Briopsis or hair algae

[Zachary Hart]

Hello all, I need some help figuring out whether the algae I’ve got is hair algae or briopsis. I think it could be briopsis but would like some confirmation. Below are some pictures 

[seabass]

IDK, sometimes it's hard to tell; there are literally dozens of species of briopsis.  It looks like it's fronds have a feathery or fern-like structure to them, so it might be briopsis.

[Zachary Hart]

That’s what I was thinking too. At first I just thought it was some hair algae so left it alone for a couple weeks.
Now it’s gotten bigger and a couple patches have been cropping up it does look like briopsis

 

I’ve never in my 7 years of reefing dealt with briopsis before. Has anyone got any treatments I can try.

Hydrogen peroxide and flux rx are in the post. I’m going to scrub what I can with peroxide and then treat with flux

[mcarroll]

On 9/18/2023 at 6:38 AM, Zachary Hart said:

I need some help figuring out whether the algae I’ve got is hair algae or briopsis.

Looks like Bryopsis.   

 

But don't panic!!

 

🙂 

 

 

On 9/18/2023 at 9:33 AM, Zachary Hart said:

I’ve never in my 7 years of reefing dealt with briopsis before. Has anyone got any treatments I can try.

Hydrogen peroxide and flux rx are in the post. I’m going to scrub what I can with peroxide and then treat with flux

Don't do ANY of those things, and see if you can cancel the order....WAY overkill, not good for your reef, and most likely your algae (or another one) will come back once the med is gone.

 

IMO, pull it out now, by the roots, before is spreads anymore.  👍

 

Literally by the roots....get as much material as you can, down to bare rock, if possible.  Use your fingers like tweezers to grab as close to the rock as you can.  You might have to remove just a little at a time, so work as slowly as needed in order to get it all.  (Same recommendation for hair algae, it's just typically easier to remove since it's usually a smaller plant.)

 

Also, what do you have for a cleanup crew right now?  (CUC will not eat algae that long, no matter what type....so this is a separate question.)

 

Last, it looks like other things in the tank are doing well...how would you say the rest of the tank has been doing?

 

[TheKleinReef]

Peroxide is arguably the safest tool we have against algae. I’ve dosed directly to the display to kill green hair algae, and I drained my entire display to dowse my rock and peroxide to get rid of bubble algae. 

I say try it. 

[Zachary Hart]

9 hours ago, mcarroll said:

Looks like Bryopsis.   

 

But don't panic!!

 

🙂 

 

 

Don't do ANY of those things, and see if you can cancel the order....WAY overkill, not good for your reef, and most likely your algae (or another one) will come back once the med is gone.

 

IMO, pull it out now, by the roots, before is spreads anymore.  👍

 

Literally by the roots....get as much material as you can, down to bare rock, if possible.  Use your fingers like tweezers to grab as close to the rock as you can.  You might have to remove just a little at a time, so work as slowly as needed in order to get it all.  (Same recommendation for hair algae, it's just typically easier to remove since it's usually a smaller plant.)

 

Also, what do you have for a cleanup crew right now?  (CUC will not eat algae that long, no matter what type....so this is a separate question.)

 

Last, it looks like other things in the tank are doing well...how would you say the rest of the tank has been doing?

 

Whoops, panicked and used peroxide. 
 

To clarify, before I started this thread I already had tried removing by hand. However that just seemed to spread it and allowed it to take hold a larger area in my aquarium. 
 

and even when manually removing as much as I could, it would grow back in the same place again. 
 

 

having used peroxide the algae has been completely removed for now. Only time will tell if it’s permanent or not

[TheKleinReef]

1 minute ago, Zachary Hart said:

Whoops, panicked and used peroxide. 
 

To clarify, before I started this thread I already had tried removing by hand. However that just seemed to spread it and allowed it to take hold a larger area in my aquarium. 
 

and even when manually removing as much as I could, it would grow back in the same place again. 
 

 

having used peroxide the algae has been completely removed for now. Only time will tell if it’s permanent or not

 

you did the right thing.

i have no idea why mcarroll said not to use peroxide.

[mcarroll]

4 hours ago, Zachary Hart said:

Whoops, panicked and used peroxide. 
 

Not the worst thing in the world. 😉    Did you spot treat with it, or dose the whole tank?   If you have to do it again, spot treating tends to be more effective.  Pulling out as much as you can with the "tweezer finger" method first and then spot treating would be a good combination.  It can be hard to get the roots.  

 

4 hours ago, Zachary Hart said:

To clarify, before I started this thread I already had tried removing by hand. However that just seemed to spread it and allowed it to take hold a larger area in my aquarium. 
 

You mentioned scrubbing...that will almost certainly maximize spreading vs pulling it out how I described.  (Same method Marc uses in this vid, for reference.)

 

I have referenced a few articles on my blog that talk about how Byropsis (and other similar algae) spread – it's pretty interesting, and in their way, quite amazing too!  Check out that section, if you're interested.

 

4 hours ago, Zachary Hart said:

and even when manually removing as much as I could, it would grow back in the same place again. 
 

Definitely a sign that more CUC was needed....this would be the case with most green algae, not just Bryopsis – if you clean the algae off down to the rock and it grows back, it mean no snails ever came through to clean that area in the intervening time, allowing the pest algae time to re-grow.

 

In addition to maybe lacking in numbers of CUC, snails also hunt by memory.  So if that area had been overgrown (algae too large for snails to eat) then they would have been systematically avoiding that area once you cleaned it.   Sometimes this can be helped by gently moving one or more of your snails into the area that you cleaned after you're done.

 

4 hours ago, Zachary Hart said:

having used peroxide the algae has been completely removed for now. Only time will tell if it’s permanent or not

Hopefully so!  🙂 

 

(BTW, is that an Aitpasia I see photobombing behind your algae in the photo?  Are you working a strategy on them already?)

[Zachary Hart]

• I took the rocks out, pulled as much algae off, and then scrubbed the affected area with a toothbrush and peroxide, then rinsed the rock
• I’ll take a look at your other articles thanks. 
• right ok that’s interesting. Maybe I’ll get some more algae eating cuc then and plop existing ones on top of the trimmed algae. 
  i currently have trochus snails, a tuxedo urchin, a Mexican turbo snail, money cowries and a tomini tang that picks at the rocks
• And yes that is aiptasia. I treat as much as I can with aiptasia x but it just comes back. 
  I’ve tried filefish and peppermint shrimps but they didn’t touch them 

thanks for your help

[TheKleinReef]

29 minutes ago, Zachary Hart said:

I treat as much as I can with aiptasia x but it just comes back. 

unless you use that stuff absolutely perfectly, it comes back and often times worse.

If you have a few of them, I'd smother them in reef safe epoxy or super glue. If you have more that a few the process gets harder with adjusting feedings, utilizing peppermint shrimp/berghia/filefish, or buying a reefdelete.

[mcarroll]

4 hours ago, Zachary Hart said:

• i currently have trochus snails, a tuxedo urchin, a Mexican turbo snail, money cowries and a tomini tang that picks at the rocks

Not sure what your total number of snails is, but it sounds like it could be a pretty low number....if so, then there's plenty of room for more, and seemingly at least some need for more.

 

Is your tank about 120 liters / 30 gallons?

 

4 hours ago, Zachary Hart said:

• And yes that is aiptasia. I treat as much as I can with aiptasia x but it just comes back. 
  I’ve tried filefish and peppermint shrimps but they didn’t touch them 

If it's hard to get to with the Aiptasia X needle, then it can be really difficult.

 

@Murphs_Reef just had an Aiptasia cleanup party and (luckily?) a filefish worked in his case.   What happened when you tried one....coral eating?   Seems a bit random, but maybe do what Murph did and keep it in your sump for a while before adding him to the display?  Might adjust his appetite.

 

It can be tricky with critters that "might" eat them since they also "might" find plenty of other food to eat first.

 

At least avoid broadcast feeding while you figure out what you're ultimately going to do.  It's possible they may not spread.

[Zachary Hart]

• I didn’t buy many snails because algae hasn’t been an issue for the past year that I set up this tank. I think only about 10 initially, and then they started breeding so I’m not sure anymore
• My tank is the Red Sea reefer 250 g2
• when I tried a filefish it ignored aiptasia and corals so I took it back to the lfs
• ive been battling aiptasia for about 6 months now and they’ve spread quite a lot as they always find new places in the rockwork that are hard to reach. And some of the larger ones even resist the aiptasia x. I’ve been looking for lystmata wurdemani peppermint shrimp as I’ve heard they’re the species which eat aiptasia

[Murphs_Reef]

I would put money on the FileFish ignoring aips because it was getting enough food from the fish food / tank feeding. 

Mine was sumped for around a month and as it grew hungry it had no option i guess but to eat the Aiptasia. 

 

When I added it to the display I suppose it was trained on eating one thing, now he eats pellets and Aiptasia... for now leaving coral alone (though that will likely change when other food is less available) 

[Zachary Hart]

13 minutes ago, Murphs_Reef said:

I would put money on the FileFish ignoring aips because it was getting enough food from the fish food / tank feeding. 

Mine was sumped for around a month and as it grew hungry it had no option i guess but to eat the Aiptasia. 

 

When I added it to the display I suppose it was trained on eating one thing, now he eats pellets and Aiptasia... for now leaving coral alone (though that will likely change when other food is less available) 

Did you quarantine it first though?

And if so what was it fed on then. Or did you just not feed it

[Murphs_Reef]

5 hours ago, Zachary Hart said:

Did you quarantine it first though?

And if so what was it fed on then. Or did you just not feed it

No I'm a bit of a nightmare that way.. I don't QT fish or coral dip... hence me needing a FileFish to get rid of Aiptasia 😁😳

 

I didn't feed it in the sump. He just got what he could from the water and of course the mass of Aiptasia...