How do I get rid of Green bubble algae? I have four Emerald Crabs that only seem partially interested. Any suggestions?

My Emerald took mine out. I think the key may be to be sure you food is only getting to your fish. I know that sounds dumb, but you want those crabs to have to fight for food. I feel as though they will not work to get the BA if there is food on the floor.

My Emerald took mine out. I think the key may be to be sure you food is only getting to your fish. I know that sounds dumb, but you want those crabs to have to fight for food. I feel as though they will not work to get the BA if there is food on the floor.
not dumb. remember when i said starve your scavengers sometimes to give them more incentive to work. all scavengers are lazy if they have no need than to wait for the next time you feed.

I have just realised that I had bubble algae, without knowing what it was. Just did an image search on google and it brought it up. Took care of it by injecting Kalk into the bubbles. Nuked the little buggers real good.

I wouldn't think that injecting them with kalk would help. If you break the bubble open, they release spores. So far, I've been counting on my Emerald Crabs, and carefully picking them out.

John is right, popping the bubbles in any way releases there spores into the water causing them to spread more. so while it looks like the bubble is dead, all the spores have ben released, i do not recommend this method to others

ever tried the turkey baster trick??? as long as the opening is big enough so the bubble won 't pop when sucking it up i see no problems, took care of mine and tank was clear for months

I did the inject kalk thing over 4 months ago and I still have no new bubles. Used a very small guage needle and injected a small amount of white suspension of kalk. over a week the bubble disolved from the inside.

its not the first time ive heard it done, even with the risk of spreading!
u might have be steady& more to the point lucky & not actually damaged the membrane for the kalk to do its caustic working of the spore jackets! but honestly, how much less risky is that, than letting a crab get there mits on them! crabs attach first ask questions latter, they may eat them but bursting the membrane to spill the contents is still the same thing! honestly, at risk of sounding strange, just pull the piece out thats attched to the rock, grab a chissel and cut a slitther off the rock from underneath it! add your rock back! even if it does succumb, its out of the tank anyways!

I had a problem with the Bubble algea. I first removed all large ones by hand. Second I added Emeral Green crabs. Most E. crabs will not eat the large bubbles only the small ones. The ones I could not remove I did pop. But with the crab in place and eating the very small bubbles my tank is almost completely void of any bubble algea. But like Veriann said the crabs will pop them anyway. So I think the risk is low and it will not add to you problem if you pop them.
Victoria

Aren't the spores only in the large bubbles. I hate green bubble algea. We have 2 LFS in the area that has tanks that are covered in it. I've seen some almost baseball size. I use a small pair of twezers and pop them of out of the water befor the rock goes into the system.

I just pull out the piece and remove and flush with the Turkey baster. I'm just glad it's only BA and not something more hideous.

if it worked for you, awesome.
i just wanted to make sure the commentary was out here that this is a more risky approach, if you are steady enough and have the proper equipment, great, but it is not a method i would recommend to everyone.

Fair comment Rob. I don't claim to be the guru, and am always more than happy to have you or anyone else disagree with me. Thats how I learn. I put my ideas out ther and get shot down occasionally.

awesome.
yeah, i wasnt saying you were wrong, i just wanted to make sure that if someone was reading this in two months they didnt attempt it with out understanding all the details.. thats all.. :)

You could try pulling the bubbles off the rock while holding a syphon hose next to it so that any spores that are released will get sucked up if the BA popped.

I haven't tried it before but I was thinking that this would be a good Idea and stops the spores getting into the tank.

any chance of it just going away? I think I have it, man it's ugly