Bubble algae issues

[jgraz]

A little background first. In my sons 20gal reef I always had a but if bubble algae going, few bubbles here and there but always stayed light and never really saw any reason to be alarmed. The tank has been up for about a year and I normally did about a 5gal WC monthly. Yes I know it's not ideal but it's a lightly stocked tank and everything was going very well. About 2 months ago I bought him a pistol/goby pair and the pistol went right to work digging. Mind you it was a 1.5" sandbed relatively undisturbed prior to this. When I saw this I figured I would start up a more frequent WC. So for the past month and a half I've been doing a 5gal WC weekly. During this time I started to notice that the bubble algae started to flourish. It started popping up everywhere. All corals seemed to be responding well to the increased WC's though so I kept it up. During my most recent WC(Tuesday) I noticed that many of the bubbles had turned white and were popped/deflated. Though it was odd but again everything looked good. Yesterday morning I noticed that many more of the bubbles had the same white popped look, any many new bubbles had formed. Now I concerned. Last night I get home from from work And saw that a 10 head acan colony had literally died through the course of the day. And a good size colony of orange cap is now greyish in color. A couple of other montis also look off. The few acros and zoas he has are solid though.

So any thoughts here. I have heard that caulerpa can go sexual and pollute our systems. Can bubble algae do the same? Any thoughts on how to combat this. At this point I would clearly say it's an infestation.

The nano is outfitted as follows.
20gal high
10gal sump
4x24" T5 bulbs are under 6m old
2 o clowns
Royal gramma
Pistol/goby
Fire shrimp
Porcelain and Pom Pom crabs
Assorted snails

Any and all thought and solution are welcomed. Thanks in advance
John

 

[jgraz]

Forgot the parameters
ALK-7.6ish
CAL- 410
MAG-1350(its been a while since I checked this)
Phos- .05
Salinity-.025
Temps are usually solid. While I don't monitor when I do WC's I usually see 78* areas

 

[basiab]

Problem #1is a small tank with a high bio load. Weekly water changes a must and maybe you need a skimmer as well.
Problem #2. The mix of corals in such a small tank results in allelopathy. Try keeping only corals in the same family. That may be the cause of the loss of the Acan. Most everyone has had a coral suddenly die for 'no reason' but allelopathy is the most probable cause.
I have a 24 gallon and also have some bubble algae. I target one area of the tank and clean it out using a small nail scissor and try not to bust them. I have about 15 corals but all are LPS and half are Acans.

 

[jedimaster1138]

If you aren't already using carbon, I'd get some going immediately just in case something weird got into the tank and polluted it. Any work happening on your house? Painting? Construction? Even new air fresheners or something weird like that in the air?

Test ammonia too, odd as it sounds, or stick a badge in there...

Any chance your salt mix was new and possibly bad? Did you change brands or buckets? How about your (hopefully) RO/DI water...0 TDS coming out in the product water?

I've had bubble algae in all 3 of my tanks. It's the bane of my existence. I have, however, defeated it in my 10g nano thanks to a combination of manual removal and a fat emerald crab. My advice in dealing with it is to be proactive and keep at least one emerald around no matter what. Even if only one bubble is present, there will be more, might as well be ready.

I think in your case the bubble algae die off was actually a sign of something being off in the tank, and the bubble algae dying is acting like Paul Revere. When I switched from LED's (bad) to T5's (good) in my big 120g, the bubble algae took off like a rocket, and then my corals, especially acropora who hated the LED's but love the T5. I also have a sand sifting goby who stirs things up and makes a mess, and his addition also preceeded the bubble algae bloom and SPS coral happiness.

Anyway, I'm getting off topic. Something sounds off in your tank. Check your new water, RODI, carbon, etc... How's your nitrates?

OH you are doing bigger, more frequently water changes - is the new water temperature matched and salinity matched?

 

[jgraz]

If you aren't already using carbon, I'd get some going immediately just in case something weird got into the tank and polluted it. Any work happening on your house? Painting? Construction? Even new air fresheners or something weird like that in the air?

Test ammonia too, odd as it sounds, or stick a badge in there...

Any chance your salt mix was new and possibly bad? Did you change brands or buckets? How about your (hopefully) RO/DI water...0 TDS coming out in the product water?

I've had bubble algae in all 3 of my tanks. It's the bane of my existence. I have, however, defeated it in my 10g nano thanks to a combination of manual removal and a fat emerald crab. My advice in dealing with it is to be proactive and keep at least one emerald around no matter what. Even if only one bubble is present, there will be more, might as well be ready.

I think in your case the bubble algae die off was actually a sign of something being off in the tank, and the bubble algae dying is acting like Paul Revere. When I switched from LED's (bad) to T5's (good) in my big 120g, the bubble algae took off like a rocket, and then my corals, especially acropora who hated the LED's but love the T5. I also have a sand sifting goby who stirs things up and makes a mess, and his addition also preceeded the bubble algae bloom and SPS coral happiness.

Anyway, I'm getting off topic. Something sounds off in your tank. Check your new water, RODI, carbon, etc... How's your nitrates?

OH you are doing bigger, more frequently water changes - is the new water temperature matched and salinity matched?

Well I think you hit the nail on the head. I'm really thinking this is all a product of the shrimp digging up everything and balance going "off". I imagine a 1.5' sand bed at a yr. old suddenly getting tossed around probably released more then my WC's could keep up with. All my parameters are in check, Am-0, Nitrates-0 and so on. All the WC's are dead on match. I also have a 90 that is fine and use the same mix in there. I've been contemplating redoing the tank anyway so I think this just may be the thing that gets it going.

 

[piranhapat]

Other reason how they spread. If they pop the bubble algae will be all over. Try siphon as much as possible without popping them. Also keep nutrients down. Keep eye on phosphate too.

 

[cmantis]

Emerald Crab

 

[PhoenixOne]

Emerald Crab

They are hit or miss. I have a ton of bubble algae and I brought 6 for my 90 gallon. Not one of them touch the bubble algae.:banghead: As soon as I put them in my tank, 4 of them started humping. LOL One of them got HUGE. My wife calls him/her Hulk. They keep the rocks clean but totally ignore the bubbles.

 

[ReefDiver]

+1on the emerald crab. Good citizen after the bubbles are gone, too

 

[jackson6745]

Explain to me how emerald crabs don't pop the bubbles inside the tank? I tried them in the past with no success.

 

[jgraz]

No explain action needed. Will they eat it, maybe. When they do they are basically spreading the spores in the tank anyway.

Now yes I have a infestation of bubble algae, it quite literally came on in the last few weeks. Always under control before that. Here what I think happened.

Tank is nice and happy. Get pistol/goby and they go redecorating my till that day untouched for over a year 1.5"-2" sandbed. Excess nutrients released from the bed give rise to bubble algae explosion. I start increasing water changes to compensate. Nutrients lvl go way down and bubble algae begins to turn white and burst. Leading me to believe that it either goes asexual and poisons the tank, or dies and poisons the tank. This leads to the loss of my acan's and discolored orange cap and digi.

Does this make any sense?

Anyway I have been wanting to upgrade this tank for some time now and I think now would be the perfect time. Till then I'll just keep up with the WC's and get some carbon going.