gilmour01
Well-Known Member
i've been fighting bryopsis for a month now. i raised my mag level up to 2000 with no ill effects to this pesky algae. i also just started running GFO on this tank. any other ideas? 
oh:
oh:
bryopsis nightmare
- Thread starter gilmour01
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110reef
Active Member
Manually pick it, it helps slow it down.
I have been fighting it for the past year and a half and have tried all the conventional cures, but I am still losing the fight. Hope you have better success than me.
Also, I take particularly infested rocks out and sit them in the sunshine for several weeks, which seems to kill it pretty well, then I put the rock back in and take out a different rock. This works well unless you have corals on the rock...
I have been fighting it for the past year and a half and have tried all the conventional cures, but I am still losing the fight. Hope you have better success than me.
Also, I take particularly infested rocks out and sit them in the sunshine for several weeks, which seems to kill it pretty well, then I put the rock back in and take out a different rock. This works well unless you have corals on the rock...
I have seen pretty good success getting desjardini sailfin tang to eat, including mine...never seen any other fish touch it but have seen 3 desjardinis eat it and heard of a couple more.
On the other side of the tang coin is he eats my acans and favias if he gets the chance.
On the other side of the tang coin is he eats my acans and favias if he gets the chance.
Are you using Tech M for your magnesium supplement?
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gilmour01
Well-Known Member
this tank has built in rock walls, so removal of rock is not an option. its only a 54g tank so i wouldnt be comfortable with tangs. what about sea hares or lettuce nudibranches? anyone know if they will eat it?
as i understand it, kent changed the makeup of their "tech m" and the newer stuff isn't working for people. i believe there was something else in the original tech m that was killing the bryopsis...maybe traces of copper...maybe something else.
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gilmour01
Well-Known Member
i used the BRS stuff. its a mix of mg chloride and mg sulfate. the only thing it hurt was my trochus snails. i may have to run this tank ULN for awhile. Geesh this stuff is a pain.
110reef
Active Member
I have tried all types of creatures that "may" eat it. Sea hares, rabbitfish, lettuce nudis, ninja star snails, probably others that I can't remember at the moment. The rabbitfish takes a nibble here and there, also my Moorish Idol will take a mouthful from time to time. These are the only things that I ever witnessed eating the stuff. But neither eat it enough to make a dent in it. None of my tangs eat it, I have a large Purple and I had a clown tang, neither of them ate it...
I have tried raising mag (epsom salts, but i also threw some tech M in there too - neither had an effect). I have tried GFO, and carbon. I have changed out my DI/RO cartridges, and even got a new system. I have shut off the lights. I have picked til my fingers are raw. I have tried algaecide. I have dosed vodka for brief periods. I am sure there are other things I have tried that I am forgetting.
So now, I pretty much just pick it when it starts to over-run my corals, take rocks out and place them in the sun from time to time, and do the best I can to keep my water parameters good, and hope it will eventually go away on its own.
I have tried raising mag (epsom salts, but i also threw some tech M in there too - neither had an effect). I have tried GFO, and carbon. I have changed out my DI/RO cartridges, and even got a new system. I have shut off the lights. I have picked til my fingers are raw. I have tried algaecide. I have dosed vodka for brief periods. I am sure there are other things I have tried that I am forgetting.
So now, I pretty much just pick it when it starts to over-run my corals, take rocks out and place them in the sun from time to time, and do the best I can to keep my water parameters good, and hope it will eventually go away on its own.
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Amici
Community Member
The only mag product that people had success in using was the Kent M. If you are just boosting your mag with something else then odds are its a waste of time IMO. I would suggest trying lettuce nudis.
jcom
Active Member
I am over a month into fighting it and I appear (fingers crossed, knock on wood, etc) to be winning the battle using the increased Magnesium method. I started out upping Mag with my own Mag Chloride / Mag Sulfate mix (the Randy Holmes 2 part recipe) and it seemed to put the hurt on the Bryopsis. It took awhile (about 10 days) before I really started noticing the yellowing of the algae, but it appeared to stop it from spreading right away (my Bryopsis popped up very suddenly and was starting to spread rapidly, but I jumped on it within a few days).
About 2 weeks into the fight, I started alternating every other dose between Tech M and my 2 Part. I've had my Mag levels at 1600+ (1800 max) for about a month now and there are still a few, isolated holdouts here and there. Apparently Bryopsis can thrive in even very low nutrient waters (mine is currently 0 Nitrates, 0 Ammonia, 0 Phosphate) because it is able to sustain on detritus that builds up in the cracks and crevices of Live Rock. I have been taking a turkey baster and blasting the areas where it continues to survive to try to get any sediment, detritus, etc. blown out. I also tried to clean out my overflows as much as possible as I had pretty strong Bryopsis growth on the inside of the overflows.
I have also read that it is adviseable to keep elevated Mag levels for 3 months to make sure that any spores of Bryopsis cannot survive.
I can't speak to Tech M having a different recipe as of late, so I'm just going to continue the alternating dosage and hopefully come out on top.
About 2 weeks into the fight, I started alternating every other dose between Tech M and my 2 Part. I've had my Mag levels at 1600+ (1800 max) for about a month now and there are still a few, isolated holdouts here and there. Apparently Bryopsis can thrive in even very low nutrient waters (mine is currently 0 Nitrates, 0 Ammonia, 0 Phosphate) because it is able to sustain on detritus that builds up in the cracks and crevices of Live Rock. I have been taking a turkey baster and blasting the areas where it continues to survive to try to get any sediment, detritus, etc. blown out. I also tried to clean out my overflows as much as possible as I had pretty strong Bryopsis growth on the inside of the overflows.
I have also read that it is adviseable to keep elevated Mag levels for 3 months to make sure that any spores of Bryopsis cannot survive.
I can't speak to Tech M having a different recipe as of late, so I'm just going to continue the alternating dosage and hopefully come out on top.
jcom
Active Member
Agreed, I do that too, just spaced mentioning it.
I really wish people would stop saying this because it's simply not true... I and others have had success with other types of magnesium. I was even able to repeat the results in a little 10 gallon I have set up for the purpose of tinkering. Both times I used magnesium sulfate (epsom salts).
Also, lettuce nudibranchs are not nudibranchs, they're sea slugs, they also don't eat Bryopsis. They suctorial feeders and will utilize some of the chloroplasts from byopsis, but they will not make much of an impact on anything but the smallest outbreaks of bryopsis.
reefpeeper
Valuable Member
get a phosban reactor, weekly water changes, and manually pick out the stuff. also lower your time lights are on. this seems to have worked for me. i am just starting to get this stuff gone. takes time.
jcom
Active Member
Agreed, I used the 2 part (Randy Holmes Farley) Mag recipe and it definitely had an impact. I am now alternating dosage with both home recipe and Tech M, but I used home recipe for 2 weeks and it put the hurt on the Bryopsis. In my prior research, I found that many more people were having success with elevated Mag rather than lettuce slugs. In what I read, more often than not, the lettuce slugs did nothing.
SaraB
2500 Club Member
Check your RO membrane and filters. I was fueling mine with weekly water changes. If you have an in-line TDS meter, don't always trust that. Mine said 1 and it was much higher when tested with a hand-held unit. Changed out all the filters and added a new membrane and now it's gone!
