g0rilla
New member
How I got rid of Bryopsis
Disclaimer:
This may or may not work for you
This is just my experience with byropsis I dont recommend this to anyone just wanted to share experience
Situation
I had a frag tank that had become completely overtaken by byropsis
full of nice zoas /palys
The frag racks, the plugs , and growing in between and all over the corals. It got so bad it latched onto the glass and grew off of it like green hair algae
]Previous Methods:
Natural methods
Manual Removal
Trying to remove with tweezers was the biggest mistake I made. After every cleaning attempt everything looked great for a week. And then the algae came back stronger every single time. I wouldn't properly get all the pieces I was removing and it would float around the tank.
Hermits - wouldn't touch it
Mexican Turbos- no
Foxface x 2 - no
Scooet Blenny- no
Tangs - Not even a nibble
Sea Hare- ate some, guess it realized it tasted bad never touched again
sea urching- no
Chemical Methods
Peroxide:
I had some success with peroxide dipping but after melting a colony of candy apple red after a dip I became nervous about trying again on more expensive pieces.
TechM Magnesium:
Tank is very large. Using the calculator on RC I would need an incredible amount of magnesium. I have seen many who have successfully got rid of byropsis using Tech M. I thought I would try every method I could think of and save this as a last resort. Turns out I didn't need it.
Emerald Crabs : D
I was told emerald crabs were hit or miss but Id thought Id give it a shot
I decided to isolate the zoas /palys in a plastic container in the tank held in place with magnets
Loaded it up with 10 of the largest emerald crabs I could find
I had close to 50 frags they all looked like this. Most of them more covered. These were one of my favorites hated seeing them like this
Here are my salt & pepper agave before
here they are again after 24 hours
here are some nice watermelons
same idea
here they are after 12 hours
not a trace of byoposis
I tried manual removal before which was a temporary solution but I would always miss very small pieces. And even from the smallest sliver it can grow back. The emeralds did a remarkable cleaning job
And one more piece
the following morning
After cleaning all the plugs I changed all the racks, scrubbed the tank down like never before and removed every single trace by hand.
I then let the 10 crabs loose in the tank and they currently live in there. I have not seen a trace of bryposis since. Maybe its a crazy thought but I feel like they have been trained to eat it now.
]IMPORTANT NOTE
I did not feed the emeralds and they had no access to any other food.
WhenI left the zoas in for more than 1 day they continued picking at the plugs looking for food and stressed the zoas out. Never eating flesh but contstant picking and they are clumsy so sometimes they pick at them which caused the loss of a few heads of vivid rainbow after leaving in for 48 hours.
Obviously these are not normal tank conditions. In an aquarium I predict they would just move on and stop bothering the zoas.
Also emeralds fight like nuts when in closed quarters. Many were left missing legs/ arms by the end of 7 days of being in there.
This method is probably not feasible for most people who have bryposis everywhere and unable to isolate it the way I did.
Just wanted to show that emeralds 100% will eat byropsis.
If you have a problem you may want to consider adding some. I cant comment on how many you would need. I used 10 here in a small 8''x'4'' plastic hold container. So the zoas / palys were constantly getting passed over by one or two crabs
Disclaimer:
This may or may not work for you
This is just my experience with byropsis I dont recommend this to anyone just wanted to share experience
Situation
I had a frag tank that had become completely overtaken by byropsis
full of nice zoas /palys
The frag racks, the plugs , and growing in between and all over the corals. It got so bad it latched onto the glass and grew off of it like green hair algae
]Previous Methods:
Natural methods
Manual Removal
Trying to remove with tweezers was the biggest mistake I made. After every cleaning attempt everything looked great for a week. And then the algae came back stronger every single time. I wouldn't properly get all the pieces I was removing and it would float around the tank.
Hermits - wouldn't touch it
Mexican Turbos- no
Foxface x 2 - no
Scooet Blenny- no
Tangs - Not even a nibble
Sea Hare- ate some, guess it realized it tasted bad never touched again
sea urching- no
Chemical Methods
Peroxide:
I had some success with peroxide dipping but after melting a colony of candy apple red after a dip I became nervous about trying again on more expensive pieces.
TechM Magnesium:
Tank is very large. Using the calculator on RC I would need an incredible amount of magnesium. I have seen many who have successfully got rid of byropsis using Tech M. I thought I would try every method I could think of and save this as a last resort. Turns out I didn't need it.
Emerald Crabs : D
I was told emerald crabs were hit or miss but Id thought Id give it a shot
I decided to isolate the zoas /palys in a plastic container in the tank held in place with magnets
Loaded it up with 10 of the largest emerald crabs I could find
I had close to 50 frags they all looked like this. Most of them more covered. These were one of my favorites hated seeing them like this
Here are my salt & pepper agave before
here they are again after 24 hours
here are some nice watermelons
same idea
here they are after 12 hours
not a trace of byoposis
I tried manual removal before which was a temporary solution but I would always miss very small pieces. And even from the smallest sliver it can grow back. The emeralds did a remarkable cleaning job
And one more piece
the following morning
After cleaning all the plugs I changed all the racks, scrubbed the tank down like never before and removed every single trace by hand.
I then let the 10 crabs loose in the tank and they currently live in there. I have not seen a trace of bryposis since. Maybe its a crazy thought but I feel like they have been trained to eat it now.
]IMPORTANT NOTE
I did not feed the emeralds and they had no access to any other food.
WhenI left the zoas in for more than 1 day they continued picking at the plugs looking for food and stressed the zoas out. Never eating flesh but contstant picking and they are clumsy so sometimes they pick at them which caused the loss of a few heads of vivid rainbow after leaving in for 48 hours.
Obviously these are not normal tank conditions. In an aquarium I predict they would just move on and stop bothering the zoas.
Also emeralds fight like nuts when in closed quarters. Many were left missing legs/ arms by the end of 7 days of being in there.
This method is probably not feasible for most people who have bryposis everywhere and unable to isolate it the way I did.
Just wanted to show that emeralds 100% will eat byropsis.
If you have a problem you may want to consider adding some. I cant comment on how many you would need. I used 10 here in a small 8''x'4'' plastic hold container. So the zoas / palys were constantly getting passed over by one or two crabs
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