Killing Byropsis by raising Magnesium

[Sdoutreefer]

So Im in the middle of battling byropsis and decided to go at it with raising magnesium. What should my target magnesium level be? I read at least 1600ppm, but also read others raise it near 2000ppm. Would raising it higher than 1600ppm have bad side effects to my live stock? How fast/slow do I want to raise mag levels? Also, does it have to be Kent Tech M or will other mag supplements work?

 

[Jlobes]

ive read mixed reviews. some people report raising Mag and seeing no difference. apparently, some users say it is an actual component of the Kent TechM that works and not the Mg itself. Let us know how it works out and what you decide to do. Good Luck. Im in the middle of dealing with an algae infestation myself.

 

[Sdoutreefer]

Ya I read it has to strictly be Tech M. I have some ESV magnesium coming in the mail soon and need to decide if I should exhange it for Tech M or give the ESV a try.

 

[Eric B]

I would exchange it for the tech m as ESV won't touch the stuff from what I have read and if on pieces that you can treat outside the tank you can also use hydrogen peroxide, but only recommend for a spot treatment. It will kill it and is faster and cheaper than tech m and I just use a syringe to apply to the spots you are trying to kill off let it sit for a few minutes then rinse in some salt water and back into tank. There are some on other forums that are treating the whole tank with peroxide and having great success, but would go read how they are doing it before proceeding. It was on Reef central and sure it could be found in the search function. Good luck that stuff sucks!

 

[Sdoutreefer]

Ok thanks for the input! Ill be exchanging the ESV for Tech M.

I tried going the peroxide route. Did dips, spot treatments, and dosed my entire tank. The dips worked the best, but after three 5 minute dips, the byropsis managed to come back. Dosing my entire tank caused my green SPS to brown out. I actually lost a green slimer frag. So, needless to say i am no longer dosing peroxide.

How much Tech M should I buy? Total water volume is around 50-55 gallons.

 

[bmac16]

You have the same water volume as me and I bought 64oz and still have just over 32oz left.

 

[Reefing Madness]

Ive had several people run the system at 1600 with no ill affects.

 

[mfinn]

Here is a calculator.

Reef Chemistry Calculator

 

[Sdoutreefer]

Thanks for the link mfinn! Should I do anything different while dosing, as far as overskim or take my GFO offline?
Ive never dosed anything in the 7 years of being in the hobby so its new to me. Ive also never had to fight byropsis.

 

[mike007]

Most of the time these algae problems arise when the nutrient level is too high. This can be caused by overfeeding or excess phospshtes. I do not believe in all these quick fixes like raising mag. etc. Test your water and then you can determine what is out of balance.

 

[Sdoutreefer]

I tested Nitrates and Phosphates yesterday.
NO3: 2.5ppm
PO4: 0 (Via salifert)

I know Im not over feeding. I only feed once every 2 days and run GFO. I dont think its a cause of excess nutrients. I do 10% water change weekly now. I say 'now' because i was doing close to 35 gallons a week when GHA and byropsis were both present. I didnt know I had byropsis at the time or I would have gotten a jump on it then. But now only byropsis is in my tank.

 

[BiG-D]

It has to be the tech m from kent nothing els will work as its an impurity in tech m that kills it not the mag

 

[Reefing Madness]

Bryopsis is a clean water algae. It thrives in clean water, and rather not in the nutrient rich ones tha twe normally find Hair Algae and such.
Agreed about using the Tech M.

 

[TheSaint216]

When I did this I combined it with a three day lights out just because I really didnt want to see what was happening and if it was something else the lack of light might take it out. It did work, you need to get your Mag in the 1800 range though and keep it there for that amount of time. I think I turned lights on Day 3 and just kept bringing up the Mag. Also get yourself a cheap Turkey Baster from Walmart and blow your rocks off every day to get the garbage up into the water column. That was the best tip ever given to me and it helps keep my reef algae free today.

 

[mfinn]

Thanks for the link mfinn! Should I do anything different while dosing, as far as overskim or take my GFO offline?
Ive never dosed anything in the 7 years of being in the hobby so its new to me. Ive also never had to fight byropsis.

When I did the Tech M treatment I left my skimmer on.
Not sure, but I think you should take your GFO offline.

 

[typicalwhiteazn]

Throw a seahare into the mix to treat the byopsis and then up the mag with strictly Kent M. good luck, let us know how fast it clears up!

 

[Sdoutreefer]

I think Ill stay away from the sea hair just because i threw most of the badly covered rock in my sump with no light and doubt the sea hair wouldnt have much to eat on. Do sea hairs even eat byropsis?

 

[Fauna Marin]

HI
The growth of Briopsis showed you a problem in the nitrogencycle, you have areas where is a shortcut in the cycle and there will be produced No2. This is what the Briopsis want. You need to stabilize the nitrogencycle on that way that you add Nitrate. The problem you have is that the maesurement of N03 in seawater is extremly difficult and will be affected by the No2 in the water to showed wrong test levels. If you raise up the Nitrate level ( only over Sodiumnitrate ) you will see that the briopsis will gone and your system stablize much better. At the same time you need
to reduce your TraceElements in the water , best way here is to use a handfull Zeolith.
Also stop or reduce adding Carbon Sources and or bacteria products till the system is stabilized.

The problem of not balanced CarbonSources is that they can limited the work of the nitrobacter group which will brings then this results.

Rgds Claude

* sorry for my bad english i write from Germany please feel free to ask if something is not clear enough

 

[Sdoutreefer]

Thankyou all for the help! Thought id give yall an update. I increased the size of my CUC, and some one developed a taste for it. Slowly but surely it is disappearing! It might be something else, but the devil algae is definatly going away!

 

[Reef Pets]

You have to use Tech M magnesium. I don't think it's the magnesium, that's why some people have no luck with getting rid of it. It's believed that its other elements that are in Tech M that kills the algae. I can tell you first hand that other magnesium a don't work but using Tech M the algae starts turning white within a week and continues to die. Squirt Tech M directly onto the algae to help speed the process.