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

[gflat65]

No, I want sea haze.

I've been fighting the stuff for about 9 months now... I rip it out several times a week and it keeps coming back. I have detritus somewhere I can't get to (likely my overflows and sump). I had several lettuce slugs (they kept propagating with the powerheads-started with two, ended with about 8). They were always seemingly munching, but never mowed anything down.

 

[camz28]

put some red leg hermit crabs and theyll do the job

 

[moses13]

I had a foxface that would eat bryopsis, though I've read they are hit or miss. Nothing else I've seen will eat it. Keep pulling it and lower nutrients. It also tends to trap detritus, thereby feeding its own growth, so keep it blasted with turkey baster between pullings.

 

[Peter Eichler]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8292279#post8292279 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by dhnguyen
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.

Well, one way to control it would be to NOT sell frags with Bryopsis on them. The vendor knows about it because I did a search for his name and bryopsis and he talks a bit about his battle with it. Many of the frags I got from him were pretty clearly in a closed system for a while just from looking at the color of the rock and algae growth.

The frags from two of the places had pretty minor growth and it's mostly under control. But the frags from one place in particular have been BAD. Between getting frags that weren't attached to a rock and were just a ball of zoas with no mat and the bryopsis I'm not happy.

My phosphates and nitrates are undetectable and I skim heavily. I also have never even fed my aquarium, and have a big ole ball of Chaeto in my sump. I'll lick it eventually but this stuff isn't your average nuisance algae.

 

[BLKTANG]

I had a sweet G.I Joe zoa rock that developed this stuff,what i did was razor blade all the zoas off the rock killing half of them in the process,& now i have G.I Joes laying around on the sand bed.& to top it off it has started to grow a tiny bit on another piece of LR now.I kind of like dhnygun's idea about using calk paste,maybe a couple of red legged hermits too.

 

[dhnguyen]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8356309#post8356309 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Peter Eichler
Well, one way to control it would be to NOT sell frags with Bryopsis on them. The vendor knows about it because I did a search for his name and bryopsis and he talks a bit about his battle with it. Many of the frags I got from him were pretty clearly in a closed system for a while just from looking at the color of the rock and algae growth.

The frags from two of the places had pretty minor growth and it's mostly under control. But the frags from one place in particular have been BAD. Between getting frags that weren't attached to a rock and were just a ball of zoas with no mat and the bryopsis I'm not happy.

My phosphates and nitrates are undetectable and I skim heavily. I also have never even fed my aquarium, and have a big ole ball of Chaeto in my sump. I'll lick it eventually but this stuff isn't your average nuisance algae.

What test kits are you using? I am asking because your pic shows that you're using crushed corals as a substrate which is well known for being nutrient trap IME.

 

[jessiesgrrl]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8293804#post8293804 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by gflat65
No, I want sea haze.

I've been fighting the stuff for about 9 months now... I rip it out several times a week and it keeps coming back. I have detritus somewhere I can't get to (likely my overflows and sump). I had several lettuce slugs (they kept propagating with the powerheads-started with two, ended with about 8). They were always seemingly munching, but never mowed anything down.

Hahaha "propagating with powerheads"...!

You want the purple haze I think!


Laurie

 

[Peter Eichler]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8359182#post8359182 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by dhnguyen
What test kits are you using? I am asking because your pic shows that you're using crushed corals as a substrate which is well known for being nutrient trap IME.

What pic? I'm using a very thin layer of aragonite sand not crushed coral. Not to sound like a jerk but I've been dioing this for over 20 years and Bryopsis really doesn't need much in the way of nutrients to keep growing and spreading.

 

[jimsta]

I have been battling this for a year and I WON. Then I got lazy and it returned. Here are some things that I learned while researching it and the things that eat it.

1. It like Metal Halide/ Intense lighting.

2. It loves detritus

3. Check your RO/DI water. If you don't change your filters enough it seems like this stuff feeds off of the extra TDS

4. Lettuce Nudibranchs DO NOT EAT THIS, all they do is suck the chlorophyll (spelling) out of it so that they can use it themselves. This is why gflat65 never saw any mowing down, CAUSE THEY DONT. They do help by sucking the chlorophyll out and then you can remove it easier by hand.

5. Sea Hares will not eat this. They eat Green Hair Algae not bryopsis. Bryopsis is a little different. Trust me I have tried numerous times.

6. Cut down on feeding. again, it loves extra nutrients to grow off of. What I have noticed is that when I fed my corals (cyclop-eeze, Zo-plan, Dt's, etc) it came on strong. So cut back on that too, if you feed them.

7. Adding more flow or pointing powerheads on it WILL NOT WORK. It grows on the outlet of my TUNZE streams and right next to my acro (tons of flow).

.............If I remember more I will be sure to post them. Hope this helps you win the battle.

 

[Sk8r]

I've had some success with algaes and films in general in my reef by running Phosban, which takes down the phosphate level and also absorbs some silicates. It can drop your alkalinity level, so watch that. But it does improve water clarity, and removes the hidden or 'bound' phosphate that won't show on your tests. Takes a while, but the curve is definitely in my favor.

 

[jason9jay]

Another thing that may help would be to choke out the undesirable algae with some macro like chaeto or caulerpa(sp?)...you can even try mangroves if you'd like. The new algae would compete for nutrients and is much, much easier to remove. This is part of the concept behind an ecosystem method, use plants to export nutrients so that the main desplay doesn't have much nusance algae.