Advice for fighting Bryopsis Algae

[sclark0548]

I have been battling Bryopsis for about 8+ months now in my 70 gallon. I just now figured out that it is Bryopsis algae. I always assumed it was some type of calupra, but I could not find any tangs or urchins that would eat the stuff. I literally have been pulling out handfulls of this garbage from my tank weekly. If I miss a week it takes over. I have heard horror stories of folks losing this battle and having to run bleach through their systems and start over. After the past several months, I can relate. This stuff is nasty. I am digging in my heels and going to try to get rid of this stuff before I break out the bleach.

I have started the following regimen.

I just installed two new Phosban 150 reactors. One running GFO, the other carbon.

I have starting dosing with Kent Tech-M to bring my mag level up. I am slowly trying to get up to 1600.

Cranked up my skimmer to wet skim.

I upgraded my powerheads to increase random flow.

Has anyone else beat this stuff? I have read some threads about dipping the rocks in a half RO / half 5% hydrogen peroxide solution. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[mutateddogbone]

I have beat it, long time ago. Mag went to 2200 before I won, but you are on right track. Change youre bulbs and only feed 3 times a week, manually remove algae too. But you are on the right track. Keep your carbon and gfo changed regularly as well

 

[mechanix23]

I agree with mutateddogbone. Once you reach 2200 on the mag, maintain it there for 30 days. Once bryopsis starts to turn white manually remove. Some people recomend 3 days of darkness in tank and not more. After that keep up good husbandry.

 

[milkman55]

I beat it with Tech M and darkening the tank. All of these have already been suggested.

 

[FILTERDAQUATICS]

You are on the right track but dont forget large weekly water changes with a 0 tds Ro/Di water premixed with a high quality salt. Phosphates can leach for quite a while out of your sand and rock so it will be an uphill battle.

 

[mutateddogbone]

You are on the right track but dont forget large weekly water changes with a 0 tds Ro/Di water premixed with a high quality salt. Phosphates can leach for quite a while out of your sand and rock so it will be an uphill battle.

You would just be removing the magnesium you put in by doing that, doesnt make sense... dont do hardly any water changes until algae turns pale and easy to remove then start doing weekly 15% changes. Quality of salt doesnt matter either if your goal is to lower mag back down, use IO cuz its cheap, you'll be burning through a lot of it

 

[sclark0548]

Thanks for all the advice. How often should I be changing my Gfo media during the process? I am using phosban Gfo media in my reactor.

 

[mechanix23]

GFO regular life is about 90 days with the right amount for your tank size. In your case, I would recommend changing monthly.

 

[mutateddogbone]

With the high release of phosphates, every 4 weeks minimum

 

[FILTERDAQUATICS]

You would just be removing the magnesium you put in by doing that, doesnt make sense... dont do hardly any water changes until algae turns pale and easy to remove then start doing weekly 15% changes. Quality of salt doesnt matter either if your goal is to lower mag back down, use IO cuz its cheap, you'll be burning through a lot of it

Low magnesium didnt cause the issue high nutrients did. The best way to remove high nutrients is always with regular water changes and high quality equipment like skimmers and gfo reactors. Add the water changes to your regimen with a high quality reef salt that has elevated levels of mag and check afterwards with a good magnesium test kit. If needed boost the mag after each water change. This will get you the best of both worlds since nutrient removal is the key to ridding your tank of algae. To neglect water changes would not make any sense when fighting an algae outbreak.

 

[FILTERDAQUATICS]

Thanks for all the advice. How often should I be changing my Gfo media during the process? I am using phosban Gfo media in my reactor.

Testing with a low range phosphate test (salifert or my favorite red sea) is the only way to know when your media has become exhausted. When the levels of phosphate in the tank stop falling the media is exhausted.

 

[mutateddogbone]

Low magnesium didnt cause the issue high nutrients did. The best way to remove high nutrients is always with regular water changes and high quality equipment like skimmers and gfo reactors. Add the water changes to your regimen with a high quality reef salt that has elevated levels of mag and check afterwards with a good magnesium test kit. If needed boost the mag after each water change. This will get you the best of both worlds since nutrient removal is the key to ridding your tank of algae. To neglect water changes would not make any sense when fighting an algae outbreak.

i dont exactly understand what you are talking about, this thread is about fighting and beating bryopsis, not how to maintain your water chemistry:debi:

aside from that tangent, you dont want to do many water changes in the magnesium elevation period, otherwise you are just wasting the expensive product you are dumping in your tank. you want to raise the Mg until you see the algae turn pale, then stop dosing the Mg and start manual removal. maintain the elevated Mg for a week or so, then start doing your water changes, and as i said i personally prefer IO for doing this, because it is slightly lower in Mg, its cheap, and your overall goal is to reduce the Mg after you have elevated it, otherwise you are just pouring money down the drain. weekly 15-20% water changes for 2 months should bring it back down to where it needs to be so you can see why a cheaper salt works better for this. change your GFO every 3 to 4 weeks, and keep a close eye on your feeding, rinse your frozen food, dont feed flakes or freeze dried,and keep an eye on your RO unit. anything under 5 TDS is fine but 0 is optimal. there is another thread on RC about algaefix marine, but i tried it along with others with limited success. just dont forget, if you are pulling at it and let some strands get away from you, wherever they land will start a new patch, so turn off all flow when removing. it is a tough battle, but definately can be won with patience and diligence.:strooper:

 

[chaderic26]

Sounds like pretty good advice from Filtered Aquatics. Nutrients are surely the root of the problem. Tech m Imho is more of a band aid. Algae problems are sure to return as. the mag drops back down to normal levels after treatment.

 

[ghellin]

The tech M method worked very well on my aquapod wiped out a nasty bryopsis outbreak.

 

[oddballs]

I also like to use what keeps algae down on the reefs in nature,URCHINS!! Longspines,tuxedos and my fave are the haloween urchins aka collector urchins. Ask martin Moe Jr what helped in saving our Carribean reefs URCHINS ! Along with good water quality in the last 8 years We have defeated hair algae a many of a time!

 

[FILTERDAQUATICS]

i dont exactly understand what you are talking about, this thread is about fighting and beating bryopsis, not how to maintain your water chemistry:debi:

It is simply silly to say not to do a water change because of mag level drops. The percentage of mag drop will be very low with a large 20 or 25% weekly water change its not like the salt has no mag. A good salt will have somewhere around 1300+ mag levels easily brought back up with a mag solution to the desired elevated level while bringing down the orginal problem "nutrients". Learning to maintain water chemistry will keep you from having a bryopsis breakout in the first place and keep it gone once the mag treatment is over its a stupid argument.:blown:

Also I think he said he had urchins in his setup. Most inverts like snails and urchins will not touch bryopsis. They do work well with a lot of different algaes but in my experience not bryopsis..

 

[yeldarbj]

Just use Kent Tech M!!!!!!!! It's not the magnesium in the Kent Tech M that kills the bryopsis, it's some impurity, but it does work. Take your mag up to at least 1750, higher if needed. Keep raising it until the bryopsis starts losing it's color. It will disappear. Once it's dead, then you need to worry about nutrients.

I agree with FilteredAquatics, test your phosphates to know when to change your GFO media. Hanna phosphate checker is pretty good.

 

[dg3147]

I had a bad nuisance macroalgae problem, bryopsis and caulerpa mostly. I added 2 decorator crabs and they my problem was gone. It could be coincidence, but i think these crabs mowed the stuff down. I have been 100% totally eradicated for 6 months or more.

 

[oddballs]

Filterd I agree with you on that no SNAILS will eat bryopsis but in my 8 plus years of keeping saltwater tanks I can guarantee that urchins WILL eat BRYOPSIS!! We had a tank that had a ton of it and we told the lady to (after acclimation) to set the Urchin in the middle of it and by the next morning it had a reverse mohawk down the middle of it! Within 2 months the 180 gallon tank was showing none not ONE percent of the bryopsis(aka hair algae).

We also have a tank we take care of that had a tube anemone that had hair algae of some sort on it's tube(i am no scientist i can not say what species it was) that had a long spine urchin in the tank at the time. He thought that the long spine (Diadema Sp. was getting to big for the tank (a 75 gallon) We took him out and within 2 to 3 weeks the Hair algae had taken over 75 percent of the tank? His Calcium Alkalinity and magnesium were at optimal levels(which seems to grow more algae) Eventually we had to replace all of the rock and now we have a halloween urchin that has kept all of the algae in control that was left on his corals?

 

[FILTERDAQUATICS]

Well Im glad to hear that your urchins have worked well for you for so long but I still have doubts as to wether it was the fern like bryopsis they were eating but its definetly possible. What your missing though is the fact that the thread author mentioned he has a urchin that isnt touching it but I guess he should get one of yours since they seem to be so well trained! lol

Oh and if taking out an urchin in a maintained tank started an algea outbreak why not just put him back in.

As to the calcium alk and mag levels being optimal creates more algae problems thats a new one to me and I would be interested to see more info on that!

I think this would be some good reading for everyone
http://www.reeftime.com/reef-articl...e-hair-algae-bryopsis-plumosa-derbesia/58.htm