Finally an easy solution to bryopsis!

Well, I didn't know, but I have had hair algae before... My experience with HA, was that it grew rather quickly and was much more of a greenish color... This may be HA, but it seems thicker, and does not grow any longer than what you see in the pictures
My nutrients are really low, and I have always noticed that HA would die unless it had nitrates around 20mg/l or higher

Could it be diatoms from the new sand I have?
 
Rather than scrubbing it off, pinch it off and dip your hand in a bowl of water after every pinch. That way you can rinse your fingers and not release any into the system.

I don't recognize it, which is why I didn't reply in your thread. The color being off looks like it is unhappy - which is a good thing.
 
I think I have my parameters at least low enough to keep it from growing like a weed, and that may be the only reason that it does not really resemble HA to my eyes

I tried the pinching technique, but can't really get a grasp on most of it... So, that is why I was scrubbing, and then doing a good size water change afterwards
The scrubbing and water change method seems to have worked to an extent, because this algae used to be growing in many more places than what you see now
I noticed also that when I scrubbed it that my skimmer would pick up a good bit of whatever nutrients it released... Everytime I would do the scrub, my skimmer would increase in it's skimmate production... I would let it go for a while until it slowed again, and then perform the water change

Maybe it will just die off soon, as I keep lowered nutrients

Thanks,
Nathan
 
My experience is that keeping nutrients at 0 at best will stop it from growing, but it won't cause what's already present to die back.
 
So far so good... Tech M is doing its job and the Bryopsis is literally disappearing as the days go by... still not out of the woods yet, and I may have to buy a second 1/2 gallon, but I am positively ecstatic with the results so far

The cons are my two Ricordia have shrunk to about 1/2 normal size and begun to change color... I don't want to call it bleaching (though it could be, I guess) the orange Ric is now pretty close to hot pink and the green Ric is about the color of key lime pie... From the other softies, no shrooms, Palys, Anthelia, Briareum or Aptasia are effected... LPS: Everything looks fat and happy and has nice polyp extension when feeding... SPS: Birdsnest is growing in leaps and bounds, Monti Cap doing well and showing growth, and Pocillipora looks wonderful

I've had one or two stunned snails, but even if I lose them, I'm so happy with the vanishing Bryopsis that it is a small price to pay... shrimp (cleaner and fire), Fish and Tiger Tail cuke acting normal and doing well, Sun Polyp fine and feeding... all fan worms, crabs, sponges and other hitchhikers seem to be doing as they were before, so all in all no major changes other than much less Bryopsis :D
 
That kind of algae comes off very easily if you use a long-handled set of tweezers with the serrated curved "grip" portion -- just pull sideways to the algae's growth and it comes off easy as butter.

That was my experience, anyway -- just dip in FW and go back and get rid of some more.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13057501#post13057501 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by bubbly
That kind of algae comes off very easily if you use a long-handled set of tweezers with the serrated curved "grip" portion -- just pull sideways to the algae's growth and it comes off easy as butter.

That was my experience, anyway -- just dip in FW and go back and get rid of some more.
Click to expand...

Link for the tweezers?
 
My mg is about 1850 and it's been 2 days yet no signs of bryopsis dying. I used tech m. I do notice my undata has become paler like a bleaching effect. I still have hope for the bryopsis, still too early to tell. Will update.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13042249#post13042249 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by TWallace
Have you already tried Tech M? If not, why bother with an animal solution that may or (very likely) may not work? Lots of people have had success with Tech M and it's not terribly expensive (depends on tank size).
Click to expand...

I did try Tech-M. It stunted the bryopsis and caused some (not all) of it to die. Then it resurged immediately and rapidly when I stopped the high Mg.

Further, it seemed to kill off my astrea and turbo snails (the snails that were eating this stuff died, all the rest lived. I guess the high Mg in their food did them in). My sun corals would not hardly feed at all with the high Mg, and when I stopped dosing, they started feeding well again. I was seriously concerned they would die before, because they would extend their polyps but just would not eat. And I was (and am) no fan of all the testing of the level.

I wanted a long-term solution.

It seemed like there were several people on here that used the Tech-M and had it resurge later, like me. So I manually removed all I could with water changes, added a tremendous amount of filtration with my new sump, and now would like something to keep this stuff away.

Don't get me wrong - the Tech-M did stunt it considerably before. It just came right back though.
 
Tech M never did fully eradicate it in my 55, though it did eradicate it from the rocks. I always still had small spots on my return plumbing and powerheads. I even took those parts out, scrubbed them in the sink with hot water and a toothbrush and it still came back. It's one tough, evil weed for sure.

I recently upgraded to a 120 and moved the contents of my 55 into it, including the powerheads that had bryopsis. It continued to grow on them in very small spots. The day after I added my new powder blue tang, the powerheads were free of bryopsis. I don't know that the tang ate it (I'd be pretty surprised actually, given the fact that nothing else seems to eat it and lots people have tangs and bryopsis together), but I'm happy to see it gone.

I haven't dosed Tech M in many months and my mag level is around whatever Reef Crystals mixes to.
 
Question about Tech M Magnesium - What color should it be?

It is not sold in my country so I've imported some. But during freight the box was crushed and some leaked the box arrived damaged and wet. Instead of the clear liquid I was expecting it is kind of grey. Is this the normal color?
 
Oh, forgot to update my bryopsis situation. Brought my mg to 2000 with tech m. It's been 3 days and slowly I see it dying off. It's no where near all gone. Will wait another 3-4 days and will update again.
 
OK well only other question before I use it, has anyone lost a blue legged hermit crab to Tech M?

I could remove him if need be.
 
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Wilson, mine is grey, too and also arrived leaking. Maybe it's a common theme with Tech M :).

I never had any trouble with crustaceans and Tech M. I had some softies bleach (but later recover) and when I dosed my QT way too fast, the astreas in the tank were clearly suffering. I removed them and placed them in my display and they recovered. Just go slow with the dosing, no more than 100ppm rise per day and you should be fine.
 
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