"Bubble Looking" Something Stuck to My Rock

[Chris L]

Hey Folks, something new has popped up in my 6 month old tank in the last week. At first, when they were smaller, I thought they were just air bubbles that had formed due to some diatoms or something. But, today, I stuck an acrylic rod in the tank to pop the "bubble" and it is some type of hard shell and it is "super-glued" to the rocks. I tried knocking it off but I just broke the outer shell and the base remains affixed to the rock. Here are photos of my new orb-shaped friends. Any idea what it is? Friend or Foe?

 

[Bluemoon]

Green bubble algae. If left in place they can get out of control. i think not harmful just unsightly. They can grow in size or quantity. I heard you can manually remove them and not to worry about bursting it. But I always tried to be careful. Also emerald crab may eat them.. you only have a few i think you can just pull them out.

 

[Bluemoon]

it is a kind of algae so an indication your nutrient level is likely high. You can read more about bubble algae there is a lot of good discussion out there.

 

[Chris L]

it is a kind of algae so an indication your nutrient level is likely high. You can read more about bubble algae there is a lot of good discussion out there.

Thanks for both responses. After your reply, I reached in and touched one and sure enough, it is like a water balloon. This morning, I thought my acrylic stick was crushing a hard shell but in hindsight, the back side of the acrylic was just scraping the back of the rock and gave me the wrong impression. I'll read up on this some more, and ways to decrease my nutrients. A lot to learn in this hobby.

 

[Bluemoon]

Thanks for both responses. After your reply, I reached in and touched one and sure enough, it is like a water balloon. This morning, I thought my acrylic stick was crushing a hard shell but in hindsight, the back side of the acrylic was just scraping the back of the rock and gave me the wrong impression. I'll read up on this some more, and ways to decrease my nutrients. A lot to learn in this hobby.

It is kind of common in a new tank, you get it eventually with frags or live rocks you put in to your tank. I usually do not see them until there were 20~30s of them in a cluster like grapes, and i take that rock out and remove them all together, or sometimes they just disappear on itself probably outcompeted by something else. Not much to worry about. You rocks look still new you may need to be very patient until things become stable.
Btw, I was chasing low nutrients until both crashed to almost 0/undetectable, absolutely a bad thing. You will know.

 

[Chris L]

It is kind of common in a new tank, you get it eventually with frags or live rocks you put in to your tank. I usually do not see them until there were 20~30s of them in a cluster like grapes, and i take that rock out and remove them all together, or sometimes they just disappear on itself probably outcompeted by something else. Not much to worry about. You rocks look still new you may need to be very patient until things become stable.
Btw, I was chasing low nutrients until both crashed to almost 0/undetectable, absolutely a bad thing. You will know.

I did some reading since my last post. I have plenty of space in my sump/refugium, I may just add some more Chaeto macro algae to that and also buy a couple of emerald crabs. I have one emerald crab that I purchased a few months ago but he appears lazy as shit. Hours after lights off and before lights on, I'll use a flashlight and he's always in the same 3 inch cubic area.

 

[chuck]

i got 4 in my sump if you need more i captured them last week and put in sump. You can remove bubble algae but try to wedge something under them and when they float take them out. I know emerald crabs work sometimes. But the female emerald crabs are the ones you want the males are useless. but looking at your rock work just remove the rock get bubble algae off and rince in some ro water.

 

[gill]

I have a few of them in my DT, I think it is impossible to eradicate, but they do not go crazy because of overall nutrient control and algae scrubber in sump.