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Bryopsis or GHA?


holy carp

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I can't say that this looks like the textbook bryposis photos I've seen on the web, which look more like feathers. But it is stiffer and branches more than my other GHA that looks more like fur.

 

Can someone identify this and let me know what the best course of action is? I just picked up some Kent Tech M to try if it is bryopsis.

 

Thanks.

 

5w9gmv.jpg

2h6t7bs.jpg

 

Tinypic normally reduces image size, so here they are zoomed at the most focused area.

xojqbl.jpg

172vf4.jpg

 

If it's not bryopsis, I'm using phosguard and carbon, which I switched out a week ago, but this stuff just grows.

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Thanks, tamberav. What's the recommendation? Same course of action as GHA? I think I'm going to have to do some h2o2 again, though, since it is not easily removed from the rock (perhaps tweezers will work). I'm just cautious, since the last time I overdid h2o2 and bleached all my sps.

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  • 2 weeks later...

So...

nitrates = 0 (red sea)

phosphates = 0 (hanna ULR phosphorus)

 

and yet it grows.

 

I pulled the little Utter Chaos frag to clean it off. The algae is strong and stiff. It doesn't collapse when out of water:

2igzwgm.jpg

 

Here's what came off that little plug:

2pu013t.jpg

 

The micro brittle stars seem to love it. I do not.

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Try some peroxide dips for about 35-40 seconds and then dip them in a container of tank water then place them back in the tank. If it is a brownish color and looks kind of like a feather at the top of the stems (at least mines is like feathers at the top) then it Bryopsis and ITS THE DEVIL !!!! I have been fighting it for months now and no matter what I do,it doesn't go away.

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Try some peroxide dips for about 35-40 seconds and then dip them in a container of tank water then place them back in the tank. If it is a brownish color and looks kind of like a feather at the top of the stems (at least mines is like feathers at the top) then it Bryopsis and ITS THE DEVIL !!!! I have been fighting it for months now and no matter what I do,it doesn't go away.

 

 

Did you try the Tech M thing? I've slowly started using it to increase my magnesium levels. I'm not sure if it's bryopsis unless someone tells me so. It branches, but it doesn't look any more like a feather than what you see in those photos.

 

What kind of peroxide are you using? I tried rubbing it down with a cotton swab dipped in 35%h2o2. I'll see how quickly it comes back.

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I did the Kent tech m to get rid of some bryopsis I had. It worked well but as my levels started to come back down I saw a few strands left here and there. However I will have to take a closer look at my tank again as I don't think I've seen any lately. The kent tech m did wash out my colors in my euphyllia species a bit.

I can't tell if yours is bryopsis for sure as I am not the greatest with algae.

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Get one small long spined urchen that will eat it all i had the same alge in my pico and no matter what i did it still grow

 

Ugh... not encouraging, but I'll look into it. Thanks.

I think this tank might be too snug for an urchin.

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Ha!

 

OK, I'm all in... this is what my elegance rock looks like this morning:

350nk2d.jpg

 

It grew there from a bit of fuzz over last weekend while I was out of town.

 

Are blue knuckle different from blue legged? I have to look for them. C'mon Manhattan Aquariums, stock up already!!!!! :D

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Turbos will help, but you have to increase nutrient export or reduce nutrient intake, or it will just come back. I have seen algae like that in one of my tanks that got a good deal of sunshine from a skylight. Does your tank get any sun?

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don't dip any corals or dose h202 to the water, we could treat that with 35% above and bleach nothing by doing either drained tank work or external work

 

only contacting nontargets with peroxide bleaches them, safe ways are there.

 

The rasp method will beat that, I claim no other better demo'd way can be found, certainly not one as time compliant. if any other better method is known, link em up threads. this beats Tech M up, down and sideways.

 

 

 

http://reef2reef.com/threads/5-new-bryopsis-challenges-are-posted-and-all-can-be-cured-using-a-rasp-and-a-test-rock.257862/

 

that mode above cannot bleach anything, and takes a couple hours to be algae free. regrowth variables are fully up to you to experiment. being algae free is no experiments its literally certain in a couple hours

 

per the above, doesn't matter if you use tech m as your final kill agent...just don't dose it to the water, or add it to nontargets, rules are the same across algae chems.

 

it makes a fine emersed post-rasp application, so would kalk paste, lots of things. Id still use peroxide but it would be applied surgically, not broadcast.

 

You are acting early, nice. these invaders regardless of exact ID are featured in thousands of problem tank threads, thousands, including ones using nutrient controls -before- the non quarantine import of the invader into the system.

 

Yours is gettable, if you cant lift out rocks which is absolutely ideal, then do tank drain treatments with water changes thereafter to remove settled fragments rinsed off the holdfast spot.

 

I believe that method above is the only real hope one has at stopping this kind of holdfast-based invader, and all forms of action on the water only are such a risk to the tank we might as well be feeding it some planted tank fertilizer too.

 

anything but a clinch win is unacceptable unless you are dealing with cyano or diatom persistence, those are easy to fix with full tank cleanings but this rooted kind is dangerous, even if someone out there already got lucky and beat it with a snail or two, or lights out, or some other method never found to recur in problem algae threads.

 

 

 

 

not bryopsis, I vote one of the myriad gha variations.

 

The sole causative for you is non QT import of hard substrates, hardly any of us do that. It has zero reflection on your tanks nutrients, so don't attack the water. those species will grow in both low and high nutrient settings, a character of the holdfast types...its not that we cant find posts of this or that method working on them, all kinds of variables are at play. the rasp method simply works all the time, its a matter of how deep your holdfasts go and how deep you go in getting them out. your dentist doesn't short change you when you expect them to remove plaque, bleeding often indicates a job well done. we are doing exactly that here with total command over the invader. I cured that guys plug in one pass with a pocketknife.

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FML indeed...

 

I don't open the shades until evening since the temp gets so high if I do, so this tank doesn't get natural sunlight. Room is air conditioned, so tank temp ranges from 79-80.5°F

 

Brandon - planning on rasping this weekend with h2o2 spot treatment. Will review your linked thread. Thanks. Do you know what type of algae this is?

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Well, it was definitely introduced from one of the frags I picked up at Reef a palooza.

 

I can rule out the RFA's - they had no substrate.

I can probably rule out the leptoseris, since I broke it off the plug until nothing but coral flesh and freshly broken ceramic were exposed. But with those little spores, who knows.

The rainbow monti was broken off its plug. The substrate it was on was so brittle that it immediately fell apart into 3 separate bits. I had to glue it onto a new rock. There was no evidence at the time, but the holdfast could possibly have penetrated deep into that soft stuff.

 

The utter chaos is a possibility (probability), since I was careful not to disturb them. I replaced the plug itself with my own, but the substrate under the polyps is probably the culprit.

 

I did dip all the frags into 3% h2o2 mixed with tank water at 50/50 for 5 minutes, but that may have been too weak of a solution.

 

Of course, it doesn't matter where it came from, it's there now, and has quickly found its way to all my rocks and also in the frag-fuge. I noticed a slight green fuzziness on the glass last night. I'm not sure how to treat this without unleashing a ton of algae bits into the system water.

 

The rasping will commence tomorrow (great way to spend a vacation day, ha ha) - I'll post results as the efforts progress.

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http://reef2reef.com/threads/5-new-bryopsis-challenges-are-posted-and-all-can-be-cured-using-a-rasp-and-a-test-rock.257862/

 

 

 

we should do a single test rock in a tank before doing all of it, so that we know how hard to scrape, and how it responds with different chem follow ups on the cleaned area. I claim nothing can beat this method for ridding a tank of algae, not that its a non hard work option. dosing the water has variables as to if that works or not, or restricting nutrients...but ripping the invader out by the root is fast, solves both the original problem and the symptom of the invasion, these are nutrient independent invasions regardless of the strain of algae at hand, too many to guess from. cyano, diatoms, and a few strains of green algae are universal travelers, vectoring about regularly in tanks but these kinds above are strict hitchhikers, handy to consider when ridding a tank of them by force.

 

when we get things in a tank like valonia, invasive macro, bryopsis, certain types of brush algae, those didn't cross contaminate from other water sources by and large they were anchored substrate hitchhikers. Nutrient reduction works in some tanks for them, after purposeful import (non qt, 90% of us are guilty) but not all...this works for all anchored invaders without regard to nutrients, don't even need to know what phos or nitrate are in any of our anti algae threads its such a neat trick of biology in my opinion.

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What is rasping?

 

Basically scraping the rock with a tool to the point that your remove the top layer of rock in which the algae has rooted. That way you should remove the cells that will readily regrow.

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Basically scraping the rock with a tool to the point that your remove the top layer of rock in which the algae has rooted. That way you should remove the cells that will readily regrow.

 

AH I see. I always thought of this as "destroying the plug with my bone cutters". Every time I think I am going to chop a finger off!

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agreed I never pry frags off plugs, you cut cut cut from the base up and make it into powder, leaving only the frag good call. even regular old pliars work crush crush

 

for that demo it made a good substrate to show how the low porosity + scrape makes for possibly a one off fix, it has there.

 

 

*growback and needing two or more treatments is part of the variables we face in having farmed as much...live rock is more porous/retentive/rootable than that frag...earlier action=less growback work, but in the end a few retreats means nothing if a full tank and years of investment are to be saved. work work work for having farmed a little bit. that's both our reefers anthem and the three little pigs song nursery rhyme I think lol I don't know my child is 19 we haven't sang that in a year or so. its ok to use preventative animals as removers or preventative nutrient restrictions to try and starve it...but to make the tank algae free, and then see if they prevent regrowth, is simply a higher level of control where a plant never makes the decisions as we wait for compliance. at least its handy to know theres chance vs control at all points of the build.

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My tank is not 2gallons and the urchen cleaned it in 3weeks and then it moved on too a bigger tank, so if you find a small one you will have no problem alge in 2-4 weeks.

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My tank is not 2gallons and the urchen cleaned it in 3weeks and then it moved on too a bigger tank, so if you find a small one you will have no problem alge in 2-4 weeks.

 

Doesn't the Urchin eat other inverts?

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My tank is not 2gallons and the urchen cleaned it in 3weeks and then it moved on too a bigger tank, so if you find a small one you will have no problem alge in 2-4 weeks.

No i never had any problems in any of my tanks.

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