Bryopsis Battle

[picoreef78]

Got a few little strands of a frag. Pulled them off after the dip but they grow up. I was trying manual removal but it has started to explode.

 

great page for info: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=167632

 

Anyway planned to increase magnesium to 1500-1600. Got Kent M tech, mg tester and finally a alkalinity tester.

 

Mg was 920 ? (yikes)

alk- 2.0 mEq/l (yikes)

Ca for the first time was 380 ( usually 440)

pH 8.1

p 1.026

PO 4 0.25 ( had been 0 for 4 weeks)

NH3, NO3 and NO2 all zero

 

What happen, no a lot of Calcifying corals (3 chalice, two porites)

Ridiculous amount of new baby snails? lots of shells there

 

10 % weekly water changes with Instant Ocean Reef crystals

 

Dosed MG twice got the correct response 80 mEq/l per day following directions 1ml/g

920 to 1080.

 

Here will be the photo journal of control with water chemistry specs

 

 

[jnelson]

Good luck with the magnesium. May also want to look into hydrogen peroxide.

[picoreef78]

That will be my next venture if this does not work, take out a dip the individual rocks, It all over the sand bed so I just might have to replace it.

[picoreef78]

Ok day 5 now. Mg is 1360. This stuff is coming in like crazy. May resort to spot treatment on a couple of patches vs H2O2 dip soon to see if killing plus high magnesium work. The sand bed is now infiltrated with the stuff < 2 weeks.

 

[picoreef78]

More

 

 

NO2, NO3, PO4 and NH3 all zero, pH 8.2 and Ca still low at 380. dka 3.6 mEq/l

 

Sand Bed

 

[brandon429]

thats not bryopsis in my opinion, its red brush algae ?? genus, its worse than bryopsis, more likely to overgrow.

 

 

Peroxide, trust me, check out that thread in the disease forum but Id post with us here before using it, let's get a good strategy before doing it, but it will work.

 

the params are off but you knew that lol

 

just larger water changes or dosing will help that, but they won't cure the type of algae you have, only manual removal will, there's no animal Id trust, your tank is telling you to do something now.

 

I can promise you one thing, if you do peroxide, its all dead by the weekend. If you delay any longer, you may lose the tank.

 

The absolute best way to use peroxide is to drain the tank and spray/drip it directly on the algae. remove any fish you have to a holding tank. for other rocks, lift em out and treat externally. This is the best way, if you absolutely can't drain the tank lets consider a systemic treatment, the algae will certainly take over if we don't act now. if you do, its 100% gone by the weekend, that's how fast it works.

 

Magnesium will not help this type of algae

[brandon429]

in going back and perusing the pics the tank has a lot of life and corals, I hate to see you sytemically treat it although if you refuse to do a full drain that's the best option.

 

The best thing you can do is drain the tank all the way down to the substrate, leave the corals in there they won't mind. The huge water change is great for this tank, it will reset params, clean out dissolved waste and be a breath of fresh air. It will do no harm, only good, to change out all the water. Any fish you have can be taken and relocated for the treatment, after peroxide sets on that algae for just two mins you can refill it, re add the fish, and watch the red die.

 

if you are hell bent on not draining, we can run a systemic that will likely work, but the spot treatment method is guaranteed for sure to not hurt anything. In seeing the corals you have, much of the guys doing systemics had them too and they didn't die. check that thread!!

[picoreef78]

Will check it out.

[Swanwillow]

wow...

 

I beat bryopsis recently (bryopsis looks like little patches of ferns)

 

I know, its odd how I 'won'.

 

Every day, I manually pulled (not scrubbed) the rock in tank. (reduce dieoff of stuff=reduce nitrate and phosphate that it can take up due to dieing stuff from taking the rock out of the water and doing xyz to it)

 

I fed only once/week, if that, during the battle.

 

My tank also caught it while it was cycling. Very last part of new tank syndrom-and mine too, came in on a frag (from a popular web site) I thought it was cute at first... rofl. I tried getting it when it was a small patch, but the patches grew and grew.

 

Now, its gone. Well, its not visible to the naked eye. The last big remnants were eaten by a turbo snail.

[Reverend]

i had bryopsis, got rid of it using that tech m mag. it totally works, doesn't really make sense but it does.

 

i've also tried algaefix by API and it actually works as well, if u can find it.

 

HOWEVER, this was in a 65 gallon with a 30 gallon sump/fuge so not sure how good of an idea it is to use these chemical fixes in smaller systems...

[picoreef78]

These things look like little ferns.

[picoreef78]

So all levels 0 mg today is 1520. No dent in growth dipped a couple of rocks in 3% hydrogen peroxide.

[brandon429]

full prediction: algae turns white by friday. falls off by monday. some retreatments may be needed, but when you see the pathmover that is peroxide you w be hooked lol

 

 

 

I agree magnesium will help its been really well covered in a lot of threads it would make a nice deterrent to support it seems

after you burn off this mass, you can test all kinds of preventatives in the future and that will be helpful to nano reefing.

[picoreef78]

3% dipped live rock x 2 minute seen the loss of bryopsis. Mg at 1520 no effect on the spot treated bryopsis or the sand bed bryopsis. Will dip the rest of the rock today. And continue high mag for 1-2 weeks to help prevent regrowth while I manually remove sand bed bryopsis.

[picoreef78]

Spot treatment did not work.

 

Dipping for 1 minute rock did however cause bryopsis to melt away after two days.

 

30s treatment of my Zoa's in 3% also did wonders and the Zoa's looking better than ever, without bryopsis growing through it.

 

Mg came down to 1200 after two days of not dosing or checking? last level was 1520. No luck getting rid of it though, still had a tone in the sand bed. It does however keep the bryopsis I have manually removed from showing up again in the sand bed. Hopefully the combo of hi Mg, 3% peroxide dips and manual removal from sand bed will do the trick, Still have a spot next to the GTBA and a conch shell I need to dip.

 

Plan continue hi Mg for 2-3 more weeks and see if letting the levels drop to normal results in new bryopsis sprouting up.

 

Just found two small bubbles of green algae on some recent LFS coral purchases which I am assuming are bubble algae, will dip those two before they explode everywhere.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[brandon429]

thanks for the update that helps.

 

man thats tough when the infestation is down low like that, really hard to get to for spot treatments.

[fish-boy]

To help, I would remove any sand that has algae on it. I did this and I still have enough sand to keep going. Just pull on the algae and dont try to remove any sand that is attached. H2O2 is my suggestion for the rest.

[picoreef78]

Thats what I have been doing, it pulls of 1-2 mm cap of sand mixed with the roots, that just gets tossed.

[damage31]

I feel your pain... I too am still battling with this pest-I just cant seem to beat it 100%. And like you, its in the sand bed now, which is driving me nuts... every week I pull more and more sand out.

[jestep]

I had to push up well above 2500ppm for bryopsis using tech-m. Even at that, it took about 3 months to get rid of it, which required several gallons of tech-m. Manual removal is completely futile. But, if you get one of the electric scrubbers from walmart or drs f&s, (looks like a huge yellow electric toothbrush) you can take a piece of rock out and get rid of most of it in a bucket when you do a water change. This really helps to get headway once it starts to take over the rock.

 

I would get a second opinion on the water params. Have truly zero ppm on NO3, is very hard to accomplish. I couldn't gain much ground on mine, until I got NO3 and PO4 to very low levels and kept Mg above 2500. From what I've read, bryopsis has a very hard time growing without excess nutrients.

 

Also, have you confirmed that what you're dealing with is not a feather caulerpa? The green algae in the first post looks much more like caulerpa than bryopsis. Caulerpa grows in straight rows just like the pictures whereas bryopsis grows randomly everywhere. Caulerpa would not respond at all to Mg treatment and would have no problem with zero NO3 and PO4.

 

Anyway, if you're sure it is bryopsis, just keep treating with tech-m. I personally wouldn't hesitate to push to 2500'ish ppm and maintain it for several weeks before conceding the tech-m effort.

[brandon429]

by that method won't he have to maintain high mg for the life of the tank to prevent recurrence>? the toothbrushing seems like it would disperse fragments all over the tank. thats interesting because I don't check any water params and manually remove all algae and the tank stays pristine. The algae comes back slower, not faster. For larger tanks that can't do giant water changes as easy I agree mg dosing would be good long term management, and GFO in a filter if we are going to do the starve algae method.

[picoreef78]

I will have to look at calupera. Anyway the stuff I pulled out still is not coming back and dipping LR 1-2 rocks at a time with 3% peroxide seems to do a great job a killing it.

 

GReat info, thanks.

[jestep]

I use the brush in a 5 gallon bucket of water I'm removing during a change. And rinse really well to make sure not to introduce fragments back into the tank. If you take out 10 gallons at a time, you can scrub in 1 and rinse in the other. This is also dependent on your corals being able to be moved with the rock without damage. Scrubbing in the tank or not rinsing bryopsis fragments would be really bad.

 

The other reason I would suggest scrubbing, is that when the bryopsis dies, it kills your water parameters, NO3 and PO4 go up as more die, which helps the existing algae to grow faster. It's a tough cycle to get control of without figuring out how to remove most of the algae.

[brandon429]

I scrubbed my rocks in another container when the tanks were new to take off the diatoms everyone said to leave in, that method is great. at least its not dispersing spores or regenerative material into the display.

 

 

people with algae turf scrubbers laugh at our aims, to exclude all algae, but its shocking to me someone could set up a trough of green hair algae and utilize it (I know there are successful models)

 

it would be nicer if one could appreciate a little algae growth and not mind, ats people do, but my wiring is different can't stand the stuff

[picoreef78]

So now about three weeks out from dosing, combination of 3% peroxide dips of rock and frags, mechanical removal from sand bed and Mg dosing 1500-1600 no regrowth. Looking good but know my worry is growth from the sand bed once I lower the Mg levels to 1300 ish. Will keep it high for another two weeks or so.