My eternal curse - bryopsis; treating WITHOUT fluconazole?

[AngryMike2016]

Yes, for six weeks straight. It didn't do anything; no decrease in film algae on the glass, no affect on nutrients, zip.

 

[1stNoel]

That sucks. It worked wonders for my tank.

 

[AngryMike2016]

Yeah, I had such high hopes for it

 

[Sallstrom]

I think the collector and black long spined urchins are great, Tripneustes gratilla and Diadema setusum.

I did win a battle once by removing by hand/shorten the algae and then move all snails to the rocks with algae. This was done many many times over a couple of months.

 

[BigRedReefer MT]

While researching and asking around for ways to combat my gha jungle I was growing I stumbled upon a thread where somebody was syringing boiling rodi water on patches of algae. Once the algae was weakened apparently their clean up crew and fish would attack it. I never tried it, but it could be a chemical free way to rid it from rocks not directly adjacent to corals. Sorry to hear about you frustrating battle.

 

[fishead]

I feel your pain AngryMike!!! As mentioned in another thread, I had same result as you with flucon. Very sick acros and bryopsis still here. Slowly winning the battle though with manual removal and targeted clean up crew. If you can find a couple of tropical abalone, mine much bryopsis. Very cool critters. By day they are upside down under a rock somewhere and they are out and about all night eating algae. I've got three in a 170 gallon tank. They are about four inches long so can really ingest a heap in a night. They haven't dislodged any corals in their travels, they seem to be pretty cautious feeling their way around slowly. Turbo snails eat it too.

 

[Jeferson Stutz]

Do

Hi folks,

I don't know what ancient Lovecraftian evil I angered (hi Cthulu), but I seem to be cursed with eternally returning bryopsis in my 90 gallon SPS dominant tank.

I've treated the tank twice with fluconazole, and the same thing happened each time - all visible bryopsis dies off, and most of my acropora RTN/STN, despite obsessively close monitoring of no3/po4/alk. And within a month or so, the bryopsis returns.

My second treatment concluded a few weeks ago, and the tank looked amazing. Yesterday, I noticed a few tiny fronds poking their vile little heads up out of the rock work.

I would really, really like to stave this off before it becomes a problem, and I'd like to do so without murdering my acro population. So, there's zero way I am going to use fluconazole again. FYI, I've tried both Reef Flux, and Flux RX, with the same results.

Has anybody in here ever managed to keep this devil algae at bay WITHOUT fluconazole? If so, please let me know how!

-Mike

I vanished Bryopsis dosing Lithium. No coral harmful. Look for Triton Reagents LI

Thanks

 

[AngryMike2016]

Do


I vanished Bryopsis dosing Lithium. No coral harmful. Look for Triton Reagents LI

Thanks

Do you have some more details on how you did this, please?

 

[jda]

If you do go with a natural cure, then make sure that you have numbers enough to make them hungry, or don't otherwise give tastier food. The Mag Foxface that I had that destroyed it would not eat it in another guys tank becuase he always had nori on a clip and fed homemade seafood mix 4-5 times a day - why would the foxface eat it?

Mexican Turbos will eat it too if you get enough of them and they have nothing else to eat. You need a good lot of them.

Most of the natural cures "failures" that you see are some doods with a few urchins or snails who are getting fed well enough in other places to not bother with the Bryopsis. They just did not have enough.

 

[jda]

IO salt is always high in Lithium. I do not know if it is high enough, but you could switch for a while and see. IO is a plenty-good reef salt on it's own and if it just happens to help with Bryopsis, then all the better.

 

[AngryMike2016]

Thanks everyone, I really appreciate all of the input. Feeling very supported!

 

[philosophile]

If it’s just a small patch, and it’s something you can take out, then i’d Just blowtorch it.

As for flucanozole, and any other medication/chemical treatments, I always underdose first and see what that does. Usually half dosing treatments works just as well as full dose, and is less likely to harm your corals. Just for future consideration.

 

[AngryMike2016]

If it’s just a small patch, and it’s something you can take out, then i’d Just blowtorch it.

As for flucanozole, and any other medication/chemical treatments, I always underdose first and see what that does. Usually half dosing treatments works just as well as full dose, and is less likely to harm your corals. Just for future consideration.

The 2nd time I dosed fluc, I did 33% of the recommended dose, and it was just as harmful to my SPS.

 

[HOOPDEEZ]

That’s unfortunate that flucanozole had those side effects for you. When I did the treatment all corals (mostly sps, some lps, no softies) we’re fine, as well as all my macro algae. I used a lil more then half the dose (I used generic flucanozole) and treated for 21 days. I was very hesitant to use it, but bryopsis is a $!@%*, and I’m glad I did. I haven’t seen it in months, and hope and pray it doesn’t come back. Good Luck!

 

[RoyC]

Get a Lettuce Sea Slug, Green (Elysia spp.) Completely wiped out the Bryopsis.

 

[drblakjak55]

Bryopsis, green hairy algae need substrate to grow. All the detritus that accumulates in cracks becomes soil for growth. Manually remove what you can than turkey baste all the rocks every two or three days. Takes a month than gone forever as long as you blow away the soil for the algae growth. No chemicals and happy clean corals.

 

[Aframereef]

Black long spined sea urchin. Diadema antillarum

 

[tario]

Following along with this post. I've tried everything.

 

[danreefman]

Got rid of mine with escalated magnesium and heavy water changes

 

[Leicobra]

Hi Mike, I have had this algae covering my rock work once. Tried adding chemicals like you did but same result. I guess I got lucky with my tank, I had a cyano out break. The bryopsis
Slowly disappeared as more cyano grow. Then I just treated the tank with half dose of chemi clean and few large water changes. It never made it's way back. I am thinking they both completing for nutrients. Especially the organic matter. I would do some manual removal if you can. Grow algae in a reactor or sumb area to compete the available nutrients in the tank with regular water changes. I hate to turn your tank into a science experiment, at least I feel this will have the least effect on your corals.