reefsrule Posted September 11, 2007 Share Posted September 11, 2007 Thanks for the info. Seachem claims to have 'no ammonia' and I don't see that claim on any other bottle. Whatever they do for that must affect the product. Time to spend more money It sucks that they don't sell this stuff in pet stores; shipping. Link to comment
tinyreef Posted September 11, 2007 Share Posted September 11, 2007 disclaimer: only throw this out there because this is the Advanced forum if it's specifically the magnesium portion of the formula that cripples the bryopsis, a cheap option may be epsom salts (MgSo3). while i'm not so fond of throwing that much sulfate into the tank, i believe there is some MgCl in the epsom mixture. or you can locate a small bag of de-icer that is predominantly MgCl to supplement, e.g. my own two-part mix is epsom salt (CVS) and dow flake (Home Depot). just a suggestion if you want to try a cheaper version. again, this isn't something beginners should try. it could be an easy receipe for a quick tank crash as well! Link to comment
Phixion Posted September 11, 2007 Share Posted September 11, 2007 disclaimer: only throw this out there because this is the Advanced forum if it's specifically the magnesium portion of the formula that cripples the bryopsis, a cheap option may be epsom salts (MgSo3). while i'm not so fond of throwing that much sulfate into the tank, i believe there is some MgCl in the epsom mixture. or you can locate a small bag of de-icer that is predominantly MgCl to supplement, e.g. my own two-part mix is epsom salt (CVS) and dow flake (Home Depot). just a suggestion if you want to try a cheaper version. again, this isn't something beginners should try. it could be an easy receipe for a quick tank crash as well! Sounds like the homemade 2-part for Ca and alk. Good info for the advanced though, Tiny! Link to comment
Hinecken Posted September 12, 2007 Share Posted September 12, 2007 For those of you that run calcium reactors, I have heard of people using a couple of spoonfuls of dolomite lime to release Mg into the water along with the calcium and alk. I'm actually debating on adding it to mine, but need to research it a bit more. Link to comment
Seanfg89 Posted September 14, 2007 Share Posted September 14, 2007 Just throwing this out there. I had the normal hair alage bloom after my tank cycled and in the spirit of experimentation I decided to use a syringe and squirt different additives I had onto the hair alage and see what would happen. I found that if you squirt Purple Up over the offending algae with a syringe (the Purple Up will stick and settle over the GHA if you squirt right on top of it) and then let it sit for a few days, the hair algae will then lift right off cleanly from the rock with tweezers and can even just be siphoned out with small diameter tubing. I've also yet to have GHA grow back over where I did this. Link to comment
reefsrule Posted November 9, 2007 Share Posted November 9, 2007 I think I should update, I don't normally come here often... I experienced no massive algae die off, but my water quality is beyond crap. I'm planning on spending more time on this during winter vacation (school isn't treating me nicely) by keeping the water clean as well as high magnesium levels. I also need a test kit. I think I should post pics on this evil stuff. Link to comment
Sushi Posted November 9, 2007 Share Posted November 9, 2007 Bryopsis IS the devil. I have been battling this algae for 2 yrs now... it's seriously one of the hardest stuff to get rid of. Link to comment
CGNano Posted November 9, 2007 Share Posted November 9, 2007 Mg is a key element in photosynthesis. Specifically, Mg ions allow chlorophyll molecules to form. Early studies demonstrated that increasing Mg concentrations dramatically increased CO2 consumption and O2 production by chloroplasts. With most enzymatic reactions a little of X is good and too much is bad (in this case X=Mg). I'm guessing that the bryopsis is more sensitive to the Mg levels than your chaeto. Perhaps its chloroplasts are more "efficient" than the chaeto's (Also a reason why low light might not bother the bryopsis) and thusly more sensitive to the increase in Mg. Either way, I'm glad it's working out. perhaps it kills off the bryopsis through photorespiration? Link to comment
disaster999 Posted December 5, 2007 Share Posted December 5, 2007 im getting bryopsis as well and its growing like weeds. i pluck them as best as i can on my GPS coral but they keep coming back. read this thread and also the RC thread and decided to try out the mg dosing to kill them. i got the red sea testing kit and followed the instructions as best as i can. and im getting a reading of around 1520ppm. which was within the range where the mg should be. should bump the mg to 1600ppm or higher? 1700ppm? Link to comment
Sushi Posted December 5, 2007 Share Posted December 5, 2007 I added a yellow tang to my 125G and my bryopsis is fading. If your tank isn't large enough, be a tang and manually remove the stuff! Just take the rock out and give it a good scrub w/your old water change water. Link to comment
varanus37 Posted December 5, 2007 Share Posted December 5, 2007 I know adding critters to a tank doesn't eliminate your Bryopsis problem but a control method could be a lettuce nudi. We had a random tank in our lab when I was in college that was overrun with GHA and Bryopsis. It was a 20H if it matters to anyone. It had no coral and just a bit of live rock but was on the light cycle timer with everything else so the stuff grew like mad. We introduced a blenny and several lettuce nudis to this tank and had amazing success with them both. The nudis actually reproduced to the point that we were selling them and giving them to local people for Bryopsis control because we couldn't grow the stuff fast enough to feed them all. I ended up growing Bryopsis in one of our greenhouses for a bit until our population stabilized. It's not a permanent solution but if you have a serious problem this could help you in the short term. Bill Link to comment
disaster999 Posted December 5, 2007 Share Posted December 5, 2007 its not on the rocks...its on the GPS frag. and i do manually pluck them off. but any deeper i dig im afraid im gonna kill my GPS Link to comment
disaster999 Posted December 5, 2007 Share Posted December 5, 2007 ill give the the mg dosing a try before i start scrubbing the gps with a toothbrush. so 1500ppm mg in my tank with no additives sound right? i use reef crystals and RO water Link to comment
shred5 Posted December 5, 2007 Share Posted December 5, 2007 I know! I can't wait to see my pocket book drain again! But really, I just added it, and I'm impatient. The directions said 1 teaspoon per 20 gallons twice a week. For how long should I keep that up? I don't want to overdose. Buy a test kit... It is easy to overdose magnesium if you do not know where you started at. If you overdose you will loose stuff in your tank. Dave Link to comment
Greenstar Posted December 6, 2007 Share Posted December 6, 2007 A lettuce nudi can make for good control of GHA in a small tank. I have used them in the past. In a small reef like a 10g, one large adult will never fully take out the problem but they do graze pretty randomly so it doesn't allow the offending algea to grow densely or in one place long enough to really harm the corals. Besides you don't want them to eat all of the algea since that is their food source, and without it they will die. Just make sure you have no way for them to get into a filter intake or you will have an even bigger problem on your hands. Danny Link to comment
The Propagator Posted December 6, 2007 Share Posted December 6, 2007 This is an OUTSTANDING FIND ! I wish I knew about this two years ago when I had a tank full of it Chit smothered out an entire colony of Orange dragon eyes in about 3 weeks. Link to comment
disaster999 Posted January 19, 2008 Share Posted January 19, 2008 reefsrule, any update? did it kill off the bryopsis? Link to comment
SeeDemTails Posted January 20, 2008 Share Posted January 20, 2008 Yeah, any real results? My mg is above 1600 all the time and it grows in my tank, thankfully only in a couple small spots. I am gonna give it a shot, and add a little MG. I use ESV MG which I know is strong so I hope it works well. Link to comment
Atlantis Reef Posted January 22, 2008 Share Posted January 22, 2008 I had some growing in my 90 an dall I added was some lettuce nudis and all gone now Link to comment
SeeDemTails Posted January 25, 2008 Share Posted January 25, 2008 Do tangs eat this stuff? Because after reading the thread I went to go look for mine and it is all gone, and I noticed the tang picking at the rock. Link to comment
Atlantis Reef Posted January 25, 2008 Share Posted January 25, 2008 Some tangs will if the algae doesn't get to long so the best thing to do is pull out as much as you can add a few lettuce nudis and done deal Link to comment
disaster999 Posted January 30, 2008 Share Posted January 30, 2008 well i got my elos mag test kit and kent's tech m and started dosing. i tested my water and its already at 1500ppm mag according to elos test kit. it goes at 100ppm increments. im shooting for 1700ppm mag level as the guy on reef cental went as much as 1680ppm and it didnt kill off anything in his tank. i guess ill see how this goes. Link to comment
disaster999 Posted February 4, 2008 Share Posted February 4, 2008 i didnt anticipate my mag level to go up that high. i was shooting for 1700ppm. the bottle said 1ml per gal will raise level up by 18.3ppm. i dosed 6 days worth of mag and my level went up to 1900ppm so far nothing seems to be affected. corals are well. fish are doing good. snails shrimp and hermits are doing fine. havent seen my emerald crab for a while tho. bryopsis are slowly dying. turning translucent and white. i see the hermit and shrimp grazing on them for a while. this seems to be working Link to comment
ssamick Posted February 4, 2008 Share Posted February 4, 2008 It worked for me this last summer, took about 3 months for complete die off. Link to comment
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