppm
Ammonia: 0 ppm
NO3: 10ppm
Alk: 8 dKH
CA: 380 ppm
Mg: 1250 ppm
Phosphate: 0

Is it excess nutrients that caused this outbreak or are there some other causes that I need to look at? I am extremely particular about routine tank maintenance so I don't believe it could be caused by neglect.

Thank in advance for the help!

Regards,
Yash

 

[clown-lover]

Well from what I understand there are two methods. One is hit and miss based simply on that the Emerald Crab may or may not eat the polyps of the valonia algae.

The other as you stated is difficult as they are securly attached to the rock work.

However this is what I did when I had a small outbreak from a frag that I received. I bought a curved handle set of tweezers made for scrap booking. You should be able to find them at a Michaels or Hobby Lobby. Make a container of saltwater that you would use for water changing. A couple of gallons should do but this will depend on the number of spores your dealing with. I had about 6 on a rock that was only about 2 lbs. Take the rock out of the water and to a sink. (You can expect some die off in this process but I placed the rock into my tank and didn't notice any ammonia spike). Grab the spore by the base with the tweezers and pull off the rock. Continue with each as needed. Then take the saltwater solution that you made and pour over the infected area to wash any possible residue from accidentally popped spores down the drain.

I had one more show up on another rock after that, but followed the same procedure and haven't seen any more in my tank since then.

hth.

 

[Yash]

Thanks for the info! Wow! Is there no way to do in "in-tank"? The reason being if I do need to take the rock out of the tank, I'm pretty much going to have to tear down the entire rock structure, and re-aquascape once finished, since a lot of the bulbs are on my base rock.

I'm sure this is the best way to ensure that the spores don't spread, but it will be quite a task to do that!

If that is my only option, I'm going to have lots more question on what to do with the fish etc ... put them in a QT etc cos I don't want them in the tank when I take everything out. I'd rather not stress then out while I take things apart. Besides, if pulling out the rocks if my only option, I might as well do a thorough cleanup of the back glass, sand etc (areas that I haven't been able to reach due to the LR placement).

Thanks again!
Yash

 

[clown-lover]

You can try it in tank Yash, but if you break the bulb then you'll have more to deal with.. Its your call honestly. But if the rock is that hard to get to, I guess I would try it in tank. My rock was easy and on top of the pile.

 

[Yash]

I'll try to get the ones up on the top of the structure and see how easily they come off. But honestly, as much work as it might involve, I'd rather do it once and do it well, as opposed to having to keep going in there to take stuff out.