Finally an easy solution to bryopsis!
- Thread starter TWallace
- Start date
LOL... I am the QUEEN of Senior moments...no worries...thanks for your help.
Hey... I just put 2 and 2 together... you are the one that made the chemistry calculator!!! I knew I had seen your name somewhere... thanks for making that... it sure is a big help!
your post is fine... I am sure it can help someone that does have the seachem mag test! heck... this red sea is so hard to understand maybe I will go and buy it...
melev
Well-known member
Jim, GHA is Green Hair Algae, or Derbasia. It is not the same as Bryopsis, and I don't believe anyone in this thread has suggested raising Mg in their tank will kill GHA. Sorry.
Manual removal, and a new hungry cleanup crew can help immensely. Better water quality, daily skimmer cleanings, and replacing bulbs that have aged (for too long) help as well.
airinhere
New member
Oh, I am. Had a family event out of state that delayed my getting a good start on fixing this problem. Way I see it, if this works for me, with the severe patch I have growing there, it will work for anybody. I just want to share my success or frustration so others can see. Also, in doing more careful reading about the 2 part solution in RK mag it seems that Magnesium dosing like we are doing does count toward total salinity.
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-02/rhf/index.php
After one year of adding 8 ppm of calcium and the accompanying 0.4 meq/L (1.1 dKH) of alkalinity per day (41 mL of both parts per day or 4 gallons of both parts per year in a 50-gallon aquarium, including the effect of the magnesium part #3A, 2440 mL/year), the following residue (Table 2) would remain after calcification and adjustment for salinity (there is roughly a 32% rise in salinity over a year using this addition rate without water changes).
This part.....
(there is roughly a 32% rise in salinity over a year using this addition rate without water changes).
So I again refer back to what I was originally concerned about.
Is the Magnesium dosing we are doing going to be ignored for future refernce regarding salinity?
Or
Should I consider the readings I get from it as valid towards my tanks total salinity?
I try to keep my salinity right at 1.026 and do not consider this a figure I can estimate about or 'fiddlle' with. My auto top off systems keep this very stable for me only if I do not go adjusting my salinity manually.
If we are disregarding the extra salinity that the epsom salts are adding to our tanks, and the salinity shows up above 1.026 SG, wouldnt we be effectively 'cooking' our display tanks just like people do to tubs full of live rock when they want to get rid of nuisance critters?
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-02/rhf/index.php
After one year of adding 8 ppm of calcium and the accompanying 0.4 meq/L (1.1 dKH) of alkalinity per day (41 mL of both parts per day or 4 gallons of both parts per year in a 50-gallon aquarium, including the effect of the magnesium part #3A, 2440 mL/year), the following residue (Table 2) would remain after calcification and adjustment for salinity (there is roughly a 32% rise in salinity over a year using this addition rate without water changes).
This part.....
(there is roughly a 32% rise in salinity over a year using this addition rate without water changes).
So I again refer back to what I was originally concerned about.
Is the Magnesium dosing we are doing going to be ignored for future refernce regarding salinity?
Or
Should I consider the readings I get from it as valid towards my tanks total salinity?
I try to keep my salinity right at 1.026 and do not consider this a figure I can estimate about or 'fiddlle' with. My auto top off systems keep this very stable for me only if I do not go adjusting my salinity manually.
If we are disregarding the extra salinity that the epsom salts are adding to our tanks, and the salinity shows up above 1.026 SG, wouldnt we be effectively 'cooking' our display tanks just like people do to tubs full of live rock when they want to get rid of nuisance critters?
sammy33
Member
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10796027#post10796027 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by sammy33
I think I may have bryopsis and another algae that is more like a "tumbleweed". The tumbleweed algae is easy to remove almost coming off the sand and rock in clumps.
The other patches on the live rock however...must be bryopsis. Tough to pinch out with your fingers and a more dense low growth.
Here is a full tank shot showing the patches of algae. I had removed a good portion of the tumbleweed algae by hand. This is a "before" picture as I had a normal Mg level.
I have been double dosing magnesium sulfate and have incresed the Mg to 1470ppm over the last week from about 1320ppm. I am just about out of the Seachem Reef Magnesium (ingredients listed as magnesium sulfate, sodium, chloride) so I will get some Tech M and try to zap this stuff! :strooper:
I have been dosing Tech M now for about 10 days or so and have had the elevated magnesium for about 5 weeks. I had been increasing my Ca, Alk, Mg as part of the Blu Coral method but kept going with the Mg (after reading this thread). I have recently had levels of 1500 + and now around 1600ppm.
The pic below is from today. Compare with pic above from about 5 weeks ago
The algae is receeding! I still have a few patches left but they are all starting to look either gray or brown. I will continue my Mg supplement with TechM until the other patches are gone.
My sincere thanks to TWallace for starting this great thread.
Mikeyjer
New member
I have killed ALL of the bryopsis in both of my display tanks!!!! Finally I have them all gone.....Thanks for this thread!!!!!!!!!!! I should post a picture of before and after, it was badly covered everywhere, now I have hair algae problem, oh well, at least it's easier to treat, but I do have to say tech M killed my snails, I had to rescue the larger ones to my other tank that I did not treat with tech M, my fish took care of them. I found out that IF I prune the bryopsis short, my fish go crazy over the rest and they took a quick work into destroying the left over bryopsis. The fish that did the work is a Foxface and a Regal Tang. My Regal Tang eats ANY type of algae that goes into my tank which is kinda amazing, her name is Dory of course, she's ate razor caulerpa, some sort of grass looking algae, ogo, hair algae, bryopsis, etc. The foxface eats the bubble algae, dunno if she would eat the caulerpa or not dory ate'em all, bryopsis, the weird grass algae, hair algae, etc. They keep my tank looking clean from algae, of course they have a backup Tang too that helps out which would be my Tomini Tang. I still have another gallon backup of Tech M available IF I encounter the bryopsis again, at least I know this works. We have spent hundreds of dollars trying to find a solution that works, but this is the best thing ever!!!!!! Even losing a few snails is worth it since I've been battling with bryopsis for almost 2 years.....Thanks to Wallace who started this thread!!!!!!! :rollface:
TWallace
New member
I never had anything die as a result of the magnesium. I have read from at least two people that it killed their snails.
I had a very large GBTA when I first treated for bryopsis and it was unaffected. I've since sold it because it was too dangerous with my SPS. My clowns have made a new home in a toadstool and surrounding xenia. They seem content.
The only downsides I experienced was that my toadstools and sinularia bleached from the magnesium, but they recovered within a month or so and look fine now.
I did notice that my zoanthids looked less colorful, but in July I also switched from T5 to MH with 10K bulbs. The 10K bulbs made everything look less colorful. A week ago I switched to 12k bulbs and am loving it. My green and red corals are so much more vivid now.
As far as copper being an ingredient in Tech M, I wouldn't worry too much about that. It's likely a very tiny amount of it. Also, isn't copper an ingredient in most salt mixes as well?
I had a very large GBTA when I first treated for bryopsis and it was unaffected. I've since sold it because it was too dangerous with my SPS. My clowns have made a new home in a toadstool and surrounding xenia. They seem content.
The only downsides I experienced was that my toadstools and sinularia bleached from the magnesium, but they recovered within a month or so and look fine now.
I did notice that my zoanthids looked less colorful, but in July I also switched from T5 to MH with 10K bulbs. The 10K bulbs made everything look less colorful. A week ago I switched to 12k bulbs and am loving it. My green and red corals are so much more vivid now.
As far as copper being an ingredient in Tech M, I wouldn't worry too much about that. It's likely a very tiny amount of it. Also, isn't copper an ingredient in most salt mixes as well?
Mikeyjer
New member
The copper is in small amounts, but there's something within the mix that's killing the snails, I've noticed that my older snails that I've had for over 2 years are handling it ok, but not moving at all. I had to move them into my other tank to save'em. They came right out as I moved them in my other tank. Then the rest of my snails all died. But like I've said, it's a small price to pay to rid the bryopsis for good!!! I was getting to the point of taking everything out of my tank and dry everything out, including my corals since bryopsis was attached to them as well. This saves me from doing so, now I don't have to kill off my corals that I treasured. Now I can make it beautiful once again, thanks to you!!!!
Caragol
Caragol
Based on this thread and my hatred of bryopsis I'd like to add another success story for the killing of bryopsis with Kent Tech M. I've had my Mag levels at just over 1600 for two days now and it's dying like crazy, there's almost none left at this point.
Thanks to TWallace for posting this and thanks to all who have experimented and posted their results!
Thanks to TWallace for posting this and thanks to all who have experimented and posted their results!
Questin
New member
It is unfortunate that most of the success stories come from just two products. It would be nice to try to pin point the success better by having a wider range of products, then comparing those with each other.
Tropic Marin has a high Magnesium level salt, and they have a Bio-Magnesium that I will be using to see if they work at all.
Their Bio-Magnesium says it has the following contents:
Salts of Magnesium, Calcium, Sodium, and Potassium and 70 Trace Elements
Their Pro-Reef Salt says that it has optimized calcium and magnesium concentrations and it made from pharmaceutical grade sea salt and also contains 70 trace elements in the exact proportions found in tropical sea water.
I will keep the mag levels just above 1600
If this does not get rid of the bryopsis, then it will be safe to say that perhaps it is not just the magnesium
Tropic Marin has a high Magnesium level salt, and they have a Bio-Magnesium that I will be using to see if they work at all.
Their Bio-Magnesium says it has the following contents:
Salts of Magnesium, Calcium, Sodium, and Potassium and 70 Trace Elements
Their Pro-Reef Salt says that it has optimized calcium and magnesium concentrations and it made from pharmaceutical grade sea salt and also contains 70 trace elements in the exact proportions found in tropical sea water.
I will keep the mag levels just above 1600
If this does not get rid of the bryopsis, then it will be safe to say that perhaps it is not just the magnesium
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