Loosing battle with bubble algae

[WarDog]

Originally Posted by CHEAPREEF

It takes 4-6 weeks to work, buddy of mine used it in his Biocube. Worked great Zero BA after 6 weeks.

Agreed, I would run a full course of Vibrant before restarting. You will have to be very active in removing dead algae husks to avoid nutrient spikes.

[Animal-Chin]

The pictures look like there is as much hair algae as bubble. If your zoa's are on rocks, I'd take the rock out and in a bowl of tank water start brushing the algae off with a toothbrush or some other small brush. Once you have removed as much as possible I'd give the zoa's a bath in hydrogen peroxide. If you use 3 parts water, 1 part peroxide the zoa's will be totally fine. They'll close up for a day or two but no harm to them at all. The peroxide will only kill the remaining algae. I've done it a few times.

I'm just being honest and I'm sure others have opinions but in my experience, once hair algae gets in your sand bed its almost impossible to get it out. Removing the sand and replacing it is sometimes the only solution but I've never used vibrant, maybe it does wonders?

[lnk89]

Originally Posted by Animal-Chin

The pictures look like there is as much hair algae as bubble. If your zoa's are on rocks, I'd take the rock out and in a bowl of tank water start brushing the algae off with a toothbrush or some other small brush. Once you have removed as much as possible I'd give the zoa's a bath in hydrogen peroxide. If you use 3 parts water, 1 part peroxide the zoa's will be totally fine. They'll close up for a day or two but no harm to them at all. The peroxide will only kill the remaining algae. I've done it a few times.

I'm just being honest and I'm sure others have opinions but in my experience, once hair algae gets in your sand bed its almost impossible to get it out. Removing the sand and replacing it is sometimes the only solution but I've never used vibrant, maybe it does wonders?

The hair algae is only in a couple spots. There is a lot of hair algae on my one snail though. No matter how many times I scrub it off.

I will try the vibrant for 4-6 weeks. Hopefully with large weekly water changes it will help. If after 4 weeks, im not getting any results then I will start the tear down process.

Changing out the sand is a good idea. I have struggled with algae in the sand for quite awhile. I think I just made too many mistakes with this tank. Hopefully attempt number 2 goes better!

[duncangweller]

I agree with Wardog, restart. I had the same problem once upon a time, I restarted and took much more care next time around and never saw the stuff again.

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[Animal-Chin]

Also, if restarting, now is the perfect time to upgrade to a 20 or 30 gallon! You know you want to and really they are no more work, if not less, than a 10.

Thats what I'd do, it would make me feel better about restarting...

[lnk89]

Ah. I was really hoping to not have to restart!

What is the best way to get the coral off the rocks to clean them? Like the zoa's how do I not kill those in a restart?

Originally Posted by Animal-Chin

Also, if restarting, now is the perfect time to upgrade to a 20 or 30 gallon! You know you want to and really they are no more work, if not less, than a 10.

Thats what I'd do, it would make me feel better about restarting...

You know, I have been thinking of selling my 135 gallon freshwater and getting something in a 75 gallon reef or around there. Now might be the time.....

[lnk89]

Some photo updates after the first week of vibrant. Dosing twice a week, a little more than the recommended amount.

Doing large weekly water changes.

I have been trying to remove as much of the bubble algae as I can manually, but it has been hard to do that without breaking them.

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[lnk89]

Been a few weeks now. Still not seeing much progress on any of the algae.

The red algae to the left of the zoa's is spreading and still seeing new bubble algae popping up. I have also been getting lots of red algae covering parts of the sand. Not sure what it is, but I have been removing it as it comes up.

Corals don't seem to like the vibrant dosing. Hammer coral has closed up and looks like it's dying and I am seeing some melting at the ends of my gsp. The candy cane coral also doesn't seem to be opening as much as it used to.

Seems like I am fighting everything right now...

[lnk89]

Into week 5 of vibrant

Still seeing some melting on the tips of my gsp. Hammer coral continues to go down hill. fuzzy mushroom, red mushroom and now my candy cane coral aren't opening and look unhappy.

Continue to dose vibrant twice a week, with large water change once a week as well.

I'm not noticing any new bubble algae forming, but I also don't see any of it disappearing except for what I can suck out during water changes. All other algae doesn't appear to be spreading, but isn't getting better.

I am dealing with a lot of red algae.. or I think is algae. Sand is almost completely red no matter how much I suck out. Starting to spread to the rocks as well.

Tested my water on the weekend. Everything checked out. Nothing out of whack. So im guessing something I don't have a test kit for is the cause for the coral unhappiness.

Really tempted to call it and just restart the entire thing.

[Frogger]

The red could be cyno bacteria. Over load of nutrients. I had a major outbreak when I was fighting byopsis with Fluconazole, got rid of the bryopsis got cyno, got rid of the cyno got dinoflagellates. Some times seems like a never ending cycle.