Red slime is out, bubble is in, what do I do?

[stupid_naso]

I used UltraLife Reef Products to remove my red slime algae. It works great. With one dosage, and two days, they're all gone. Two LFS recommended and it does work .
I also put Phos-Absorb which works great too.
However, now I see lots of bubble algae <img src="graemlins//uhuh.gif" border="0" alt="[U-Huh]" /> . I don't know what causes them to appear. I want to eliminate them, but don't know how. Emerald is not an option because their habit of destroying rocks and 50/50 chance of nipping corals. Removing them by hand is just too much of a hassle. Does anyone know any other alternative, or are those two my only options?
Thanks,
stupid_naso

 

[adrian]

Cyano, algae, ect. feed on nutrients, so using chemicals to rid your tank of them is only a temporary fix, as your tank is demostrating, you killed the cyano, and now the bubble algae is feeding on the nutrients that supported the cyano. You might want to take a different approach and get to the root of the problem. Do you have a skimmer? Obviously if there is bubble algae growing, your phosphate chemical didnt work, no pun intended In most cases manual removal is the quickest way to rid your tank of a pest such as valonia sp., then you want to limit the amount of nutrients being introduced, and/or increase nutrient export, and then add something to feed on the pest to prevent it from coming back. Emeralds work sometimes like you mentioned, but they may eat enough to control it once you have removed most of it, and eliminated the nutrients its feeding on. You may also want to try and add some macro algae to compete for these nutrients, and carbon is always helpful when ridding a tank of excess nutrients. HTH

 

[nm reef]

Adrain covered it pretty well...I've had bubble(valonia sp) in my system for several months now. The emeralds do a good job on the new stuff(never a problem with emeralds)...plus I manually remove some of the larger bubbles every couple of weeks. Below is a link to good info that may help....
<a href="http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-02/hcj/feature/index.htm" target="_blank">bubble algae</a>

 

[anthony812]

o yea annother tip if i might add. Dont ever pop the buble algae in the water or near the tank. It will release Algae spores not good

 

[adrian]

I hate to sound like a know it all but its very hard to avoid popping the bubbles, if you introduce something to eat them the creature will most likely pop the bubbles when attempting to eat them, true the bubbles can release spores into the water, but only if the individual bubble has reached sexual maturity whihc is said to happen once the bubble reaches a certain size. A good skimmer will pick up most of these spores, as will carbon, and filter feeders may actually feed on them. If the spores do settle and grow new bubbles, like NM said emeralds are very good at eating the small ones, not many creatures will eat the stuff once it has reached a certain size. Try not to pop them, but dont freak out if you do

 

[stupid_naso]

Thanks for the replies.
Adrian, I understand that all sort of algae live off excess nutrients. I think my starfish died that's what causes the algae outbreak. I cannot be overfeeding. Every single brine shrimp that I dropped using a shringe, is eaten. I would love to keep macroalgae, I just don't know where to get it. I'll try to find it.
NM Reef, thanks for the website it was really helpful.
I have had experience before with bubble algae. I understand not to pop them.
Thanks again,
stupid_naso