Finally an easy solution to bryopsis!

[Lynnmw1208]

I bought a 64oz bottle of Tech M and used about 75-80% of it to boost magnesium from 1100 to 1680 in my 55g tank (you probably only need around 1550 to kill the bryopsis, I overshot it). Tech M is also sold in 128oz (1 gallon) bottles for $19 on Marine Depot. For larger tanks, you can also buy Mag Flake (Magnesium Chloride, which is used as a de-icer, available at some hardware stores). But using commercial de-icer in a reef tank scares the crap out of me, so I avoided that.

For adding Tech M, the bottle recommends only 1ml per gallon per day, which will boost your system by 18.3 ppm per day. In my case, I needed to raise it from 1100 to 1550pm, so it would have taken nearly a month to get it where I needed it (450ppm / 18.3 per day = 24.5 days). So I was adding 4-5 times that amount, to boost magnesium by about 80-100ppm per day. I'll take another pic of that same rock when I get home tonight.

How fast was this added? that's 4mL per day right? I am afraid of adding this stuff too fast and having bad results. Does it matter how fast it is added? I have byprosis on one rock that is starting to spread... My mag was tested at 1140 ppm or something like that.

 

[RVANANO]

djkms... Not sure how much 100 ppm is but I found you need to go way over what the suggested dose is. I was adding 1/2 serving cup of Tech-M per day in my 120. I went through about a gallon and a half in the few weeks it took.

 

[djkms]

djkms... Not sure how much 100 ppm is but I found you need to go way over what the suggested dose is. I was adding 1/2 serving cup of Tech-M per day in my 120. I went through about a gallon and a half in the few weeks it took.

100ppm is about 3 cups.:fun5:

I dosed 3 cups on 4/24 - 04/25 - 04/30 - 05/01

Just checked my logs - guess its only been a little over a week. Jumping the gun here, still dont see any progress however...

I will post back in a week if I dont see any changes.

 

[RVANANO]

Ahh sheesh ok. Well that may be a bit much but as long as you get to the desired level I suppose it would be fine. I didn't notice it start to go away for about 10 days after I started dosing. Then it was totally gone over the next 2 days IIRC.

 

[das75]

When my bryopsis started to clump together and grow red slime, I backed off on the mag dosing. TBH I didn't ever check mag, just added it in a regimen with my normal 2 part doses.

That's about the only negative I've noticed with raising the Mg, the slime then thickening almost to a velvet, tough to get off even with a toothbrush. Fish, corals, snails, pods, other macros all seem okay.

 

[Lynnmw1208]

No one answered my question, how much is too much too fast? will 4mL a day be ok?

 

[kduen]

4ml a day will not even be close to too much. When I did the calculations I did it wrong and was dosing 26ml thinking it was 100ppm which it wasn't it was only raising my levels by 32. So now I have a small probably 6oz cup that I fill and add and it is right about 100ppm. To put it another way the little 8oz bottle will raise it about 125ppm and the 16oz bottle will raise by 250ppm or so.

 

[das75]

No one answered my question, how much is too much too fast? will 4mL a day be ok?

I was adding 1000ml/day but here's a calculator

 

[Lynnmw1208]

I was adding 1000ml/day but here's a calculator

awesome thanks for this! It is very helpful!!! I am already seeing some of the smaller patches of byprosis go away, but I definitely need to keep making the value increase.

 

[djkms]

Ok 2 1/2 weeks. Still alive. Wish I had a success story here

 

[Don_v]

Ok 2 1/2 weeks. Still alive. Wish I had a success story here

Is your MG already at 1700? I didn't notice any effect until a week AFTER I got to 1700 with Tech M.

one week AFTER reaching 1700, the bryopsis started turning greyish white at the tips.

about one week after that, it started shriveling up and turning brown-ish. at this stage, My astrea snails were all over it.

one week later, it was all dead and the snails had eaten the remains.


kept my mg at 1700 for 3-4 months. started lowering it recently with regular water changes and noticed a few strands of bryopsis appear, dosed some tech m, and in a few days it was gone again...

as long as I keep my levels up, there is not a sign of bryopsis. not sure what the magic length of time is to keep it from coming back though...

 

[psteeleb]

When I first set off to battle bryopsis I had the impression just raising the Mg levels would be sufficient. After raising the Mg to around 1750 using the standard 2-part mix and waiting a couple of weeks I decided to give up in this approach.

I did some further reading and found that it wasn't just about bringing the Mg levels up but about using Tech-M to bring the levels up to about 1600, so, I decided to give it another try. Through water changes I got my Mg back down around 1500 and using Tech-M brought the Mg level up to 1600 and waited a couple days but there was no change in the bryopsis. Tried 1650, still nothing, I even brought Mg up to 1700 and even after another two weeks, still nothing appeared to be happening. At best it may have slowed down the growth but the algae looked as healthy as ever.

Not giving up yet I posted a thread on the subject looking for additional information with the idea that it may not just be the elevated level of Mg but rather the concentration of whatever is in Tech-M that seemed to be doing the trick. Generally what I found out is that most people started around 1400+/- and raised it to 1600 or about a 12% to 15% increase using the Tech-M product. Using this new data point I further raised the level to 1750 using Tech-M, or a 13% increase from the 1500, and within a couple days I started seeing results, Bingo, it very well may be a concentration of the Tech-M product versus elevated levels. I ended up bringing the Mg level up to 1800 and zapped the stuff.

Side notes "“ Mg over 1650 will significantly impact your snail population; I lost over 80% of my astrea snails and at least 20% of all others.

Suggested approach:

Drop Mg to as low as you can withstand without stressing corals and use Tech-M (or other proven product that have a different make up then standard 2-part) and raise your Mg level by 15%

 

[thebanker]

I noticed a snail die-off from using Brightwell Magnesion-P.

Mag-P has the same ingredients as Tech-M: magnesium chloride and magnesium sulfate. Most of the other supplements are magnesium chloride only, I wonder if it is the mg sulfate that kills bryopsis, since we know it isn't the magnesium concentration in the seawater.

Right?

 

[psteeleb]

my understanding of the standard 2-part (Randy's recipe 1 using epson salt and magflake) is made up of;

47,000 ppm magnesium
70,000 ppm sulfate
86,000 ppm chloride

 

[Dubbin1]

I started dosing yesterday with the Brightwell Magnesion and its already doing its job on the bryopsis!!! I am also noticing a reduction of algae on the glass. Normally I have to clean it daily but so far today I have not had to touch it.

 

[Lurking]

I wonder how many here are able to 100% identify bryopsis. I am wondering because there seem to be varied results.

I have Bryopsis in two of my tanks. I began the Tech M treatment almost 10 months ago on both. Within a few weeks it was almost fully erradicated. However it was never fully gone. I have found that I must keep the mag levels at 1700 to keep it in check however it does not fully kill it off. This is expensive to do as I must keep a supply of the big tech M jugs on hand.

Recently the Bryopsis seems to have built an immunity as it is no longer kept in check and is once again out of control in the two tanks. I am frustrated beyond belief and I am about ready to throw in the towl and bow down to king Bryopsis.

Any other suggestions?

 

[Elliott]

I had a similar experience, it went away completely with Tech M, then came back and is now tolerant to it, so I'm breaking down the tank and drying out the rock, nasty stuff

 

[Lurking]

I had a similar experience, it went away completely with Tech M, then came back and is now tolerant to it, so I'm breaking down the tank and drying out the rock, nasty stuff

Seems like I will need to do the same on my 90 gallon and my 34. :angryfire:

 

[EleganceMan]

When I first set off to battle bryopsis I had the impression just raising the Mg levels would be sufficient. After raising the Mg to around 1750 using the standard 2-part mix and waiting a couple of weeks I decided to give up in this approach.

I did some further reading and found that it wasn’t just about bringing the Mg levels up but about using Tech-M to bring the levels up to about 1600, so, I decided to give it another try. Through water changes I got my Mg back down around 1500 and using Tech-M brought the Mg level up to 1600 and waited a couple days but there was no change in the bryopsis. Tried 1650, still nothing, I even brought Mg up to 1700 and even after another two weeks, still nothing appeared to be happening. At best it may have slowed down the growth but the algae looked as healthy as ever.

Not giving up yet I posted a thread on the subject looking for additional information with the idea that it may not just be the elevated level of Mg but rather the concentration of whatever is in Tech-M that seemed to be doing the trick. Generally what I found out is that most people started around 1400+/- and raised it to 1600 or about a 12% to 15% increase using the Tech-M product. Using this new data point I further raised the level to 1750 using Tech-M, or a 13% increase from the 1500, and within a couple days I started seeing results, Bingo, it very well may be a concentration of the Tech-M product versus elevated levels. I ended up bringing the Mg level up to 1800 and zapped the stuff.

Side notes – Mg over 1650 will significantly impact your snail population; I lost over 80% of my astrea snails and at least 20% of all others.

Suggested approach:

Drop Mg to as low as you can withstand without stressing corals and use Tech-M (or other proven product that have a different make up then standard 2-part) and raise your Mg level by 15%

Over what time frame should I increase my mag? You said within a couple days there were results but how many days did it take for you to add the tech m ??

 

[mfinn]

Raise the mag level about 100ppm per day is safe.