bryopsis problem

[MedicBMC]

So basically I have a problem with what I believe is bryopsis. I got some high end frags for dirt cheap back in june that were covered in it and it took hold in my tank and is starting to annoy me.

Tank specs:

34g Solana
Tunze 9002
Mp40w ES
media basket with filter floss, purigen and Chemipure elite
5g WC every week

I just want to get a definitive attack plan set so I can get this tank back on track

My plan:

ROX 0.8 Activated carbon, High capacity GFO from BRS in a filter sock
Raise MG to ~1600ppm
Manually remove as much as possible


Any suggestions or personal experiences to add would be appreciated! Thanks!

 

[happaman]

I'm slowly beating it back. It took over one of my tanks when I left for Chicago for 6 months and it's a b&%#$ to kill. I haven't tried Kent but I tried Epsom salts and SeaChem mag in a small tank with infested rock--raised the levels to 2,000 (Elos test kit) and nothing happened. Must be an inpurity in the Kent Mag as many have suggested. I manually remove and have doubled down on my GFO and ROX. Also started dripping kalk at nite and remove as much as I can. I've actually seen some dieback but it's still kickin'

 

[lurking]

Here is my experience with it personally. I am by no means the ultimate authority but this is what I went through.

It is actually a toxic algae and as such no tang, snail or crab will eat it. People may report success but I think sometimes people miss id bryopsis. Nothing will eat bryopsis. I dumped 150 turbo snails and 100 margarita snails in a 315 gallon overrun with the stuff. I also dumped 300 red legs and 200 blue legs in as well. Tried a trio of yellow tangs. Foxface. 2 rabbitfish. Purple tang. Brown tang. Nothing will eat it. Tried sea urchins and nothing.

Using the Tech M method worked for around 5 months. However if I let up on the dosing and the mag dropped below 1650 it would return quickly. There must be some impurity in the Tech M as it is the only brand that gave me a temporary reprieve. I was spending a lot of money on the gallon jugs. After a while myself and others noticed that after prolonged tech M dosing it built an immunity to it. No matter how much I would pour in it would not go away.

I tried manual removal but the stuff grows so quickly it was a super losing battle.

I tried lights out for 4 days. Nothing. It does not matter if it has 0 Po4 and N04, it will continue to live on.

I removed all coral I could salvage and went lights out for 2 weeks and it still lived.

Eventually after 10 months of aggravation I broke down the 315 and the 34 gallon tanks it was in. I still have it in a 90 gallon fowlr here that houses aggressive fish only. But whatevs. I seriously could find no solution. I looked all over the internet and found many people claiming success but always never worked for me. My boss is friends with Chris Brightwell and talked with him over and over about and he couldn’t figure it out either.

I hate that stuff. Seriously if you have the chance now, throw everything out in the garbage it’s on now before it takes over the tank.
__________________

 

[happaman]

Yeah it's friggin' evil. I've pulled some of my rock and dried it out and doing the acid bath. I've cleaned some rock with a wire brush and it hasn't grown back but some of the holdfasts get in small crevices where you can never get to them. I think if someone ever finds a natural predator or figures out what kills it they'll be a millionaire.

 

[AlexSeaWater2012]

I just won my battle with the devil-bryopsis, using the Kent Tech M magnesium method!
my tank had it really bad; and if you leave it untreated, it will take over your tank in a matter of days; at least, that has been my experience! Trust me, I read and I did alot of research on it...

*First of all, make sure you have the correct algae identified.*
It has a fern like appearance, and a dark green color...

*Second, are you feeding too much?? phosphates will only fuel it even more so!

*how old are your light bulbs? as your light bulbs get older, they change their light spectrum and shift onto the red spectrum, thus, giving growth to algae! your eye might not notice it, but any algae will!

of course there's more methods, but this is what I did, at first...
*bought a 64 once of Kent tech M mag..I have a 30 gallon tank..and used about 15 onces of it, but not at once!
*bought a Salifeart Mg test kit...not cheap $$, but worth having, imo
*lastly, changed my PC light bulbs to new ones.

First, I tested my Mag, and it was at 1250, a little low, but not too bad.

Then, I dosed it every day, for two weeks, no more than 50ppm...you can dose as high as 100ppm, but I only did it once. Keep in mind, I logged every thing!

Here, what you want to do is, IF, your mag is low, raise it UNTIL, you have reached 1500 OR 1600ppm.

Then, have it like this, for about two weeks. Once you have reached 1500 or 1600ppm, have the mag lower back to normal readings of 1350 or 1450 ppm, thru via regular water changes! During this process, if you decide to do it, you may, manually remove it OR have it come off by it self! But, imo, is better if you remove by hand!! is faster and easier.

this process, may take longer, depending on how bad your tank is infested...with this said, also, keep your eye on your SG, because Kent Tech M mag, has the tendency of raising, but not by much..but still, just keep your eye on it...however, it might lower your pH, so keep an eye on that as well..

during the process of it, I did not lose any LPS or softies corals, or fish, or any other animals. I have read that corals may bleach, but not to the point of death, and recover nicely; however, my corals never bleached, maybe because I raised it very slowly, thus giving them time to adjust!

up to now, I still dose but not a lot, just enough to keep my mag levels in check, and I have not seen it return!!!

here's a basic link on how to do it:
http://www.saltwateraquariumlighting.com/bryopsis/

GoodLuck and hang in there, you will win, I did!

 

[smalltime]

I first put it my tank about 8 years ago thinking my tangs and clean up crew would take care of it. A year later and this stuff growing everywhere I fraged everything I could and dried all live rock out and started fresh. I read bryopsis is just like bubble algae, it can survive with 0 no3/po4
Best of luck.

 

[swavings]

Best way to get rid of that crap!!!!! Just throw away the live rock that its on!!!!!

That stuff is nasty. I have a hug amazing piece of LR that is was on. I tried everything. Eventually gave up and got rid of it in 2 minutes. Just threw out the rock. The rock was expensive but well worth it.

 

[Clifford]

Here is my experience with it personally. I am by no means the ultimate authority but this is what I went through.

It is actually a toxic algae and as such no tang, snail or crab will eat it. People may report success but I think sometimes people miss id bryopsis. Nothing will eat bryopsis. I dumped 150 turbo snails and 100 margarita snails in a 315 gallon overrun with the stuff. I also dumped 300 red legs and 200 blue legs in as well. Tried a trio of yellow tangs. Foxface. 2 rabbitfish. Purple tang. Brown tang. Nothing will eat it. Tried sea urchins and nothing.

Using the Tech M method worked for around 5 months. However if I let up on the dosing and the mag dropped below 1650 it would return quickly. There must be some impurity in the Tech M as it is the only brand that gave me a temporary reprieve. I was spending a lot of money on the gallon jugs. After a while myself and others noticed that after prolonged tech M dosing it built an immunity to it. No matter how much I would pour in it would not go away.

I tried manual removal but the stuff grows so quickly it was a super losing battle.

I tried lights out for 4 days. Nothing. It does not matter if it has 0 Po4 and N04, it will continue to live on.

I removed all coral I could salvage and went lights out for 2 weeks and it still lived.

Eventually after 10 months of aggravation I broke down the 315 and the 34 gallon tanks it was in. I still have it in a 90 gallon fowlr here that houses aggressive fish only. But whatevs. I seriously could find no solution. I looked all over the internet and found many people claiming success but always never worked for me. My boss is friends with Chris Brightwell and talked with him over and over about and he couldnt figure it out either.

I hate that stuff. Seriously if you have the chance now, throw everything out in the garbage its on now before it takes over the tank.
__________________

James is right nothing eats this stuff. I also agree that tech m is the best choice to try to do battle with this evil algae. However, I do feel that nitrate and phosphate do play a part in its exstinction. The way I beat it years ago and have helped others with it is this. First get API Marine Algaefix, Second get a gallon of Tech M, third remove all nitrate and phosphate, and finally never ever!!!!!!! manually remove it in your tank. It is a good idea to remove what you can outside your tank with a tooth brush and ro water making sure you shake it off extremely well in ro before putting it back in your tank. If you want to make extra sure find some easy to remove culerpa and place in your sump as this will compete for nutrients with the byropsis. It takes around two weeks to see it dissappear with an extra three to four weeks to make sure it won't come back. Good luck that stuff sucks!

 

[coral diver]

Experience, 2010 neglected my tank due to heavy work load bryopsis bloomed and almost covered the whole tank don't want to use Chemical did my research on a natural way to get rid of it and found a fish that will do i, luckily there was a hobbyist who's trying to get rid of the said fish and bought it for cheap, introduced it to my tank in 2.5 weeks it cleaned it all

Solution, BlackSailFin Blenny and make sure they sell you the right one a combtooth blenny is almost identical

 

[Tangwich]

hey, i have great news...it isn't so indestructable as originally thought to be. i finally beat it..i got a sea hare and changed out my rodi filters. i also manually removed it wherever it was growing (returns and rocks). all you have to do is find out what's "feeding" it and stop that so it doesn't continue to grow. Then you get to removing it and there you go, no more of that nasty stuff. p.s i also did raise my magnessium.

 

[happaman]

L L Cool did you use Kent to raise your mag?

 

[Tangwich]

no, i used the brightwells mag and my dosing pump.

 

[lurking]

no, i used the brightwells mag and my dosing pump.

Brightwell mag does not work on bryopsis. Chris himself admits this. Perhaps you had regular HA if a fish was eating it?

 

[Tangwich]

lol..you said yourself it was bryopsis by the pictures i took and i researched it further and it was...i am not claiming that brightwells did it by itself..i am stating that by putting together a game plan and throwing an entire arsenal of weapons to fight it, everything combined in a group effort defeited the ugly monster.

 

[JOSE CASAS]

I have beaten it many times with a sea hare and having low po4 also. No mag, no fish just a sea hare and gfo.

 

[lurking]

lol..you said yourself it was bryopsis by the pictures i took and i researched it further and it was...i am not claiming that brightwells did it by itself..i am stating that by putting together a game plan and throwing an entire arsenal of weapons to fight it, everything combined in a group effort defeited the ugly monster.

im glad you got rid of it. That stuff is uber evil!

 

[MichaelE]

I had it before i my 65 gallon.. I had read about tech m so that was the first thing i tried.. bought a gallon from marine depot for 30 bucks and dumped around a 200ml a day in.. i also would use a Syringe and squirt the tech m on thick patches(this would make the bryopsis turn white and they would hold in the tech m which would slowly eat it away). After about 4 days of squirting tech m directly on a bryopsis patch it would turn completely white and die.. it took my about 2 weeks and a whole gallon of tech m but i was able to get it under control and i havent seen it spread since then, which has been about 6 months.. just my experience.

 

[MichaelE]

Oh and make sure not to manuel remove as stated before, it went from being on one small frag on my tank to every single rock and area it could grab onto

 

[kdtran]

Tried sea hare but it does not eat it (i think it got sick and i can't find it now)

 

[zigginit]

boiling water and turkey baster is the best way to go... dont wait too long or its pointless, it will be everywere. i tried the MAG thing and it didnt work, i had a sea hair and it will not eat it (or very little)... only hair algea. i had it in my bio cube back in the day very bad... like super bad. once i decided to get a new tank i kinda let go of my maintinace of the BC and i think a low PH kllled it off because it went away on its own. i reused all the rock and it never came back.