Algal genus Spotlight: Bryopsis "hair algae"

[yourreeftank]

I bought 100 mexican turbos and it was gone in a week.

 

[lossman]

We have 4 spots of hair algae growing in our 150g. One is on this giant tunicate. It looks like a beard. Sorry for the poor pictures but my camera just does not do justice to this (either that or I am just a rotten photographer.)

The other just showed up yesterday on this bivalve.

Again, just a little beard. The other two areas are at the back of the tank behind a rock and in between two rocks in the middle of the tank. None of the rocks are small enough to remove from the tank so I have just been plucking it. We have lots of macro both in the fuge and in the main tank so I'm hoping that the good macro will outcompete the hair algae and it will not get any worse.

 

[Opcn]

reaching way back high flow isn't really contributing to bryopsis spread, but high flow keeps algea clean and brings in nutrient rich water, just like how it helps chaeto.

Personally I wish I had bryopsis, I all but whiped it out with hermits nerite and astrea snails and a letuce nudi, now I'm worried about everyone starving as the only algea left is red slime cyano, some of my hermits eat it though, I yanked most of my chaeto to try and give bryopsis more nutrients but its just feeding the red slime, unfortunate.

 

[lossman]

Opcn, want some of mine??? I have a really lovely patch growing on a bivalve. The tunicate is finally clear, the other areas are not spreading, nor are they receding. I did notice that all the green ha is on one half of my tank. The other half has none. Water flow and light seems to be identical on both halves, at least in many spots. Not sure why the ha likes the right side of the tank better than the left.

 

[XeniaMania]

You can see bits of the algae in this image. My tank at one point was covered with it, like dense patches. I bought a sailfin tang which didn't help much, nor did my Atlantic Blue. I decided to become a tang and manually removed as much as I could since they were dense patches they came off easily. I have a micron sock on my intake so it catches whatever's flying around and I hope it catches the spores too since feeding plankton in my tank clogs my micron sock. I have since then lowered my nitrates down to near 0 if not 0, and phospates are undetectable. The growth has gone away in some areas but high light areas still continue to be a problem area. But they do seem to be dying I installed a mesh screen on my intake part to see what's collected when I do nothing, and that gets clogged overnight. I am gradually seeing less and less, so I believe my refugium is finally gaining the upper hand.

 

[Me No Nemo]

Well, I finally found a natural solution. I purchased a Hawaiian Sea Hare. In just 2 days he has completely desimated a bryopsis nightmare I had in my 125 gallon. I've been battling this for months now. I do feed alot...my tank is full of hundreds of sps frags and under the shelve it was like an over grown lawn. This guy is not for the feint of heart or small of tank. He's a monster (rightly named Godzilla). I will be sharing him with my customers who have the same problem as I am now feeding him Nori banded to a rock. He's about as big as an individual coke bottle and surprisingly moves through the tank without wreaking much havoc. I would not suggest this though for a tank under 100 gallons as his size would probably be a problem. GL, Marcye

 

[aquaholic33]

me no nemo can you show me a pic of the sea horse? I would love to see what he/she looks likes

 

[Paul B]

I trhink you mean "sea Hare"
Here is mine.
It's the thing right in the center that looks like a rock.
Paul

 

[Opcn]

Interestingly enought I aclimated two sailfin Mollies and they went gang busters on all the filimentous and slime algeas in my tank for a few days, then slowed down, I have been feeding thwem high protein sources to balance out the massive veggie load they took in and they are starting to pick up again (they are small, only 2.5 and 3 inches, still growning and need protein to do so)

 

[XeniaMania]

I got a Red Sea Sailfin tang aka Desjardini Tang, and it's been mowning the stuff down..

 

[GSchiemer]

We're talking about Bryopsis algae folks. Sailfin mollies, sailfin tangs and most sea slugs will NOT help control Bryopsis algae.

Greg

 

[XeniaMania]

Most will not, but I happen to have one that likes the stuff.. Shoot, mine even likes the brown algae/diatom pieaces that come off the tank when I'm scraping.

 

[XeniaMania]

This is for the non-believers that a Sailfin tang and low Nitrate/Phosphate combo won't work. These results were acheived in 2 months. No snail, no hermits in my tank.

 

[GSchiemer]

That sure looks like Bryopsis in the picture. Sometimes Bryopsis just crashes and dies back for no apparent reason. It's either that or you really do have the one and only Sailfin Tang that eats Bryopsis.

 

[XeniaMania]

LOL...maybe I am 1 lucky reefer...but if you look above, I did also have another sailfin previously who didn't touch it, so ya, hopefully some of you can get lucky too and I mean it in a fishy way...

 

[alrha]

didnt you also add Seachem's deNitrate to your tank?

 

[XeniaMania]

Yes I do run Denitrate to control my nitrate levels, but my most recent posts were more about my Sailfin eating bryopsis, it won't even touch caluerpa, I think I need to culture Bryopsis for it..lol

 

[alrha]

lol, i'm sure you'll be able to find donors

 

[XeniaMania]

Rock cleaning service...lol "Tang will clean your rocks for frags.."

 

[Lunchbucket]

hmm...i can't figure out what iwll get rid of it in my tank

Lunchbucket