Bryopsis just vanished?

[IanMauger]

Alright guys and gals, I’m here scratching my head here. I had been dealing with a minor bout of byropsis. It never got to there point where “extra ordinary” measures were needed, I just used a strong vac and plucked and sucked it out. This went on for a couple months. I vacuumed it out about 2 weeks ago. This week I really started to notice it’s not coming back, as a matter of fact it’s melted. There is barely any left. It’s all gone, and what was left everyday has melted further back. As for changes, I haven’t done anything besides change my Magnesium product. I used to dose Red Sea Mag, but have switched to ESV Mag since I already love their 2 part. I dose Mag at 1ml per day. I made this change about a month ago. I also have been replenishing my CUC which I do around this time yearly. Added 10x Astrea snails 3 days ago. Added a seeded marine pure block a month and half ago.

As for parameters:
Salinity: 1.025
dKh: 9.5
CA: 440-480ppm
Mg: 1325-1350ppm
NO3: 5-10ppm (Salifert kit, difficult to differentiate the pinks that light)
PO4: 0.05ppm

My export methods:

- Skimming (obviously) but I dialed it back from wet “tea color” to dryer “greenish”.

- Refugium loaded with LR and Matrix. Have a a little bit more than a basketball size Chaeto in there (needs a trim)

- My DIY ATS that’s been online for over 3 months has finally begun growing brilliant green turf algae.

Aside from that, I have a mixed reef, excellent PE in all my LPS and SPS. I feed sort of heavy. I’m just amazed, I hadn’t done anything that in my opinion would cause byropsis to go away on its own. Thoughts??

 

[jrwoltman]

Don't look a gift seahorse in the mouth. Congrats!!!

 

[redfishbluefish]

Most interesting. FYI, the miracle cure for Bryopsis is Fluconazole....no impact on your tank, and the bryopsis just melts away.

Now some past history.....Tech M magnesium was the old cure for bryopsis. High doses would kill this weed....and it was only the Tech M brand that would work. However, at some point they changed the formula and took out whatever component that was killing the Bryopsis....it no longer worked!

I'm wondering if this ESV Mag has that secret ingredient.

FYI, at one point I knew what the secret ingredient was, but my old mind isn't allowing me to recall.

 

[mcarroll]

Alright guys and gals, I’m here scratching my head here. I had been dealing with a minor bout of byropsis. It never got to there point where “extra ordinary” measures were needed, I just used a strong vac and plucked and sucked it out. This went on for a couple months. I vacuumed it out about 2 weeks ago. This week I really started to notice it’s not coming back, as a matter of fact it’s melted. There is barely any left. It’s all gone, and what was left everyday has melted further back. As for changes, I haven’t done anything besides change my Magnesium product. I used to dose Red Sea Mag, but have switched to ESV Mag since I already love their 2 part. I dose Mag at 1ml per day. I made this change about a month ago. I also have been replenishing my CUC which I do around this time yearly. Added 10x Astrea snails 3 days ago. Added a seeded marine pure block a month and half ago.

As for parameters:
Salinity: 1.025
dKh: 9.5
CA: 440-480ppm
Mg: 1325-1350ppm
NO3: 5-10ppm (Salifert kit, difficult to differentiate the pinks that light)
PO4: 0.05ppm

My export methods:

- Skimming (obviously) but I dialed it back from wet “tea color” to dryer “greenish”.

- Refugium loaded with LR and Matrix. Have a a little bit more than a basketball size Chaeto in there (needs a trim)

- My DIY ATS that’s been online for over 3 months has finally begun growing brilliant green turf algae.

Aside from that, I have a mixed reef, excellent PE in all my LPS and SPS. I feed sort of heavy. I’m just amazed, I hadn’t done anything that in my opinion would cause byropsis to go away on its own. Thoughts??

The "miracle product" in your description is usually referred to by a more colloquial name: elbow grease.

Most folks have just forgotten that this is a perfectly legit way to beat most algae. (This also includes your added cleanup crew and other efforts.)

It seems like so many folks are focused on miracle cures these days.

Bryopsis and dinoflagellates, for example, have both had major threads where people put powerful medications/chemicals into their tanks with great hope. In both cases the vast number of reoccurrences were/have been almost totally ignored.

Thank you for posting this!

 

[IanMauger]

Most interesting. FYI, the miracle cure for Bryopsis is Fluconazole....no impact on your tank, and the bryopsis just melts away.

Now some past history.....Tech M magnesium was the old cure for bryopsis. High doses would kill this weed....and it was only the Tech M brand that would work. However, at some point they changed the formula and took out whatever component that was killing the Bryopsis....it no longer worked!

I'm wondering if this ESV Mag has that secret ingredient.

FYI, at one point I knew what the secret ingredient was, but my old mind isn't allowing me to recall.

It could very well be, however I don’t have levels above 1350 so I’m not sure.

 

[IanMauger]

The "miracle product" in your description is usually referred to by a more colloquial name: elbow grease.

Most folks have just forgotten that this is a perfectly legit way to beat most algae. (This also includes your added cleanup crew and other efforts.)

It seems like so many folks are focused on miracle cures these days.

Bryopsis and dinoflagellates, for example, have both had major threads where people put powerful medications/chemicals into their tanks with great hope. In both cases the vast number of reoccurrences were/have been almost totally ignored.

Thank you for posting this!

That makes a lot of sense! I was vacuuming and plucking it out weekly, maybe it just didn’t have a chance to take hold again!

 

[mcarroll]

That makes a lot of sense! I was vacuuming and plucking it out weekly, maybe it just didn’t have a chance to take hold again!

Good point – and another one that is easily glossed over or forgotten...

The ability to take hold depends on (among other things):

• a physical space being available to settle
• safe passage across the tank to that place.

A healthy reef tank meets neither of those needs very well.

Spores or eggs of anything are food to most other critters you host in the tank – either directly or indirectly.

And all the space for settlement is usually occupied either by corals, algae, or other periphyton. All of which are hungry.

A new or otherwise-unhealthy tank probably has lots of open space and comparatively few hungry mouths across the tank.

That means lots of opportunity for an opportunistic organism that likes or tolerates the current conditions to cruise around and find a nice location to settle and reproduce. Maybe LOTS of nice locations. ;Nailbiting

 

[IanMauger]

Good point – and another one that is easily glossed over or forgotten...

The ability to take hold depends on (among other things):

• a physical space being available to settle
• safe passage across the tank to that place.

A healthy reef tank meets neither of those needs very well.

Spores or eggs of anything are food to most other critters you host in the tank – either directly or indirectly.

And all the space for settlement is usually occupied either by corals, algae, or other periphyton. All of which are hungry.

A new or otherwise-unhealthy tank probably has lots of open space and comparatively few hungry mouths across the tank.

That means lots of opportunity for an opportunistic organism that likes or tolerates the current conditions to cruise around and find a nice location to settle and reproduce. Maybe LOTS of nice locations. ;Nailbiting

Im having a lot of coral/coralline growth making open spaces limited in open rock work as its being covered with coralline and coral growth. That’s probably what’s going on. I also kind of pride myself in my tanks bio diversity. There’s tons of micro and macro fauna. Things some reefers love like copapods, the reef safe isopods, amphipods, and even those some that some reefers hate like plenty of bristle worms. These may very well limit the expansion of the algae. Either way, it was quite the learning expierence that eventually you’re reef tank really does turn into a biome that just needs to be assisted in being self sustaining.

 

[mcarroll]

Either way, it was quite the learning expierence that eventually you’re reef tank really does turn into a biome that just needs to be assisted in being self sustaining.

You got that right.

Mine is nearly self-sustaining at about 10 years old. The last five being post-dadhood so the tank gets almost no attention. Feeding and dosing are automated. I observe and clean out the skimmer "sometimes". I recently ran tests for the first time this year just to make sure my tank and eyeballs weren't deceiving me.

I stopped having tank time around when my A Water Change A Day... thread came to a close. Since then it's basically had two 50% water changes on back to back days when I was cleaning up a chrysophyte bloom, and that's it.

(Crysophyte bloom was due to my attention getting too far away.....salinity peaked at 1.030 due to two-part dosing residuals and that really seemed to throw things off. It's easy to clean up, but do not let that stuff get out of control as it can do real damage – it aggressively "ate into" my Hydnophora as it bloomed. That's the only "algae problem" I've ever really had, BTW. Most algae blooms are completely harmless or beneficial.)

 

[IanMauger]

You got that right.

Mine is nearly self-sustaining at about 10 years old. The last five being post-dadhood so the tank gets almost no attention. Feeding and dosing are automated. I observe and clean out the skimmer "sometimes". I recently ran tests for the first time this year just to make sure my tank and eyeballs weren't deceiving me.

I stopped having tank time around when my A Water Change A Day... thread came to a close. Since then it's basically had two 50% water changes on back to back days when I was cleaning up a chrysophyte bloom, and that's it.

(Crysophyte bloom was due to my attention getting too far away.....salinity peaked at 1.030 due to two-part dosing residuals and that really seemed to throw things off. It's easy to clean up, but do not let that stuff get out of control as it can do real damage – it aggressively "ate into" my Hydnophora as it bloomed. That's the only "algae problem" I've ever really had, BTW. Most algae blooms are completely harmless or beneficial.)

I hear ya! Have 3 of my own so I know how it gets! The good news, for me anyway is as they are getting older they are really becoming interested in the hobby and will be going to Reef-A-Palooza NY this year. Which is rather nice being able to have this become a family hobby.

I still find time to test, normally it’s just Alk and salinity weekly, unless I feel the need for others like I perfmored this past weekend. As long as those are in my Alk is in check I don’t even bother with the other as I think we get the “aquired” eye for noticing when things aren’t right. Hell, I barely do water changes anymore, I figure everything is growing, healthy, and showing great colors and PE why bother? My philosophy is I’ve gotten to this point where everything has been so stable why mess it up? I do dose trace elements occasionally, but ESV 2 part has them too.

 

[mcarroll]

but ESV 2 part has them too.

Especially now that you're on their mag too I'd lay off of the other trace elements....ESV is designed to be complete, so it's loaded!

 

[shred5]

Alright guys and gals, I’m here scratching my head here. I had been dealing with a minor bout of byropsis. It never got to there point where “extra ordinary” measures were needed, I just used a strong vac and plucked and sucked it out. This went on for a couple months. I vacuumed it out about 2 weeks ago. This week I really started to notice it’s not coming back, as a matter of fact it’s melted. There is barely any left. It’s all gone, and what was left everyday has melted further back. As for changes, I haven’t done anything besides change my Magnesium product. I used to dose Red Sea Mag, but have switched to ESV Mag since I already love their 2 part. I dose Mag at 1ml per day. I made this change about a month ago. I also have been replenishing my CUC which I do around this time yearly. Added 10x Astrea snails 3 days ago. Added a seeded marine pure block a month and half ago.

As for parameters:
Salinity: 1.025
dKh: 9.5
CA: 440-480ppm
Mg: 1325-1350ppm
NO3: 5-10ppm (Salifert kit, difficult to differentiate the pinks that light)
PO4: 0.05ppm

My export methods:

- Skimming (obviously) but I dialed it back from wet “tea color” to dryer “greenish”.

- Refugium loaded with LR and Matrix. Have a a little bit more than a basketball size Chaeto in there (needs a trim)

- My DIY ATS that’s been online for over 3 months has finally begun growing brilliant green turf algae.

Aside from that, I have a mixed reef, excellent PE in all my LPS and SPS. I feed sort of heavy. I’m just amazed, I hadn’t done anything that in my opinion would cause byropsis to go away on its own. Thoughts??

I have got rid of bryopsis many times and dictioyta which is worse with just good husbandry. I have never resorted to chemicals for algae issues.
There is one algae that goes against rules and that is dino's which are not to hard to rid either, just cannot treat it like other algae.