Sick Bubble Coral

gomrjoe

gomrjoe

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May 22, 2006
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Miami, FL.
I recently had a hair algae bloom, phosphates and dead light bulbs were the culprits. Anyways, the hair algea got pretty bad. I still have a fair amount in my tank, but it does not appear to be spreading like it used to. I killed the phosphate problem and replaced the bulbs already.

My Bubble coral has not opened up much in the last 3 weeks, in fact, it barely opens up anymore, just partially, and for a couple of hours a day, tops. It has some hair algae attached to it, I am wondering how aggressive I can get with riding the remaining algae from my tank.

Questions:
1. How aggressive can I get with the bubble coral, in removing the hair algae that is attached to its skeleton? Toothbrush? Help here please...
2. Should I attempt to remove the remaining hair algae, or should I let it die off?
3. How can I get my bubble coral healthy again?

As I mentioned, algae appears to have slowed down or stopped, hermits are starting to at least keep up with it again.

Any help would be appreciated.
 
are u sure it's hair algae on your bubble, because if there is an infection it will look loke hair algae
 
Great question, I did not think of that. I will try and upload a pic of it this evening or tomorrow. But here is how I would describe it.

There is clearly hair algae on the rock that hosts the bubble, no doubt about that. There is even som on a couple of the portruding 'wings' of the bubbles exoskeleton. On many of the other 'wings' of the exoskeleton, the white part has turned a dark green and is growing small fillaments of what I believe to be hair algae.

I have not tried removing any of the hair algae from the exoskeleton as yet, I was going to start that tonight.

Can I take the piece out of the water and clean it that way, or do I have to leave the coral in the water and remove as much as I can?
 
just remove what u can for now, but it will come back fast. just keep on working on getting rid of algae from your fish tank, because they say that once the algae starts growing on bubble coral skeleton, it's very bad for the bubble coral.
 
Well, I have been cleaning algae from my tank all weekend, in spurts. I have cleaned out about 2/3 of the algae. I also payed special attention to my bubble. I cleaned it carefully as best I could. It still looks bad, and is opening up very little.

What is annoying is my cleanup crew. It seems like they avoid the rocks that still have hair algae growth on them, and they are having parties on the rock that I have recently cleaned up! Picture 20 some odd blue leg crabs having a convention on a single piece of rock! that is what it feels like anyways. Once I clean the rest of the rock, my cleanup crew should be able to keep up with it again, although I want to get some more blue leg hermits, I have 35 now.

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100 gal tank, 3.8 wpg pc lighting
35 gal wet/dry/sump
Protein Skimmer
UV Sterilizer
2-3 dsb
mated pair perc clowns
1 yellow tang
1 pac blue tang
1 coral beauty
1 diamond watchman goby
3 reef chromis
3 spotted cardinal fish
current cleanup crew: 15 turbos, 35 blue leg hermits
Inverts: star polyp, yellow colony polyp, bubble coral, pulsing xenia
purple tip haitain anemone
 
what exactly do u do to get rid of hair algae besides removing it by hand? like some sort of preventive measures.
 
hair algae = phosphate. Other than phosphate, high silicate and nitrate will promote algae growth.

Solution :
1. Change water with RO/DI source.
2. Apply high quality(iron based) phosphate remover eg. Purephos, Rowa and etc.
3. To completely kill those hair algae, either cook ur LR or shutdown light completely for 1 week. Algae will died off due lack of foods.
4. Get algae eater such as Blue leg hermit crab, foxface, tang(to nip small tiny algae),sea urchin and other algae eater.
5. Increase water flow to prevent dead spot inside your tank so that algae will not attack those LR.
6. For future guarantee, you may apply Algone into your sump to absorb NO3 (efficient when ur current NO3 level <20ppm) and prevent other bad algae grow.

Hope it's help.
 
You should also approach this problem from another angle by ensuring that the bubble is as healthy as possible by feeding regularly with mysis, chopped shrimp/scallops/clams and other meaty food.

Ensure that there is enough light and that flow is present but not too much.
 
I am with you on the feeding of the bubble, I have read that before, but does anyone have first hand experience on this? I had never fed the bubble in the past.

I have Cyclops Eeze, I will start feeding it and see if it can come back, but at this point, I think it may be hopeless, it never opens up anymore. :(

How often should I feed it, and how do I know if it is really eating?>
 
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