Finally an easy solution to bryopsis!

[Victor Barreira]

I had the same problem, but not with the same algae, i raised my magnesium too, and it works very well! I Recomend!

Just pay atention on the level of 1500 1600 pmm, more than that could intoxicate others animals.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I personally don't think the sulfate is the key. But, this would be lovely if it was.

I do not think the active ingredient is likely be sulfate. Kent claims it is ionically balanced (fixing the sulfate concentration same as other magnesium additives that do not appear to work well) and if it were, a much smaller amount of Epsom salt would have the same effect (and some folks report that it does not).

If true, then only a 50 ppm boost to magnesium with Epsom Salt should do it since it adds the same sulfate as a 500 ppm addition of a balanced magnesium additive.

Seachem's magnesium product is not ionically balanced, so effects one gets on sulfate with it do not translate to what folks get using Kent Tech M. Seachem has way too much sulfate to be balanced.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Thats speculation and nothing more, it shouldnt be stated as a "fact".


The fact that far more people are successful with Tech M than other magnesium supplements is an observation, not either speculation or proven fact. But it fits well that Tech M may have an impurity that is the active ingredient. Quite a few folks failed with other additives, then tried Tech M and it worked. Few (if any) report the opposite

There is also no reason to assume the Kent is the only company that uses the bulk material that has that same possible impurity. Without knowing whether your favorite company uses the same supplier as Kent, or even the same supplier as they did yesterday or the same as they will tomorrow, a few stray demonstrations that another product might work (even assuming it is not coincidental with the dosing as opposed to caused by it) does not disprove the hypothesis.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Have people done acurate measurements of their sulfate level during te effort of erradicating Bryopsis? My Mg now is about 1400ppm and SO4 is about 3400ppm (SO4 in NSW is 2700ppm) I will use Na2SO4 to reach a SO4 level of about 4000ppm im te next couple of days and I will report back.

While I do not have too much hope that this will be a bryopsis-specific treatment, I am very curious to see if anything bad happpens. We have relatively little data on what happens when the chloride to sulfate ratio gets that skewed.

IMO, this is a pretty bold experiment to do on a reef tank.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Have people done acurate measurements of their sulfate level during te effort of erradicating Bryopsis? My Mg now is about 1400ppm and SO4 is about 3400ppm (SO4 in NSW is 2700ppm)

FWIW, Seachem's product is just Epsom salt plus sodium chloride. It is not truly an ionically balanced additive.

Kent's product does not cause nearly this big of a rise in sulfate.

 

[steks]

Randy, thanks for your reactions.

I used Seachem to up my Mg, so that's why its already higher than NSW. Maybe it can be a wrong idea to rise the SO4 level to high, but I was thinking since some people has risen their Mg tot 1600+ ppm with only Epsom salt they also had very high levels of SO4, and for as far as I know without any problems.

The main problem is that here in Holland you can’t buy Tech M in a LSF, so what would you suggest I should do?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I don't really have a different suggestion on how to deal with bryopsis. I know it can be hard to deal with. Maybe try some brand of magnesium additive that might happen to be similar to Kent, and cross your fingers.

FWIW, I'm starting to get a pretty good amount of bryopsis that has developed for a few years. I'm still not convinced to do anything, but eventually I might have to.

 

[redfishsc]

Major thanks, Randy! It's good to see a pro walk in and clear up any issues :dance:


The one thing I haven't tried yet is returning to a kalk drip. The bryo showed up roughly (very roughly) after I stopped dripping kalk when my rock was in another tank.

I haven't returned to doing kalk drip since my sump does not sit in my stand as most people's do--- it sits beside the tank, and my light canopy prevents me from easily putting a kalk drip mechanism over the tank.


I've read, I think by Calfo, that keeping pH at 8.5-8.6 for several weeks has a very detrimental effect on bryopsis. Since I don't have a pH meter, this will be hard to achieve.

 

[steks]

Before posting something else I would like to show some pictures of what I think is Bryopsis. I feel ashamed to let i get so out of control, but I wanted to know if I grew back as fast as the last time I manually removed it so I had waited just as long as the previous time then it was then days because I laid in bed with the flu.
Also I would like to mention the that is running for 2,5 months now a the fist and among the first algae that I saw was Bryopsis. At that time I didn’t know it was Bryopsis so I manually removed it several times. I think that is why almost everything is covered by Bryopsis.
Also so al lot off frags are placed on the ground or left and right at the top is same kind of basket because when I was gathering frags I still didn’t know it was Bryopsis.

These are my water parameters
Salinity 35 ppt
pH 8.2 (21:00)
Alkalinity 10.4 KH
Mg 1470 ppm
Ca 415 ppm
SO4 3660 ppm
NH4 0.0 ppm
NO2 0.013 ppm
NO3 0.5 ppm
PO4 0.0 ppm

I took these pictures before pruning everything, it took me over 2 hours and its just a 33g tank

I searched the internet and I found a German online shop that sells Kent TECH M for €20,49 a bottle of 16oz. ex shipping costs, thats 28,71 USD isn't that very expensive?

 

[redfishsc]

That is costly. I can get a gallon shipped for that price.

And that's definitely bryopsis in those pics. At least it's a pretty green color :blown:


If you decide to give up and bomb the tank with bleach (salvaging the corals obviously) let me know, I have a nice way of totally oxidizing nearly everything in the tank very cheaply. It just means a total restart

 

[Anemone0524]

Put another one in the win column for Kent Tech M. Eliminated my bryopsis in 2 weeks with gradual dosing.

The product is magical.

Thank you for this thread - it saved my tank.

 

[redfishsc]

Thanks goes to TWallace who started this thread.

Big warning though, keep an eye out. I've killed it twice with Tech M since September and it freakin comes back every time.


I'm letting it grow for now, harvesting what I can, and keeping nutrients to a minimum. Once this semester is out in a couple weeks I'm going to set up a kalk drip and try maintaining a high pH per some advice I read on another forum.

If that doesn't work, I'm ordering another gallon of Tech M.


And if it comes back again, I'm removing all coral and animals, leaving all rock, and bleaching my tank system for a week and then just re-cycling the tank and starting over. I would HATE HATE HATE to do that but I'm not letting bry-freakin-opsis win.

 

[steks]

That is costly. I can get a gallon shipped for that price.

And that's definitely bryopsis in those pics. At least it's a pretty green color :blown:


If you decide to give up and bomb the tank with bleach (salvaging the corals obviously) let me know, I have a nice way of totally oxidizing nearly everything in the tank very cheaply. It just means a total restart

Well at least I found a way to order it in Europe :bounce1:

I have decided I won't give up for at least 2 months, if in the mean time the amount of Bryopsis haven't diminished than something else has to be done. The complete livestock will be transferred and somehow the Bryopsis has to be killed :uzi: If that won't work every living thing will be killed and add a few pieces of fresh LR will be added. But I hope other things will help.

 

[redfishsc]

As for adding fresh live rock, I seriously doubt I will ever allow another piece of live rock in my tanks. From now on, I'm using only dead dry rock. No bryopsis and other pest SOB's come in on dry rock!

 

[TeePee]

After a couple of days of dosing, my Mg level is about 1150, up from a starting point of 1020. I peek into the tank and think that the dreaded bryopsis looks a bit thinner already, although I realize that my be wishful thinking (compounded by my pruning right before I started dosing). I'll definitely continue to dose and keep my fingers crossed!

 

[redfishsc]

I took a slightly different approach yesterday, on a whim.

I took a few ounces of tank water and threw in a bunch of mag sulfate, to the point that I had a sludge of undissolvable mag sulfate crystals, and I used a baster to dump these crystals and saturated solution onto several bryo patches to see if it could "burn" them.


No effect as of yet. :sad2:

 

[TeePee]

I took a slightly different approach yesterday, on a whim.

I took a few ounces of tank water and threw in a bunch of mag sulfate, to the point that I had a sludge of undissolvable mag sulfate crystals, and I used a baster to dump these crystals and saturated solution onto several bryo patches to see if it could "burn" them.


No effect as of yet. :sad2:

Creative thinking!!! Please keep us posted on the results.

 

[jennmac415]

I took a slightly different approach yesterday, on a whim.

I took a few ounces of tank water and threw in a bunch of mag sulfate, to the point that I had a sludge of undissolvable mag sulfate crystals, and I used a baster to dump these crystals and saturated solution onto several bryo patches to see if it could "burn" them.


No effect as of yet. :sad2:

I actually turkey basted the tech M onto the bryopsis as I was administering it to the tank....I really need to post a before and after pic of my rock covered in bryopsis... and NONE now...I still have a few little patches here and there and I am keeping my Mag elevated until I think it is ALL GONE... no ill effects seen as of yet and it has been around 1580 -1600 for about a month...in fact, I am seeing really good polyp extension on some of my sps that I have not seen extension on in about 6 months...:dance:

 

[steks]

Finally I have read the entire topic, while I am still planning on raising my SO4 I don’t really believe this will be the “magic ingredient” of Kent Tech M. If having a SO4 level of 4000/4500 ppm won’t have any effect in my Bryopsis I will raise my Mg level to around 1800/2000 ppm (using MgCl2, because otherwise my SO4 will be way to high). If that won’t work I will bring everything back to near NSW and I will buy Ken Tech M.

It will be like searching for a needle in a haystack, but maybe an analysis on Kent Tech M will result in knowing what ingredient can be responsible for killing the Bryopsis. You just need to know the NSW levels of about 80 elements (that’s not so difficult to obtain) and than analyze the Kent Tech M and see what components are significantly higher in proportion. Unfortunately I am not able to do that, and I also don’t know people who could, but maybe there is a chemist in this large community of Reef Central that can do it.

@ redfishsc, I will battle the Bryopsis for at least 2 months, but already I am curious about your way of oxidizing everything in the tank cheaply.

 

[blasto_master]

Thats pretty interesting. I am a little nervous to raise the Mag to those levels tho.