how to get rid of this algae within a colony (pic)

[greystreet41]

I manually remove this, but it slowly comes back on this and another a few other colonies...any suggestions on what may devour it. I've seen a blue tang eat it but also chomp indiscriminately on the zoas....blueberry zoas btw...

 

[DJ88©]

bryopsis..

have fun. nothing except lettuce sea slugs eats that stuff. I have a couple of clusters of that junk.. hate it.. hate it.. hate it..

 

[ros_sco]

Have you tried an emerald crab?

 

[mbunaman]

Get yourself some mexican red legged hermits. They are awesome. I used to have that stuff in my prop tanks and added those little hermits. No kidding next day it was all gone.

 

[Triggerhapi]

Is that green hair algae

 

[cardgenius]

I would agree with mbunaman. Mexican red legged will take care of it. Just make sure to go in and pull out as much as you can. Once you do that, place a couple of the crabs on the colony and they will munch it down. The key is to make sure its small enough for the crabs to eat. That crap is really tough when its long.

 

[DJ88©]

Trigger,
no it isn't hair algae.

It is a type of algae called bryopsis. Probably the worst algae to get in a reef tank.

 

[Pazazz]

Get rid of your phosphates and Nitrates and it will die off....

 

[Peter Eichler]

I have the pleasure of having some of it because it came in on some frags from a very popular zoanthid seller here. About half of the 20 pieces had it and it's to the point where I've given up on a few of them, it also spread to some parts of my rock where the frags that only had a small amount of Bryopsis on them were placed.

In fact I've gotten frags/colonies from three places now that had Bryopsis on them (2 places were pretty bad). I'm still trying to decide if I want to post negative feedback on them...

 

[msman825]

hermit crabs will work on it

 

[DJ88©]

Hermit crabs don't eat Bryopsis.. I have had lots of experience with this stuff.

the two things that worked were ensuring your tank was pristine and raising the pH up to 8.6 and keeping it there for an extended period of time. Those coupled with Lettuce Sea Slugs.

I have tried hermits, emeralds, snails, fish, pruning, and scrubbing. It doesn't go away that easy.

 

[troybob333]

I had such a nasty case, the only way I got rid of it was when my heater stuck on and cooked the tank....yeah, it was gone for good but so was everything else.

 

[TWallace]

I'm battling the same stuff. Mine came in on a star polyp frag from a LFS. It's a pain to get rid of. Lettuce sea slugs didn't work for me. Neither did sea hares. I'm trying Mexican turbo snails and an algae eating blenny next. Everyone always says it's a nutrient issue, but my phosphates and nitrates always measure 0.

 

[jason9jay]

tweezers(the kind that have the finger and thumb hole), a toothbrush, and a heck of a lot of time

 

[acrylic_300]

Might try a fresh water dip...with same ph as tank...and a few drops of Iodine. I read that this kills algae.

 

[dhnguyen]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8279617#post8279617 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Peter Eichler
I have the pleasure of having some of it because it came in on some frags from a very popular zoanthid seller here. About half of the 20 pieces had it and it's to the point where I've given up on a few of them, it also spread to some parts of my rock where the frags that only had a small amount of Bryopsis on them were placed.

In fact I've gotten frags/colonies from three places now that had Bryopsis on them (2 places were pretty bad). I'm still trying to decide if I want to post negative feedback on them...

Did you ever stop to think that there's really no way to control these things? Especially if they were collected from the wild at some point. The spores could have been on or inside the rocks and there would be nothing any vendor can do about it that is IF they even knew about it.

Instead of masking the sympton (high nutrient), try lowering the nutrient level in your tank and see if it will go away. That's how I took care of mine previously. Also I have had great success with putting kalk paste directly onto the bryopsis as well.


D.

 

[familyreefer]

stuff

stuff

You go dhnguyen!! My mods are pushin water like no other!!! thanks

 

[marine134]

Go get a sea haze and it do the job better and fatser.

 

[metalManiac]

I have almost finished battling bryopsis in my tank, a reduced photoperiod (4-5hrs a day of lights) coupled with wet skimming for the last 3 weeks has seen bryopsis slowly turn a browny color and then dissapears (im guessing the detrivores finsh off the decaying matter). give it a try.

 

[jessiesgrrl]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8293246#post8293246 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by marine134
Go get a sea haze and it do the job better and fatser.

I believe he meant *sea hare*

Laurie