Algae Bubbles

[deep6er]

I have 3 marble like algae bubbles in my tank what are they and are they good or bad?

[muck]

Valonia Algae (bubble algae)

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-02/hcj/feature/index.php

[Beverly]

Do NOT break the bubbles in your tank !!!! There is a good chance the valonia will release spores into your tank, and you will have a much worse problem in a month or two.

When we spot the odd valonia in any of our tanks, the rock comes out and we remove a small portion of the rock that the valonia is on with either a hammer and screwdriver (sometimes breaks the rock) or with wire cutters (sometimes takes a few tries to cut the rock loose around the valonia).

Do NOT let the valonia break while removing it with these two methods as possible spores will remain on your rock and spread throughout your tank anyway !!

[Xtasia]

I just take the rock out of the tank if possible, remove it by hand, then rinse the area with RO water.

[deep6er]

ok I have taken the rocks out, The bubbles were between some good zoo's so I could not hammer at it. What I did was I had 4 seperate bukets of salt water ( 2 from tank and 2 new, 2 gal in each) then I removed the bubbles in bucket #1 and made sure the were no skin left, I then rinsed it in the #2 then #3 and #4 then back in the tank. hopefully I did a good job rinsing it and it does not come back in full force.

Thanks all for your help.

[StirCrazy]

Do NOT break the bubbles in your tank !!!! There is a good chance the valonia will release spores into your tank, and you will have a much worse problem in a month or two.



Go ahead and break them as they are single cell algae and do not spread spors unless they are going sexual. there were wives tales going around that if you break them they will spread. this has been stated as false by a few bigger names except for the case of when they are turning sexual, but if they are hard this isn't the case.
At any rate I still try to remove them with out breaking them but I am only sucessfull about 50% of the time.

[Ruth]

From my reading the chances of them being sexual are very slim indead and as has been stated not when they are hard. I just wiggle it around and do try to get it out without breaking but I have had them break on me before without getting an invasion of bubbles showing up somewhere down the road. I probably take about 4 or 5 a month out of my large tank. I posted a link to some additional information on this a few months ago and will try and find it again.

[Beverly]

Go ahead and break them as they are single cell algae and do not spread spors unless they are going sexual. there were wives tales going around that if you break them they will spread.

No wive's tale in my case, even though I am a wife :razz: I did exactly what deep6er ended up doing - scraping all the empty shell off the rock, followed by several rinses. Over several months and several attempts to get rid of the valonia, with the stuff spreading more and more each time I disturbed it, I ended up boiling the whole lot of rock to get rid of this invasive pest. Luckily, the tank affected was only a 42g.

[Raf]

My yellow Tang actually takes care of them.

[deep6er]

Im a little scared about getting a yellow tang or for that mater any larger fish. I dont want them to pick at my corals.

Does anyone have a sugestions about what fish i could put in that are reef safe. Its a 33g tank with soft and hard corals

[Willow]

No wive's tale in my case, even though I am a wife :razz: I did exactly what deep6er ended up doing - scraping all the empty shell off the rock, followed by several rinses. Over several months and several attempts to get rid of the valonia, with the stuff spreading more and more each time I disturbed it, I ended up boiling the whole lot of rock to get rid of this invasive pest. Luckily, the tank affected was only a 42g.

so in fact not only did you kill the valonia but all the bacteria, pods and pretty much everything that makes "live" rock live then. what exactly was the point of adding live rock in the first place if you going to kill it making soup out of it?

[robzilla]

try getting an emerald crab


http://www.jlaquatics.com/phpstore/store_pages/details/janitors.php?product_ID=rc-emerald

[Beverly]

so in fact not only did you kill the valonia but all the bacteria, pods and pretty much everything that makes "live" rock live then. what exactly was the point of adding live rock in the first place if you going to kill it making soup out of it?

Well, duh, yeah, if you boil the rock everything freaking dies :rolleyes: But what's the point of maintaining a reef if a pest is ever multiplying itself. If you've seen valonia problems like I had in my one tank, or in other tanks in my travels, you'd opt for a serious solution as well.

The valonia problem I ended up having over a period of about a year by meticulously manually removing them, rinsing the rock before putting back into the tank was totally out of hand. There was no other solution to rid my tank of valonia other than boiling the rock, taking the tank down and bleaching the tank and all the equipment. Hard decision to make, but one well worth it in the end as it turned out.

I cured the killed, stinking rock and eventually used it as base rock in an upgraded tank. Looking at that tank now, I can't tell anymore what was boiled and what came from the lfs. Must be the Mg that brought that rock back to life :lol: :razz: And no freaking valonia in the other tank, either :2gunfire:

From now on, give me a hammer and screwdriver or wire cutters to excise the rock around the valonia so the bubble doesn't break and no more problem.

[StirCrazy]

No wive's tale in my case, even though I am a wife :razz: I did exactly what deep6er ended up doing - scraping all the empty shell off the rock, followed by several rinses. Over several months and several attempts to get rid of the valonia, with the stuff spreading more and more each time I disturbed it, I ended up boiling the whole lot of rock to get rid of this invasive pest. Luckily, the tank affected was only a 42g.


ya it does apear to work like that but from what I have read (disclamer:mrgreen: ) and from my own expereance, I have found it is almost like a cycle depending on the nutreants. it starts apearing slowly then more and more so you start popping them to get rid of them and holy **** you have millions, but I have done it a different way as you describred by removing the rocks and completly removing them and the same spreadig rate happend as when I just removed them and didn't care about breaking them. I think once they go sexual they release babies that have a planktonic stage untill they settel down and start growing so it can seem like breaking them is causing the spread but if you look around you will find a white shell of one that went sexual on you.

Steve