Emerald Crabs for bubble algae?

My 29G tank is getting some bubble algae on lower rocks. I want to remove it manually but I can't take the rocks out of the tank since they are at the very bottom. Could I get a few emerald crabs to take care of it or would it possibly cause more problems? My current stocking is a pair of Occ. clownfish, a cleaner shrimp and the cuc consists of a few hermit crabs and a lot of snails.

It's also a reef tank, a few frags such as a torch, frogspawn, some zoas and an alveopora.

 

I've read that they get rid of bubble algae but I'm not sure if they would cause a problem.

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What concerns me are the horror stories that they may go after the fish or the cleaner shrimp or some inverts. I know when they eat the bubble algae they release the spores into the water so if they aren't regularly eating the bubble algae they are going to only make the problem worse for me.

 

Here is a website that might help


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You are correct you can get some that are bubble algae killers and some that won't even touch it. Much like peppermint shrimp and aptasia. Hard to know before you actually do it.

 

Are there any good alternatives to taking care of bubble algae in hard to reach places? I really don't want it spreading in my tank. I don't mind emerald crabs even if they don't get bubble algae.. As long as they don't hurt my other livestock.

 

I usually just pop them off the rocks with tweezers and catch them as they float around. I don't burst them but they will usually come off the rock fairly easy. You could also take a smaller siphon hose pop them off the rock and suck them up.

 

Why is bubble algae bad?

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I've heard they can grow over corals and "choke" them to death. It's also just really unsightly for my tastes.

 

I've never seen it overtake corals other than low growing Zoanthids. It's just unsightly and can really take over the rocks. Plus its an algae, tells you it's using some type of phosphates to grow.

 

Oh alright, maybe it's just horror stories from people who had really bad problems with their water quality. The bubble algae has been around for a long time and it never spread a lot so maybe with good maintenance it'll stay that way.

 

That's the way I feel. I have it in my tank, back of the rocks. I siphon out the larger clumps when I can but if its not spreading I'm not terribly worried about it. More worried about hair algae, diatoms, or dinos and stuff like that. I've never had it be to aggressive.

 

Alright, I'll go that route then and only remove the bubble algae if it starts to spread to places that are easy to remove it or if it's encroaching on corals.