Finally beat an insane bubble algae outbreak after 4 months, what do I do now?

[Thanos]

Follow up from this post from October last year.

Last fall I developed an extreme bubble algae issue in my 65 gallon LPS/Softy tank where literally every surface in the tank was covered in thick, dark green bubble algae which was presumably choking out nutrients and leading to poor coral health. Through a combination of running phosphate removal media, adding 2 emerald crabs, dosing Microbacter Clean, 7, and Razor simultaneously for two months, and lots of manual removal, I've finally gotten my tank to a point where the rocks are spotless and the tank looks almost and clean as when I set it up a year and a half ago.

My question is, what do I do from here? Obviously, my corals still look pretty bad since I've been aggressively purging nutrients from the tank for the past 4 months, and so I need to find some way to address this. I stopped dosing the razor since that one seemed to be the most detrimental to coral health, but I'm still continuing to dose the two bacterias since I'm scared the bubble algae will come back. This is kind of my main issue here, how do I get nutrients to my corals so they bounce back without just triggering another bubble algae outbreak. Also, should I use a nutrient supplement like Red Sea's Reef Energy Plus (AB+) or a similar supplement, and should I start feeding reef roids again (which I stopped to cut down on nutrients)? I've also heard people recommend seeding coralline algae in the tank so that it will become the dominant form of algae to use up the excess nutrients that nuisance algaes could potentially use, and I'm wondering if this is a good idea.

 

[vlangel]

Follow up from this post from October last year.

Last fall I developed an extreme bubble algae issue in my 65 gallon LPS/Softy tank where literally every surface in the tank was covered in thick, dark green bubble algae which was presumably choking out nutrients and leading to poor coral health. Through a combination of running phosphate removal media, adding 2 emerald crabs, dosing Microbacter Clean, 7, and Razor simultaneously for two months, and lots of manual removal, I've finally gotten my tank to a point where the rocks are spotless and the tank looks almost and clean as when I set it up a year and a half ago.

My question is, what do I do from here? Obviously, my corals still look pretty bad since I've been aggressively purging nutrients from the tank for the past 4 months, and so I need to find some way to address this. I stopped dosing the razor since that one seemed to be the most detrimental to coral health, but I'm still continuing to dose the two bacterias since I'm scared the bubble algae will come back. This is kind of my main issue here, how do I get nutrients to my corals so they bounce back without just triggering another bubble algae outbreak. Also, should I use a nutrient supplement like Red Sea's Reef Energy Plus (AB+) or a similar supplement, and should I start feeding reef roids again (which I stopped to cut down on nutrients)?

Ha ha, I hear ya friend. Bubble algae is the one pest that I have never been able to eradicate. I keep it under control by using a rigid tubing stuck inside the end of flex tubing. When I see multiple outbreaks of bubble algae, I syphon out water during a water change but using the rigid end to pry the bubble algae from it's hold fast. I also have macroalgae that is directly competing with the bubble algae. That way I can still have fairly high nutrients but without fueling the bubble algae alone. Sometimes the bubble algae will grow on the macroalgae and so that is very easily pruned. My tank also has LPS, and softies and it's a 56 gallon so similar in size range to your tank. Here's a quick video of my tank.

 

[brandon429]

since you just beat an invasion I don't recall lots of people beating, I sure haven't fixed valonia issues in outbound jobs, I'm not sure anyone is qualified to advise you on prevention

and if they do advise you on prevention, I would like to see a few threads where by their advice someone's large tank valonia problem went away.

that was the one thing Vibrant was good at in fact. you did it without vibrant/you're in the 1% invasion outcome game there. I'll take notes on whatever you think controls your growback.

@vlangel agreed fully. I think valonia selected in high numbers or dinos are the #1 and #2 top invasions in reefing, humbling to nearly all

 

[Orito]

i'd do a lot of wc, razor is a nasty stuff

 

[brandon429]

**begin stopping the phosphate remover now in my opinion, anticipating dinos ahead of time vs reactively. no more altering nitrate or phosphate in my opinion though this was a heckuva arrest of the bubbles so far.

you can easily see in invasion posts the cyclic nature of invasions: GHA beaten by something then it's rotting mass becomes cyano, then cyano is beaten by some additive and dinos takes over back as a wheel

in my opinion you climbed the mountain but must anticipate tradeoff invasions that you'd hate equally.

can you post a pic of your tank as of now Thanos

 

[Thanos]

**begin stopping the phosphate remover now in my opinion, anticipating dinos ahead of time vs reactively. no more altering nitrate or phosphate in my opinion though this was a heckuva arrest of the bubbles so far.

you can easily see in invasion posts the cyclic nature of invasions: GHA beaten by something then it's rotting mass becomes cyano, then cyano is beaten by some additive and dinos takes over back as a wheel

in my opinion you climbed the mountain but must anticipate tradeoff invasions that you'd hate equally.

can you post a pic of your tank as of now Thanos

Yeah when I get home I'll get some white-light pictures of the tank

 

[skimmerman]

Emerald crabs always keep any in check in my tank. An asfur Angel eats majono anemones as I was plagued with them but he never. Bothers any of my Sps corals and he’s a beauty to watch

 

[Thanos]

**begin stopping the phosphate remover now in my opinion, anticipating dinos ahead of time vs reactively. no more altering nitrate or phosphate in my opinion though this was a heckuva arrest of the bubbles so far.

you can easily see in invasion posts the cyclic nature of invasions: GHA beaten by something then it's rotting mass becomes cyano, then cyano is beaten by some additive and dinos takes over back as a wheel

in my opinion you climbed the mountain but must anticipate tradeoff invasions that you'd hate equally.

can you post a pic of your tank as of now Thanos

Only real deposit of bubble algae remaining is on the Xenia rock my conch is chilling next to, but it's translucent and appears to be well on its way out. Coral health is really not great though, which I can only assume is because of how aggressively I was stripping nutrients to combat the bubble algae. So that's kinda my question, is how to recover the coral health without making every surface in my tank covered in bubble algae again?

 

[brandon429]

I'm positive that reducing light intensity and any white spectrum should follow these changes, that's a universal helper against bleaching as you work out nutrient balances. that initially powerful PAR and resulting coral balance must change when nutrients are changed/removed, we see it years in a row in our sand rinse thread where we strip nutrients physically by washing them out of the entire system. all entrants are advised to reduce lighting and re ramp it afterwards, specifically to avoid coral bleaching, it buys you time to begin spot feeding to maximize the feed you do give

 

[Jessefishes]

Only real deposit of bubble algae remaining is on the Xenia rock my conch is chilling next to, but it's translucent and appears to be well on its way out. Coral health is really not great though, which I can only assume is because of how aggressively I was stripping nutrients to combat the bubble algae. So that's kinda my question, is how to recover the coral health without making every surface in my tank covered in bubble algae again?View attachment 3015570View attachment 3015576View attachment 3015577View attachment 3015584View attachment 3015587View attachment 3015588

Looks great! I would worry about feeding corals. This is all my opinion but I believe the goal now should be to realize what caused the algae to get so bad in the first place and work on those things to prevent/control. Such as stop feeding corals, water changes regularly, pulling out any seen pest while doing water changes, and finally have a nutrient export system that works for you.
You can use the gfo if you’re testing phosphate and keep it in line. (I prefer rowaphos).
Again, great job and happy reefing!

 

[sfin52]

Follow up from this post from October last year.

Last fall I developed an extreme bubble algae issue in my 65 gallon LPS/Softy tank where literally every surface in the tank was covered in thick, dark green bubble algae which was presumably choking out nutrients and leading to poor coral health. Through a combination of running phosphate removal media, adding 2 emerald crabs, dosing Microbacter Clean, 7, and Razor simultaneously for two months, and lots of manual removal, I've finally gotten my tank to a point where the rocks are spotless and the tank looks almost and clean as when I set it up a year and a half ago.

My question is, what do I do from here? Obviously, my corals still look pretty bad since I've been aggressively purging nutrients from the tank for the past 4 months, and so I need to find some way to address this. I stopped dosing the razor since that one seemed to be the most detrimental to coral health, but I'm still continuing to dose the two bacterias since I'm scared the bubble algae will come back. This is kind of my main issue here, how do I get nutrients to my corals so they bounce back without just triggering another bubble algae outbreak. Also, should I use a nutrient supplement like Red Sea's Reef Energy Plus (AB+) or a similar supplement, and should I start feeding reef roids again (which I stopped to cut down on nutrients)? I've also heard people recommend seeding coralline algae in the tank so that it will become the dominant form of algae to use up the excess nutrients that nuisance algaes could potentially use, and I'm wondering if this is a good idea.

Pics or it never happened