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I have a pretty bad case of bubble algae…have tried emerald crabs but it’s beyond that now.
Can I use a light dose of algicide with clams in my tank?
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Personally, I wouldn’t try it. If you damage/kill the zooxanthellae in the clam, that would cause problems. My guess is that because bubble algae has such a thick cell wall, the amount of algicide needed to control it would be very high.
Jay
Jay
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Ok…thank you!
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I got rid of bubble algae in my tank by reducing nutrients in the water, adding more clean-up crew, and then siphoning out as many as I could with each water change.
Jay
I would bother to be honest that’s not going to cure the cause. Why do f you adjust one thing at a time and see if that helps. Obviously give it some time to work or not as the case may be.
I used the 4x Reef Flux approach and lost no inverts.
i used a foxface and bubble algae was gone after 1-2 weeks
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Get a piece of rigid tubing and attach some soft tubing to it, long enough to go into a filter sock in your sump. Cut the end of the rigid tubing at a 45, put the other end in the sock (securing it), now start stabbing the bubble algae and let gravity pull it into the sock. Do this until you have reduced the amount. It will take several times to slowly get rid of it. Or you can simply scrape it off by hand and catch it with a net. There are no spores inside the algae, which is a complete myth.
An algaecide such a API Algaefix/Vibrant won’t impact your clam. I’ve been using it aggressively for 4 months now. Fluconazole won’t affect it either, but has no effect on bubble algae.
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Is that 4 separate doses or 4x the recommended amount? I’ve gone through five separate treatments now and it’s never made a difference, so I’d imagine you went with the latter.
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The before is what my tank looks like.
Correct! It was one 400% dose, or one cap per 2.5 gallons. No fish or inverts were affected.
Nobody really knows why fluconazole works against algae. Technically what it does is disrupt ergosterol, which is the fungus version of cholesterol. Since animals don’t use ergosterol, it has no theoretical effect on animals.
It does something to algae though, at 4x dose strength. It took 2-3 weeks but all the bubbles turned clear and dissolved.
A few have come back, but I already had emerald crabs and a Foxface in the tank because I tried everything before I tried fluconazole. Now that the bubbles are 99% gone, the animals seem to be doing an ok job keeping it under control.
Nobody really knows why fluconazole works against algae. Technically what it does is disrupt ergosterol, which is the fungus version of cholesterol. Since animals don’t use ergosterol, it has no theoretical effect on animals.
It does something to algae though, at 4x dose strength. It took 2-3 weeks but all the bubbles turned clear and dissolved.
A few have come back, but I already had emerald crabs and a Foxface in the tank because I tried everything before I tried fluconazole. Now that the bubbles are 99% gone, the animals seem to be doing an ok job keeping it under control.
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