Living with Bryopsis

[skiwez]

Been doing research on here about bryopsis and it seems as though it's one of the worst plagues to invade our tank. I currently have a little patch growing on a piece of live rock and am debating what to do. I doesn't actually look bad, almost fern like.

Does anyone just leave it alone and let it work itself out, or is it mandatory to eradicate it?

Specs on my tank, 225 gallon, temp 79, Ammonia, nitrite undetectable, Nitrate approximately 10 according to salifert kit, mag 1250, alk 10dkh. Tank has been up and running since January.


Acans, zoa's and a toadstool are growing fine, as well as fish.

NO other algae growing in the tank other than cleaning off the glass every couple of days. Just starting to get some coralline growing on the overflows.

 

[FishN00b83]

I almost got rid of bryopsis and it wasn't as bad as people make it out to be. I caught it early and stayed on top of it for a few weeks and it's fading away now.

to start I do a 20g WC every week for my 125. I brushed it all off and tried to get as much in the syphon as possible. I also raised my mag to 1500 because I've heard it helps with reducing some different algae. the last thing I did was change my gfo out once a week. I found it helped keep it back until the next water change. within I would say 3 weeks it's almost non existent. I still get a very small amount on one of my power heads, but I think within another week or 2 I'll be all set.

 

[Whiterabbitrage]

A little patch is pretty. Makes the rank look more natural I think. But best of all you can keep Lettuce Slugs ( Elysia crispata) now! Nudibranchs are fun creatures. I have a moderate flow tank and have had a small colony of these living and reproducing for a year. They keep the Bryopsis in check.

 

[skiwez]

Thanks, glad to hear I don't have to take a grenade to my tank. When you read and do some search on bryposis it can get downright scary. Will continue to monitor it and definitely like the idea of having lettuce nudibranch.

 

[jay13]

get your mag up to 1800 ppm using kent tech m. no other mag supplement has the positive results documented with it and 1600 ppm to 1800 ppm seem to be the magic numbers people report results with. 1800 seems to be the rule though. once you get it there keep it there beyond when you see the bryopsis gone.

 

[MorganAtlanta]

Do yourself a favor and pull out the rock that has it before it spreads. One little patch can turn into a nightmare in a matter of weeks. If you want a nice macroalgae there are a lot of good options. Bryopsis is not one of them.

 

[SaltyWalter]

I wouldn't just let it ride, but don't panic either. Being just a small patch it's fairly easy to get rid of it.

Raising mag to 1600 will work using Kent TechM or Brightwells Hydrate Mg. this will kill the algae and most of the time you have to manually remove the bryopsis patch ones it dead. I wouldn't bother with that on a 225g unless you have it in multiple places of me tank.

I personally would remove the rock and pull the algae off and scrape/chip the surface of the rock where the algae was, since bryopsis has a strong holdfast that might be within a pourous rock. (Imagine cutting down a weed but not pulling the roots)

If removal of the rock isn't practical, then look into Hydrogen peroxide treatments, there's a huge thread bout it on here somewhere. There's also a smaller thread where someone did an experiment with the H2O2 mixed with baking soda to thicken it up and applied the paste with a syringe to the problem spot and left flow off it for a little while. I used H2O2 to fight Dino's and used the spot treatment method to get some small areas that were more persistent and it worked like a charm. Just be careful or Xenia and certain anemones nearby the H2O2 treated spot.

Whatever eradication method you choose, best of luck!