Bubble algae, the final thread...

[luptinpitman]

I need some serious help and I can't seem to get it from posting on the 100's of other "green bubble algae" threads.
200 gallon tank. About 130lbs of live rock. Tank a year old.
40% of live rock surface, at least what I can see, is COVERED in green bubble algae.
3 emerald crabs do NOTHING to help the problem.
Cleaned once a month, remove all visable/reachable bubbles. Helps zero. Only gets worse. I have the stuff growing right off of the tank walls and power heads now.
Solutions?
So far I have heard:
1) Emerald crabs. No help whatsoever, which seems to run with about 99% of all people on this board so I don't feel so bad about this one.
2) Fox face. How big? Do I need to worry about my other corrals/livestock/etc...? I have also heard a load of people that swear there fox faces never touch the stuff.
3) Medicine: Macayn or something like that. Anyone have any info on this stuff or a link to information about it?
My question:
Would taking the entire tank down and "clensing" the liverock eradicate it forever, assuming I never introduced anything else to the tank that might reinfect it? If so, how would one clean his tank to get rid of them.
Thank you anyone who can help me out.
Sidenote/funny story: When I first set the tank up and it was going good for about 4 months I noticed the bubbles. Being a first time newbie, I thought it was new coral growth Asked the forum and was told it was a nuisance algae. Asked my LFS and they said it was nothing to worry about and that I could "groom" the bubble algae to make it look like a bubble corral. He said it would not spread. What a joke. I wish I could find the guy who told me that.

 

[volitan]

I hope you find a solution to your problem. I have alt of bubble algae in my 75 reef, but it doesnt sound like my probem is quite as bad as yours. Im with you, emeralds dont do anything to deplete the bubbles. I have discovered that "popping" them seems to spread them alot faster, so Im always careful not to do this when cleaning my rock. I havent tried foxfaces, but Ive heard that theyre a last resort to disposing your tank of nuisance algae. Ill keep an eye on this post for a possible solution to our problem. Good luck!

 

[nm reef]

Valonia...bubble algae can become a very serious problem if not kept under control. It sounds like yours has established and has the upper hand. My prefered methods of control are already being discarded by you...emeralds do eat the fresh growth...manual removal does help...my foxface has been a positive addition...plus I try to skim very heavily and insure there is compition for available nutrients. E-mail me at the address below and I will provide a link from a well respected individual that provides some outstanding information and comments on methods of control.
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</a>

 

[jauringer]

Do you have a skimmer on your tank?

 

[aileena]

this is my suggestion...its time consuming though, it did work on my rocks that had a lot of bubble algae.
First try not to break the bubbles inside the tank, all it does is spread the spores all over the place...
First clean off all the walls of the tank with your magnet or scrapper and do a huge water change because likely the bubbles will break and spores will be everywhere. try to get a net and get all the shells out.
wait a week or two...then...
I would take out 5 gallons of water from your tank and put it in a 5 g bucket. Then take another 5 gallon bucket and put water from the tank in it too! Take each piece of rock out, one at a time and with a razor blade in one of the buckets w/ your tank water scrape off all the bubbles, dont worry about breaking them since you'll discard the water. Then after its clean of bubble algae rinse the piece of rock off in the other 5g bucket of tank water to get off all the spores and crap. then place the rock back in the tank. do this with each piece of rock!
its a last ditch effort. hopefully you can preserve you LR since your using tank water and the bubbles will go away. I;ve never seen an emerald eat bubble algae although they are rumored to.
good luck

 

[luptinpitman]

I do have a skimmer on my tank.
I am leaning towards the "remove all the rock" idea. Thanks for the suggestion.
Anyone else have any experience with this type of thing?

 

[luptinpitman]

OK, so apparently NO ONE really knows how to fix a bubble algae problem.
At least this thread will help people in the future when searching the forum for bubble algae problems.
Yesterday I took every single live rock out of my tank and either removed each individual bubble or popped it out in the air. Let the rocks sit dry for about 2 hours and then rebuilt my reef. I can't say for sure if this worked, but we will see.
Estimated time for this project: 8 full hours assuming you have two people working on it. One to pull rocks and one to remove/pop the algae.

 

[frankl15207]

Just an addition to Aileena's suggestions:
Don't get frustrated if it starts to form again, just get on it quicker to keep it from reestablishing itself.
In cases where I couldn't get inside of the rock to clean it out completely, a hot soldering iron did the trick (available at Radio Shack for under $10). Obviously, since it is electric, do this away from the water .
Keeping after it is the key. I can almost assure you that the first effort won't get it all.
I also have had zero luck with emerald crabs, and my Foxface never looked at the stuff.
Good luck!