Bryopsis & Redsea N03 P04 X

[Mark Taber]

I have been suffering from Bryopsis for a while now and unknowingly feeding it not realising that RO/DI does not remove all N04 (my input water has about 40ppm Nitrates). My Nitrates where around 20ppm with phosphates measuring 0. Over the last 2 months I have been dosing RedSea N03 P04 X and my Nitrates measure 0 - 0.2 with phosphates still measuring 0 for the past 6 weeks. Since my Nitrates have lowered, the Bryopsis has gone crazy and is now much worse. It looks like it is dying as the ends of the algae have turned white but it just continues to grow daily. Anyone else seen Bryopsis grow when their Nitrates are real low?

For information, I have tried reducing my led whites to 0 and just use the blues but this makes no difference, the algae still grows.

 

[redfishbluefish]

Since you now have your nitrates under control, use Fluconazole to knock out that Bryopsis, and guaranteed it will be gone! Fluconazole is amazing.

 

[Mark Taber]

Thanks, although there are excellent results out there using Fluconazole, I am always worried about adding anything to my reef aquarium. Anyone know why lower Nitrates is causing it to grow more and if I keep my Nitrates low enough for long enough, will it burn out? With both Nitrates and Phosphotes at zero, I wonder where is it getting its nutrient source from as I dont overfeed. Could be that as the algae is dying the Bryopsis is feeding off the nutrients quicker than the bacteria can?

 

[rpate2]

Following

 

[Mark Taber]

Let me add a bit more detail to my progress as although I do not want to speak too soon, I am seeing further die off of the algae. My aquarium is 200 litres and I am currently dosing 6ml per day of Redsea N03 P04-X which is obviously very high and 2ml higher than the recommended dosage. I found that if I dose anything under 5ml, I detect nitrate every other day. I am assuming the die off is leaching Nitrate back into the tank and there is not enough bacteria to cope. I will therefore carry on dosing 6ml a few more days and assuming the die off continues, I will drop it down to 5ml and then 4ml testing Nitrate every day to ensure I do not see any Nitrates. I am wet skimmer emptying about 1.5 cupfuls of waste water from my skimmer (Tunze 9012) each day.
My corals are opening every day although I would say not as much as before dosing started so I am carefully monitoring them. I am hoping this high level of dosage for a week will strip all nutrients from the water starving the algae but we will see.
I am very impressed at how quickly Redsea N03 P04-X reduced nitrates, it only took about 1 week to get down to 1ppm.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Thanks, although there are excellent results out there using Fluconazole, I am always worried about adding anything to my reef aquarium. Anyone know why lower Nitrates is causing it to grow more and if I keep my Nitrates low enough for long enough, will it burn out? With both Nitrates and Phosphotes at zero, I wonder where is it getting its nutrient source from as I dont overfeed. Could be that as the algae is dying the Bryopsis is feeding off the nutrients quicker than the bacteria can?

The bryopsis will win. I did the same for a year.
I stripped the water till the zoas nearly died etc etc.

Bryo if you do the research has several amazing feeding strategies.
So A lot of what your seeing on the numbers and growth is not entirely accurate

I used ph several times to blast the bryo and it worked but it came back.

I have a buzzare amount of bivalves nps bugs and algaes feather dusters.
All survived.

I have been the very last person to worry about algae, cyano etc or ever reccomend and chem option.

Try the flucozanole. You won't win against the Bryopsis.

You'll have a bout a month of higher nutrients from the dead algae and the lack of the bryo pulling out excess nutrints like a refugium does but nothin extrorinary like what VIbrant does to a tank.

 

[Mark Taber]

I think you maybe right but I want to run this a little longer. If as I am sure you are right, it does not die off, I will try flucozanole. Still trying to find an article that explains how flucozanole actually works. What is in flucozanole that kills the algae and how?

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

These folks have done an excellent write up.


https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/bryopsis-cure-my-battle-with-bryopsis-using-fluconazole.285096/

 

[Mark Taber]

Thanks for the link. So an update from me, I cut back my dosage down to 5ml and after 2 days, I detected my Nitrates rise to 0.1 - 0.5 so have again increased to 6ml. I feed sparingly so it is interesting to know where these Nitrates are coming from. I can only assume the die off of the algae which continues. I am wondering if the algae is not Bryopsis and rather an aggressive form of GHA as it continues to turn white and die. It seems to continue to grow on the silicon aquarium seal and on the black skimmer body which sits in the main aquarium.
Corals still seem OK although I have seen them looking better.
On the whole, I am seeing good die off but I am aware that if it is Bryopsis, I will probably loose this battle.