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Bubble algae issues

jgraz

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
 
redfishbluefish

redfishbluefish

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
John, first thought...alk, calc and mag numbers. And are you dosing?

Second thought....your kid wouldn't have put "something" into the tank?

Third.....temperature....has the tank seen temperature swings?
 
jgraz

jgraz

redfishbluefish said:
John, first thought...alk, calc and mag numbers. And are you dosing?

Second thought....your kid wouldn't have put "something" into the tank?

Third.....temperature....has the tank seen temperature swings?
Click to expand...

Oops

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

He's always been good with the tank. About all I have ever seen him do is clean the glass. I did however ask if he put anything in there in including his hands. He said no and considering that this tank has been running healthy for a good bit of time I'm inclined to believe him.
 
MatteZ

MatteZ

The only problem with he crabs is that they do eat the bubbles but when they do they pop them releasing the spores.
 
Sobo's Reef

Sobo's Reef

I'm battling bubble algae in my 90 as well. Was doing really good for awhile but now its back :/ I've learned that less light works for longer periods but don't completely listen to me bc I still have it lol
 
dppitone

dppitone

That's very concerning about those corals going downhill quickly. The only thing that's changed is an increase in water changes, so my guess is that this increase is causing a problem for the corals. Many folks don't do significant water changes for this reason.
 
jgraz

jgraz

Well actually the other changes was the fact that a yr old sand bed getting completely stirred up and what appears to be a sudden increase and death there of of bubble algae.

I use the same water in my own reef and there have been no changes at all.

I'm leaning towards the sandbed as my root cause here. Thinking it lead to a increase in nutrients initially causing the increase in algae. Which in turn lead to me increasing WC lowering nutrients thus causing a death or possible asexual event of the algae thus polluting the water.

Make sense.
 
Chrisgarrick

Chrisgarrick

Just went through something similar. Had a sandbed disturbance (not my fault well ok my fault). Had a bloom but let a restabilization of the system clear most of it up. Upped my bio pellets and kept it clean as can be
 
redfishbluefish

redfishbluefish

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
So folks are pointing fingers at your increased water changes. Hmmmmmmmmm! Increased water changes will drop nutrient levels, which could lead to bubble algae starting to croak. That’s possible…but the corals now turning for the worse???

Out of curiosity, what salt are you using?
 
jgraz

jgraz

redfishbluefish said:
So folks are pointing fingers at your increased water changes. Hmmmmmmmmm! Increased water changes will drop nutrient levels, which could lead to bubble algae starting to croak. That’s possible…but the corals now turning for the worse???

Out of curiosity, what salt are you using?
Click to expand...

Using reef crystals.

Remember though this is only occurring in the nano and ATM only to the acan(which are gone) orange cap and a orange digi. All others look great. And increased WC's in my 90 which started with the takedown of the Biopellets has only resulted in the tank looking great.

That said I will double-check my saltwater this weekend and since I work out of a 200gal box and only use a bag at a time I think I'll toss that as well. I was planning on upgrading this tank anyway. So now it looks as though it just might come sooner then later.
 
Zippy69

Zippy69

I use reef crystals and the alk is quite high in the most recent batch....12. As a result my DT is fine( 70 gal) system and the 40 frag is hurting with stn from the swing.
 
Cdiggy

Cdiggy

I find when I have algae blooms my skimmer is the reason why. My skimmer has a tendency to clog at the Venturi because I don't have a sock before water goes onto the sump. Once I clean the algae crashes within 1 to 2 days.
 
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