bubble algae

i have green bubble algae in my tank.....some peopel i talk to say its good others say it is bad....im not sure......i dont have alot of it, it is just on 1 rock i just bought, i could easily remove it right now.......should i?


second part.......my cousin asked me to go over and help him rearange his rock in his tank, i went over.....every rock is covered in green hair algae.....i mean covered.....he has a 24 gallon nano cube....he has 15 mexican crabs, but there is so much i think it will spread faster than they can eat it.....what should i tell him to do with it????

 

as for your buddy
1. get a phosphate test kit and test levels.
2.If they are high find out why.I.E. using tap water. lack of water changes, overfeeding etc.
3.Once you find the source eliminate it.
4.then invest in a phosban reactor and run GFO to lower phosphates.
5.Tell your friend to decrease the amount of time in between water changes and increase the amount changed.
6. find out if his temp is 79 or above if it is tell him to lower it by 3 to 4 degreees.
7.Ask him the kelvin temp of his lights (algae thrives in lower kelvins)
8.Ask him if his light bulbs are fairly old, if so..replace.
9.decrease his light cycle time by 30% until algae has deminished.
10. oh I almost forgot..flow..Make sure his tank has the correct turn over and position the heads to suspend debris and eliminate dead spots.

As for you, the same should apply but a emerald crab will take care of bubble algae.

 

so the bubble algae is bad? i can take it out in less than a minute.....just some people said it was good......

you said this

eliminate it then invest in a phosban reactor and run GFO to lower phosphates.

idk what that is, and can you use it with a nano cube? its all pretty sealed.....

 

this is great information, just with a nano cube, the hood is all solid and attached, the sump is sealed in the back of the tank.....cant add anything to it, no pumps no skimmer no reactor, nothing....its basically what it is....as for the water type it is tap water, i txt him and told him to buy ro/di water and to change 30-40 percent every week to 10 days.....and to have lights on for only 5 hours a day......does that sound good or change it?

 

im not familiar with the bio cubes but a phosban reactor can be hung outside the display tank. there are others better equiped than me to explian running reactors with bio cubes. (btw a reactor is a cylinder container that along with a pump tumbles media such as GFO to trap phosphates)
if your friend was using tapwater, I am 99% sure that is the cause of the excessive algae growth. his phosphates are probably of the charts. but yes essentiallly everything you mentioned plus tell him to find out his levels, with a test kit so he can gauge his progress in lowering the problem. I would say he could do a 10% a week water change or 20% ever ten days. 30 to 40% is probably not neccessary unless his water is really bad but he should have his water tested to know for sure. his is much more of a problem than yours is.

becarful removing bubble algae as it can spread this way. emerald crabs are great. and to answer your question, bubble is a nuisance algae. imo.

 

thanks....i will remove my bubble algae in the morning.....but yea, as for the nano cube, you arent able to put anything else onto it, so there is no way to put a phosban reactor with gfo anywhere on this tank....he would have to do a lot of work and thinking to find a way to drill a spot and flow into a different tank or something....idk how well that would work...its sealed so much it barely has any evaporation...he puts like half a gallon in every 2 months or something.....

 

Did some people say why bubble algae is good? LOL

 

no, never thought to ask lol....i just removed it

 

Bubble algae is tolerant to and can still grow in low nutrient systems. Don't be surprised if it returns in a few weeks. Just continue to pick it off *carefully*, eventually it'll be a thing of the past. I had some grow on one newly introduced frag a while back. Just removed it every now and again. Haven't seen anymore in at Least a month and a half.

 

thanks, bubble algae is taken care of......

now im just tryin to figure out a hair algae problem for my cousin.....

he has a 24 gallon nano-cube....its basically a sealed system, not much you can do with it, but all of his live rock is just covered with thick green hair algae.....i went and bought 15 mexican algae crabs, but i dont see how they could possibly keep up with the spread........no room to put a phosban reactor or anything.......so we have crabs and water changes........

anything else we can do?