algae problem

[captexas]

Hello everyone. I have what a friend of mine tells me is valonia alqae. It is little green balls clumped together. The clumps have become more in number and some completely cover small pieces of rock.
What's the best way to get rid of this stuff? I don't mind small amounts of it, but it's getting out of hand. Any critters eat it? I would appreciate your suggestions, thanks!

Chris

[TexasState]

What's next for you, aitapsia? :-D

There's severel different type of bubble algaes. What does your look like(shape wise, and colony wise.)

Removal:
1)Carefully remove it yourself w/out popping the bigger bubbles.
2)Emerald crab (will eat up your small feather duster colony too.)
3)Fox Face (not considered reef safe)

[TexasState]

When you buy Emerald crab, look for the one with the large claw. The one with the smaller claw can't grab on to the bubble as good.

[Tim Marvin]

Just pull them off and keep at it eventually you will get rid of them.

[captexas]

Hey Vihn - I'm knocking on wood right now after your apstasia comment! :-D My tank is still recovering from using quinsulex to get rid of the red monsters! Over the past few weeks since I used it, some of my macro algae has been dieing off. Actually I think I may have a few apstasia that came with my live rock, but not enough to be a problem right now like with other people.

Thanks for the info everyone. I had heard that emerald crabs sometimes work, but can be hit or miss. I will try scraping them off for now.

[TexasState]

When you take off the bubble algae, you don't want to break the buble. If the bubble is mature, it can release millions of spores. If possible, take all your rock out of the tank, carefully wiggle it off the LR w/out bursitng the bubbles. Use one of those cosmetic two prong nipper if you want to pry it off. I used to have problem with this in my new tank, and I keep on taking the LR out every so often to clean it out. It was easy to do when I have a 40 gallon tank. Now that I have a 120, I have to use my foxface to take out the bubbles algae. The only place I still have bubble is by my bubble tip anemone, and probaly some crack deep in the tank that the Fox face can't get to. I haven't seen my sailfin eat the bubble by itself, but if I feed it to my sailfin, he'll eat it.

[Tim Marvin]

I have found the best way for me is to take them off by hand. Stay on top of it and you won't have a big problem.