Algal genus Spotlight: Bryopsis "hair algae"

[nattarbox]

Got my magnesium test kit and some supplement in today. That test is some serious chemistry kid business! I ended up at 1000ppm two weeks after the last water change, a little lower than normal. I'm going to shoot for raising it about 25ppm every other day, with a target of 1800-2000ppm, as suggested by the various places that claim magnesium will inhibit bryopsis growth.

Assuming this shows any evidence of slowing growth, I'll bring in the sea slugs and maybe try out some urchins.

But first, I'm going to go to Burning Man and forget all about algae. :wildone:

 

[nattarbox]

Anyone tried a UV sterilizer as part of their arsenal? I used one effectively against green water (single cell algae) in a freshwater tank. I figure if byopsis fragments are breaking off during manual removal and staying viable, a little UV zapping might not hurt. My tank is small, so there are some cheap (>$50) options, figure it is worth a shot.

I'm on day six of magnesium dosing, adding 25g of Seachem Reef Advantage daily. That should be good for a 25ppm increase daily, but it is testing at about the level I started with, 1000ppm. I'll give it another week or so and then consider increasing the dose. I've noticed a visible increase in SPS growth (white edges on montipora) and coraline algae on the glass since I started adding the magnesium.

Also considering ditching the HoB filter for a canister, so I can increase the volume of chemical and biological media I run.

 

[nattarbox]

After 12 days of dosing, I'm testing at 1200ppm for magnesium. That is rising a little slower than I expected, but everything seems healthy in the tank so I plan on continuing at the same pace.

I'd like to say that, anecdotally at least, byropsis growth appears to have slowed somewhat. But I think that might just be because I've been paying increased attention to the tank since getting serious about eradicating it.

The lettuce sea slugs haven't been in stock at the place I normally order them from, but as soon as they are I plan on ordering at least a dozen.

 

[nattarbox]

Double post, sorry.

 

[nattarbox]

Alrighty, 12x Elysia crispata (green lettuce sea slugs) have been added. I dropped them directly on the largest patch of algae and they immediately grabbed a plate and hit the salad bar.

Also added 2x Lytechinus variegatus (pincushion urchins). I have no experience with this species and bryopsis, but they look neat and I've never kept urchins before. I placed them on the sand so they wouldn't bother the slugs. I'll update with any observations on how those work out.

I probably should have attempted to raise the magnesium and observed those effects for awhile before introducing herbivores. I was afraid that given how long it is taking to raise the magnesium levels that it might be winter by the time that was done, and it gets kind of dicey to mail order sea life around here in the winter. Scorched earth approach instead!

 

[fullmonti]

This stuff has just about taken all the fun out of reef keeping for me.

I'm assuming it is the dreaded Bryopsis?

It is in a 180 sps tank. It got started when one or more of my RODI cartridges died. I replaced all of them once I figured out that was the problem. I have a over sized skimmer & keep a clean tank & sump. I tried the tech M, ran mag. up to 1800 nothing, been running GFO for months (never ever needed to before), do two water changes a week, have a ozone reactor, water is crystal clear, put 125 more snails & 50 more hermits, nitrate has been less than 1 for 3yrs & phosphate .o3 for months since new RODI, I spend 2-3 hours every few days pulling this crap of the rocks, I even found a home for a couple of largsish fish to lighten the bio-load, and still it grows. My rocks are glued together & have large corals incrusted on them so can't really take them out & nukem. I have a couple thousand gph going through my overflow, so not sure a sea hair would last very long in my tank. I don't have a refugium to fill up with algae, never needed one. About the only thing more I can think of is to set up a algae scrubber. Don't really have a good spot for one, & was hoping some one might have another suggestion.

After reading much of this thread I have to say I'm more discouraged than before.

Looking for a light at the end of the tunnel, Hoping it's not a train!

Jim

 

[nattarbox]

A little over a month in, my magnesium levels have slowly risen to 1375. I reduced my dose from 25g to 15g, because the amount of water it took to dissolve the larger dose was far more than I'm evaporating daily. Haven't seen any noticeable difference in algae growth yet.

The pincushion urchins, while neat, have showed no interest in bryopsis. The sea slugs are all over it as usual, but even a dozen isn't putting a dent in it. I think that if I can get the growth under control, the slugs would be useful for delivering the finishing blow.

Jim, out of curiosity and because I clearly have no words of comfort to offer yet, how long did it take to build your magnesium levels up to 1800? And how long did you maintain them at that level?

 

[fullmonti]

It took a week to two weeks, kept it there for awhile & it took another few weeks for it to come back down to normal.

I have installed a algae scrubber, no growth on it yet. It has shut my skimmer down though. I'm guessing because of all the new acrylic parts have to get some slime on them first (been a week now).

I just spent 2-3 hours picking this crap off again.

pruned fingers Jim

 

[nattarbox]

One to two weeks seems really accelerated to get magnesium from ~1200 to ~1800. I've been working at it for about a month and still have quite a ways to go. Although I was also starting at a level that was lower than where it should have been.

I'm guessing it would also take longer than a few weeks of magnesium being maintained at that elevated level before the bryopsis begins to show any signs of being affected by it too. My plan is to try and keep it at 1800 or higher for at least a few months to observe wether there is any benefit.

 

[DeathWish302]

This stuff has just about taken all the fun out of reef keeping for me.

I'm assuming it is the dreaded Bryopsis?

It is in a 180 sps tank. It got started when one or more of my RODI cartridges died. I replaced all of them once I figured out that was the problem. I have a over sized skimmer & keep a clean tank & sump. I tried the tech M, ran mag. up to 1800 nothing, been running GFO for months (never ever needed to before), do two water changes a week, have a ozone reactor, water is crystal clear, put 125 more snails & 50 more hermits, nitrate has been less than 1 for 3yrs & phosphate .o3 for months since new RODI, I spend 2-3 hours every few days pulling this crap of the rocks, I even found a home for a couple of largsish fish to lighten the bio-load, and still it grows. My rocks are glued together & have large corals incrusted on them so can't really take them out & nukem. I have a couple thousand gph going through my overflow, so not sure a sea hair would last very long in my tank. I don't have a refugium to fill up with algae, never needed one. About the only thing more I can think of is to set up a algae scrubber. Don't really have a good spot for one, & was hoping some one might have another suggestion.

After reading much of this thread I have to say I'm more discouraged than before.

Looking for a light at the end of the tunnel, Hoping it's not a train!

Jim

Same scenario here.... Major flow in my tank, coupled with high Mg (~1600ppm) and a algae scrubber did nothing. I took the scrubber off-line and replaced it with the nasty taxifolia in my lagoon. Bryopsis = DEAD! Yea!

Now.... the dreaded HA has reared it's ugly mug. P04 & NO3 = Undetectable and constant agitation to any detritus has done nothing. The taxifolia and mangroves are growing great in the lagoon and I've just started to accept some algae. I'll harvets what I can and deal with it.

From my experience, the best GFO schedule coupled with some means to reduce nitrates and lower feedings is not enough to cure the HA and bryopsis. Even if you choke it out of existence, it will flare up at the smallest foothold of PO4 or NO3 it can grab. I prefer a low nutrient load, but not ULNS so a little algae never killed anything.

 

[nattarbox]

Sorry, just to be clear, you're saying that introducing Caulerpa taxifolia into your system somewhere resulted in the bryopsis dying off? Presumably by being outcompeted for nutrients?

 

[fullmonti]

I could live with a little algae just fine. But this crap will & has killed sps if I don't spend some hours every week picking it out. Just tested phosphate with hanna meter, has been .02 for last couple months now down to .01, tank is so clean there are hardly any pods any more & still it grows. I also found a home for two good sized fish to reduce feeding. It seems like nothing will eat the stuff either. I have always loved my tank, but last couple months it's just about been more aggravation than it's worth. Wife has asked me what the fun part was again. Don't know what I'll do if the algae scrubber does nothing, but it will have to be something severe!

 

[vegastyle]

I tried running Kent M up to 2100 for 4 weeks, GFO, washing frozen foods with RO/DI, and pulling rocks and spraying H2O2 on them-would kill the byropsis then come back in 10-14 days. Two weeks ago I pulled a byopsis coverd rock and dipped it in pure Kent M for 5 minutes, the bryopsis is still gone, maybe a final solution ??

 

[fullmonti]

If I have to do something that requirers cutting my corals off the rocks just so I can kill something that might come back, I would go to a fish only tank with little to no light or fresh water. I will not fight this crap forever! Not trying to be a drama queen, I'm just sick of this stuff. As always I appreciate the suggestions & encouragement though.

Jim

 

[DeathWish302]

Sorry, just to be clear, you're saying that introducing Caulerpa taxifolia into your system somewhere resulted in the bryopsis dying off? Presumably by being outcompeted for nutrients?

Yes, the C. Taxifolia outcompeted the bryopsis but does nothing against HA. I added some 20 mangroves about 3 months after adding the C. Taxifolia and the tiny patch of bryopsis died. Unfortunately this has happened before in this system when I was dosing vodka. Once I stopped dosing a carbon source, the bryopsis took maybe a month to pop back out of the same area on that rock. Once this stuff is 'seeded' on a rock, past a clorox dunk it's possible to always come back.

 

[DeathWish302]

If I have to do something that requirers cutting my corals off the rocks just so I can kill something that might come back, I would go to a fish only tank with little to no light or fresh water. I will not fight this crap forever! Not trying to be a drama queen, I'm just sick of this stuff. As always I appreciate the suggestions & encouragement though.

Jim

Try the scrubber and keep up on the weekly/bi-weekly prunings. If you don't see a reduction in 2-3 months you've done whta you can. Unfortunately, I think there are some systems that are setup doomed from the beginning and it's just the way it happens. Nothing about the equipment, bioload, feedings or maintenance schedule in particular is wrong just not the right mix. I had cyano for the longest time (2-4yrs). It drove me nuts to the point I started the initial scrubber. It reduced the cyano, but never eliminated it. I moved that same tank 18 months ago and added a rubbermaid stock tank sump and lagoon. I have had zero cyano outbreaks with the same livestock (if not more) since this system was reassembled. I know algae is a whole other bucket-o-poo, but keep experimenting and you will find a happy medium.

 

[nattarbox]

The worst part about my personal story is that I can distinctly remember the frag that brought byropsis into my tank. One little strand popped up from amongst the branches of the coral, and this entire year long ordeal could have been prevented right there by simply pulling the plug out.

Hell I even took a picture of it. Although in my defense, the 20k LEDs I had just put in place definitely made it hard to immediately identity as algae.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nattarbox/4756556808/" title="Something New by Nat Tarbox, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4114/4756556808_394c8ec094.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="Something New"></a>

A strong argument for a coral quarantine tank.

 

[Elliott]

nattarbox, same exact thing happened to me, I saw it and could have easily removed it back then, I battled for a year and ended up breaking the tank down, I now have a coral QT

 

[DeathWish302]

The worst part about my personal story is that I can distinctly remember the frag that brought byropsis into my tank. One little strand popped up from amongst the branches of the coral, and this entire year long ordeal could have been prevented right there by simply pulling the plug out.

Hell I even took a picture of it. Although in my defense, the 20k LEDs I had just put in place definitely made it hard to immediately identity as algae.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nattarbox/4756556808/" title="Something New by Nat Tarbox, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4114/4756556808_394c8ec094.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="Something New"></a>

A strong argument for a coral quarantine tank.

I agree remove it when you see it in the early stages, but I'm not too inclined to think it wouldn't of happened eventually. I have had plugs that after MANY months in my system start sprouting bryopsis and other's that start immediately day three of entry. These are all virgin plugs or have been bleached from prior purchases. I have a feeling that bryopsis is lurking in most all systems, but it's a matter of when it will rear it's ugly face. I attribute this to potentially bound up PO4 or decay.

A perfect example is a new 'floating' magnetic colony rock I made from some rubble and shells I had from FL from a trip about 2 yrs ago. The rock was bleached and boiled, but the HA started growing rapidly on this new addition. It could only be a build-up of decaying matter or PO4 that could drive this growth.

Moral of the story is thorough inspection and continual maintenance will reduce and eventually eliminate (almost) any tank nuisance. I'd rather be pulling some HA and squirting the occassional aiptasia/mojano than weeding the garden anyday. Guess it's different for every person.

 

[nattarbox]

Any tips on manual removal in the tank?

I can pull off strands easily enough, but getting that last quarter inch that covers the rocks is hard. Toothbrush wasn't doing much, I don't think the bristles were stiff enough.

Doesn't help that a surly female clownfish has decided to bit the hand that feeds her now.