Bryopsis- Next step after Tech M

Ryan Hunter · Apr 20, 2016

I have been battling a bryopsis problem for two months now. It started out fairly small but is now rapidly taking over and I'm at a loss. I started out by dosing Tech M and brought my mag up to 1800. I have continued with the Tech M to this day but have not seen any change in the bryopsis. Manual removal turned out to be a huge mistake as all that did was effectively frag the stuff and now it has popped up everywhere. Nutrient levels in the tank have not changed (could be false as the bryopsis could be masking an issue). Any ideas on what the next step should be? Will peroxide kill bryopsis?

GMay · Apr 20, 2016

You can remove the rock and give it a good scrubbing and then follow with peroxide treatment. This is an alga that is hard to combat, but being persistent is the way to go.

saltyfilmfolks · Apr 20, 2016

Yes peroxide will.
So will lettuce nutibranchs.

hybridazn · Apr 20, 2016

^^^what they said...

Lettuce nudis work well but make sure you don't have any wrasse that will make a quick snack out of them.

Vaughn17 · Apr 20, 2016

I raised my mag to over 2000 with Kent M. It definitely knocked the bryopsis back (I didn't have a really bad infestation, btw) but didn't altogether eradicate it. Note: sps didn't seem bothered at all by the high mag, but I had to move some lps to another tank, including fungia and scolymia (now homophyllia). Anyway, To get rid of the bryopsis, I had to remove rocks from the tank, pluck off the algae, scrub the area with peroxide, then apply coral glue (as just scrubbing with peroxide did not work). Not fun, but no more bryopsis.

brandon429 · Apr 20, 2016

also you are doing the tech M trick backwards

you use it as the external treatment on the algae, adding no tech M to your water, where the ppm would be an exorbitant level directly on target and not any impact to non targets. doing full external work will fix your bryopsis. since bry was allowed to take over, external work is the only certain fix all else to avoid work is part of the cause of the invasion. weird and accurate way to see algae issues.

second changeup: dealing with holdfasts

we are seeing in the real bryopsis challenge tank where actual scraping of surfaces, damaging them just a little with a metal rasping tool for example, and then treating with the direct contact, is winning.

the current standard for the industry is opposite, so peoples tanks are getting taken over by bry

they advise leave it on your rocks to colonize and then do something to the water (doesn't work very often)

we are reversing that. for any test rock with bry you could:
remove the rock and rasp it off, break the anchors off, leaves marks on your rock (when turtles or parrotfish rasp bry in the wild, same result, it calcifies over within a mo sans algae given proper chem cheats on the area within the aquarium)
treat the actual scraped clean area with tech M or peroxide, keep your water table free of both

-that- is getting results.

rock_lobster · Apr 20, 2016

LETTUCE nudis WHAT those things suck so bad.... They dont even eat algae they drain some of juice in order to incorporate into their own energy production. not even killing it. They are incredibly slow and will immediately get sucked into any circulation pump. They are a terrible recommendation because one of the possible cures for bryopsis is increasing flow and with these you will need to dramatically decrease it to that of a sitting mud puddle.

I dont know how people keep recommending these(I havent even read one anecdotal success story.) Maybe the nudibranch marketing teams are just that good!

I havent had luck with TEchM i think they have changed their ingredients or else the strains of bryopsis are now immune as this trick has been out for a while. The only current method I know is low nutrients/lots of turbo,astrea snails and that will keep it down to where you cant really see it. It will grow in zoa beds and on corals unfortunately where the snails wont go. It is a real nuisance thats for sure.

brandon429 · Apr 20, 2016

yes I agree, if you leave it in the tank all that occurs. it is not hard to rid a tank of it, however, you just have to physically make that occur and not go through the water alone.

the next step after tech M in the water is tech M used the fully opposite way with great amplification. that, and we become a parrotfish in activity pretty much at the same time

rossco · Apr 20, 2016

During manual removal turning off the pumps will allow you to grab the little strands that would otherwise get redistributed around the tank.

Ryan Hunter · Apr 20, 2016

Thanks guys. I will try the Tech M external approach first I think.

brandon429 · Apr 20, 2016

Also

I think just doing a test rock is important before whole tank work. Not that a full rasping and burning is bad use of time, you'll be bryopsis free in that interval, but if regrowth still occurs due to Martian bryopsis then frustrations develop

If regrowth is insane (unlikely following anchor removal and Chem burn cheat) then in only doing a test rock you wasted no time

Randy Holmes-Farley · Apr 21, 2016

Ryan Hunter said:
I have been battling a bryopsis problem for two months now. It started out fairly small but is now rapidly taking over and I'm at a loss. I started out by dosing Tech M and brought my mag up to 1800. I have continued with the Tech M to this day but have not seen any change in the bryopsis. Manual removal turned out to be a huge mistake as all that did was effectively frag the stuff and now it has popped up everywhere. Nutrient levels in the tank have not changed (could be false as the bryopsis could be masking an issue). Any ideas on what the next step should be? Will peroxide kill bryopsis?

How big is the tank? A foxface can be an algae eating machine!

DamianOZ · Apr 21, 2016

I tried a Foxface once, it never touched bryopsis, but did like Acropora. My solution was, remove both

Kungpaoshizi · Apr 21, 2016

I think the TechM approach is overrated... For as many posts as I see 'it worked' I see about an equal amount that says 'it doesn't work'. Tried it myself, it did jack squat.

The sure fire method is take water from a water change, put rocks in it, scrub the hell out of them and then add a little peroxide for 5 minutes. Like someone said persistence is the key though.