Bryopsis and Ich Need some Ideas

[Bosco83]

I have been battling Bryopsis in my 210 for over a year and it's a losing battle. I have tried everything and spend a couple of hundred on Kent Tech M throughout the year keeping my mag well above 2000 at some times. It will get a little yellow but never die. Now I have found my two tangs have ich :angryfire: I did qt all my fish from two weeks to two months and treated for anything I thought necessary including ich. So I figure it's time to break down the tank and fix this mess.

I just don't know what would be the best plan of attack. I figured by a cheap 55 gallon tank and treat my fish with copper. Pressure wash all my rock and then cook it for a few months to rid of built up phosphates. Not sure what to do with my corals though I can't run three tanks in my house my wife would kill me. I was thinking of replacing all the sand completely scrubbing my tank and equipment. Then fragging my corals back to where I feel they won't transfer bryopsis and then put them back in my tank. Then when I'm done treating my fish and cooking the rock put everything back in my 210. Does that sound like a good plan?

My fish list
Yellow Tang 6"
Blue Tang 3-4"
Scribbled Rabbit fish 6" Would consider giving away
fire fish x2
Purple pseudochromis
Clown fish x 2
Sixline wrasse Probably giving away too aggressive with my other wrasse
Melanurus wrasse
Sapphire damsels x 4
Mottled filefish
Pink spotted goby
Starry blenny

 

[TealCobra]

Have you tried removing a few easy to access rocks and treat them with peroxide outside the tank? We have had great results doing this to treat nuisance issues like Valonia. See if that works and if it does, consider doing it to all the rocks. This would be easy to do if you plan to remove fish to treat for Cypto. Otherwise your plan seems like a good one.

 

[Bosco83]

Most of my rocks are put together with zip ties and acrylic rods. I guess I'm mainly concerned of what size tank I should buy to qt my fish, and how I can make sure I don't let any bryopsis live on my corals.

 

[stingythingy45]

Do you have corals or is this a FOWLR?
IF there's no corals or inverts I would look into doing hyposalinity right in the DT.

 

[Bosco83]

So far everything is going smoothly I got a tank setup to treat my fish and all the rock soaking in bleach. What should I do with my sand bed? I was thinking of scrubbing the tank down and then putting a bunch of fresh saltwater in and then using a gravel vac to get it all clean but still keeping my good bacteria. My only concern is bryopsis still being there in the sand. I could also just take the sand out and bleach it in tubs and then bleach the tank and sump. Then I wouldn't have any beneficial bacteria to get things going though. What should I do?

Thanks,
Brian

 

[Steve175]

Throw out the old sand and replace with new.

 

[h20poloman2]

Looks like I'm too late for the response but just for info, I had battled bryopsis in a 240g and had success using a combination of high mag and lettuce nudi's. I think I had 4 on the larger side (still not that large) and I was rid of it in about 3 weeks and it never returned.

 

[Bosco83]

Looks like I'm too late for the response but just for info, I had battled bryopsis in a 240g and had success using a combination of high mag and lettuce nudi's. I think I had 4 on the larger side (still not that large) and I was rid of it in about 3 weeks and it never returned.

I tried everything to get rid of it sea hare's, urchins, lettuce nudi's, Kent tech m, and a rabbit fish nothing really worked. I think where I went wrong trying to pull it out by hand before doing research just thinking it was hair algae. Then all the spores would get everywhere and I did this a lot with a tooth brush attached to my syphon hose. So when I noticed ich on my fish I decided it was time to break it down and start fresh. I will never put anything in there without leaving it in a qt tank including corals from now on. I always qt my fish but some didn't even show ich so I didn't treat them for it but obviously it got in there somehow.

 

[badvegan]

Make sure that none of your rocks are homemade looking, I had the worst time with bryopsis once and had to do the exact same thing. A buddy helped me and pointed out some rocks that he thought looked "suspicious."

We tossed the offending rocks, bleached everything out like your doing, and I moved to a real fine grain sand bed. I don't know whether there is any correlation between tossing the possibly homemade looking rocks or if there was another cause, but I have had no problems since.

 

[Bosco83]

I'm pretty sure I don't have any man made rocks but I'll check them over carefully and junk them if I do.

 

[pieater]

Obviously I'm too late but I found the FM ultra algaeX to be effective with a variety of algae, including bryopsis