Bubble algae solved

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#1
I’ve been noticing over many months bubble algae spreading in my display covering live rocks and a few corals. I tried manual removal, less feeding to no feeding, put a couple emerald crabs, Tried more water changes to export but nothing worked the stuff just kept growing. My tank is a zeovit tank and what many consider an ulns. I’ve heard good results dosing the tank with a product called vibrant but the last thing I want to avoid is any 3rd party product if I can’t take care of it naturally. I know many people have this issue and I keep reading emerald crabs are the answer. I finally said f it and went to the lfs and picked out the biggest fattest emeralds they had and I got 7 of them for my Redsea reefer 625xxl. Adding a bunch of these has decimated the bubbles and I believe it was a combination of the size and qty I added. I noticed the big crabs really went for the bubbles. I am aware they are reef safe with caution and thankfully they are easy to remove when not needed anymore but I wanted to share this for anyone else having bubble algae issues.
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#2
Well,,,beware because when the emerald crabs eat all bubble algae,,,they start eat hammers,,,torchs,,RBTAs,,and acans,,, on my reef tank one emerald crab starting eat my gold torch aussie with 3 heads,,,and damage,,,she can't recovery and die later,,,just my opinion,,,
 

djrice69

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#3
I always wondered how vibrant would work with a uln zeovit tank. But the crabs will get them just not the spores when they pop it.
 

joseserrano

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#4
If you are having bubble algae issues you are not as ULN as you may think. I have eradicated most of my bubble algae with minimizing feeding, harvesting cheato more often, and manual removal. There has to be excess for the bubble algae to thrive. Regarding vibrant, lots of horror stories on R2R from ppl using it. I think Rakie, who is a local guy used it and also had a bad experience.
 

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It is not recommended to have a fuge with zeovit. I know of a zeovit tank user that used vibrant but at half strength and it worked for him. Unfortunately the same parameters that corals like, bubble algae like. My test show 0 for phosphates (Hanna) and nitrates (api)
 

joseserrano

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#6
It is not recommended to have a fuge with zeovit. I know of a zeovit tank user that used vibrant but at half strength and it worked for him. Unfortunately the same parameters that corals like, bubble algae like. My test show 0 for phosphates (Hanna) and nitrates (api)
My suggestion was not to run a fuge, but sharing my experience. My suggestion is that your nutrients are higher than you think and need to reduce them. Even if it is testing zero, that just shows that algae and corals are consuming it in the system, but that does not mean you have zero. Id also get a better nitrate test kit.
 

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#7
Or that reef flux would touch that algae
 

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My suggestion was not to run a fuge, but sharing my experience. My suggestion is that your nutrients are higher than you think and need to reduce them. Even if it is testing zero, that just shows that algae and corals are consuming it in the system, but that does not mean you have zero. Id also get a better nitrate test kit.
What nitrate kit do you recommend?
 

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#10
I don’t like the salifert, if we’re looking at colored the liquid to measure then api is much easier in this respect. Never used Redsea
 

djrice69

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#11
I use salifert it’s more accurate
 
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