Theory - Pellet food fuels huge Bubble Algae outbreaks?

[Moe K]

For over a year I had explosive bubble algae issues. The kind where no matter how many crabs or foxfaces you would put in the tank they would never be able to keep up.

Hand removal was useless as it would be back full force in less than 10 days. I made 3 attempts to get rid of it with additives. The first time was with an over dose of reef flux - it came back in a couple weeks even after there was no evidence of any of it left. The second time was with brightwell razor and it also came back from the dead after several weeks. Usually it would come back with a vengeance.

The 3rd time I used brightwell razor but also switched from pellet food to freeze dried mysis with an avast plank feeder. It has been over 2 months now and it is a huge difference from how they used to return in plague proportions to now being a non issues.

My previous tank had bubble algae but it was never a big deal and in that tank I always fed frozen mysis. My current tank I have been feeding pellet food and it has been nothing but problems and never seen mutant bubble algae like that. I don't think it was the razor that did it long term. My anecdotal meter is screaming pellet food is the cause. My po4 sits around .1-.15 and nitrate ~10 but that doesn't seem to matter as it is not spreading like before.

Anyone else correlate pellet or flake food to nuisance bubble algae issues?

 

[Reefing_addiction]

High phosphates and nitrates increase any nuisance algae.

Pellet food and flake food tend to increase this more than frozen food.

So yes it correlates and no because it would feed any nuisance algae that you have

 

[bubbgee]

High phosphates and nitrates increase any nuisance algae.

Pellet food and flake food tend to increase this more than frozen food.

So yes it correlates and no because it would feed any nuisance algae that you have

This is correct. Hikari pellets always fuel algae growth for me. Also reef roids.. Both are po4 monsters.

 

[Moe K]

Yes nutrients (po4/nitrate) are a factor but even though I am matching the same levels with more mysis to the less pellet food I used to feed it appears drastically less problematic in fueling unwanted algae.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

I would not correlate pellets to bubble algae. Just like any other algae, bubble algae is the result of imbalance between nutrient import and export. It will spread fast or slow depending on the nutrients available.

 

[Reefing_addiction]

Yes nutrients (po4/nitrate) are a factor but even though I am matching the same levels with more mysis to the less pellet food I used to feed it appears drastically less problematic in fueling unwanted algae.

If you see an explosive growth in algae your no3/po4 readings won’t show the excess because the algae consumed it. Frozen food doesn’t add tbe extra no3/po4 that pellet food/flake food does. Reef roids is know to raise po4 faster. I believe it all has to do with the way the food is processed

 

[stevelee]

For over a year I had explosive bubble algae issues. The kind where no matter how many crabs or foxfaces you would put in the tank they would never be able to keep up.

Hand removal was useless as it would be back full force in less than 10 days. I made 3 attempts to get rid of it with additives. The first time was with an over dose of reef flux - it came back in a couple weeks even after there was no evidence of any of it left. The second time was with brightwell razor and it also came back from the dead after several weeks. Usually it would come back with a vengeance.

The 3rd time I used brightwell razor but also switched from pellet food to freeze dried mysis with an avast plank feeder. It has been over 2 months now and it is a huge difference from how they used to return in plague proportions to now being a non issues.

My previous tank had bubble algae but it was never a big deal and in that tank I always fed frozen mysis. My current tank I have been feeding pellet food and it has been nothing but problems and never seen mutant bubble algae like that geometry dash breeze free download. I don't think it was the razor that did it long term. My anecdotal meter is screaming pellet food is the cause. My po4 sits around .1-.15 and nitrate ~10 but that doesn't seem to matter as it is not spreading like before.

Anyone else correlate pellet or flake food to nuisance bubble algae issues?

Anyone had success treating this successfully by biological/chemical means (ie vibrant?) Also note that my po4 and no3 went through the roof (po4 at 1.5 -not a typo!) and I have been using Red Sea nopox getting it back down- hopefully if I get po4 back down to .04 and nitrates<10 it will help somewhat but my understanding is even then it can still thrive.. My tank is too small (DT is 54 gallons) for a desjardin tang which worked wonders on the last tank. And no emerald crabs!

 

[rtparty]

I’ve never seen a correlation between food types and algae types. Algae is from a lack of predation aka not enough herbivores. I’ve never seen anyone beat algae by driving nutrients down.

Keeping nutrients in check is a fine goal as far as “good water” goes but I’ve seen far more issues from those that try to suppress nutrients than those that just keep them in check.

Bubble algae can be super tricky because natural predators aren’t as reliable and they often like eating other things at times.

 

[Frags 2 Fishes]

We use mostly Plank auto feeders with freeze dried foods, TDO pellets and Seaweed Extreme pellets in our store. We also daily feed frozen LRS foods. I find those pellets don't increase phosphates too much and we have little algae issues in most tanks. Some pellets can really increase the algae foods so it's entirely possible they helped along the bubble algae bloom.