Over Come Bryopsis Issue!!!!

[Mikeyjer]

Ok, some of you know that I've been fighting a losing battle with bryopsis for a LONG time. I've tried just about everything you can imagine and nothing really worked. Some worked, but not all the way. I use Tech M for a while and it wiped out all of the bryopsis in my tank since my tank was literally covered with bryopsis. But I wasn't able to keep any snails alive since they hate that stuff.....I stopped dosing Tech M and started doing more water changes and here comes bryopsis trying to take over again. Chris at Critters suggested me trying out Algaefix for Marine by API. I've been dosing for about 3 weeks now and this stuff does work, bryopsis isn't coming back. But it does not rid hair algae! You will have to remove any sort of fuge algae cause it will kill it, find that out when it killed off my chaeto in the fuge and cause a huge hair algae bloom in the display...lol....Starting to get everything under control once again. This stuff does not bother corals, inverts, or affect your system period. To anyone else whose been fighting a losing battle, give this a try. Ryan wanted me to post this when I started this treatment weeks ago, but I want to be sure this stuff does work before I make a statement. I'm just glad I don't have bryopsis issue in my bowfront....lol.....Just my 55 that give me so much issue, but not anymore.

 

[SRT80]

you say to remove fuge algae. Does that mean this stuff will kill caulerpa? I have a ton of razor caulerpa and if this stuf would kill it, that would be great...

Steve

 

[Mikeyjer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11751587#post11751587 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by SRT80
you say to remove fuge algae. Does that mean this stuff will kill caulerpa? I have a ton of razor caulerpa and if this stuf would kill it, that would be great...

Steve

I'm not sure, but you sure can try. To my assumption, it kills off hard grown algae like bryopsis, chaeto, etc. So I assume it would do caulerpa the same way. Like I've said, it does not affect hair algae at all. I can try this grass algae that grows in my other tank to try to see what it does to it. I had razor caulerpa, but my regal tang ate'em all down to nothing and it's not growing for me anymore....lol.....

 

[Ebay Fish]

I always use different rabbitfish for bryopsis, they will also eat hair algae. Due to thier extremely high metoblism, they can consume a ton of algae! Also, for the red hair, try black turbo snails. It is always much better to try to find a biological control as opposed to a chemical control. Most chemical controls lower the O2 levels wich may have adverse effects on other life. Also, even though Algaefix Marine claims to be reef safe, there is potential that it may harm the natural zooplankton cultures & zoanthaliad algae in the coral's tissue.
----Sean

 

[Mikeyjer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11753465#post11753465 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Ebay Fish
I always use different rabbitfish for bryopsis, they will also eat hair algae. Due to thier extremely high metoblism, they can consume a ton of algae! Also, for the red hair, try black turbo snails. It is always much better to try to find a biological control as opposed to a chemical control. Most chemical controls lower the O2 levels wich may have adverse effects on other life. Also, even though Algaefix Marine claims to be reef safe, there is potential that it may harm the natural zooplankton cultures & zoanthaliad algae in the coral's tissue.
----Sean

The thing with rabbitfish is that you don't know when it's gonna turn on you and eat all your corals. I have heard many terrifying stories of people getting a rabbit fish to control bryopsis and yes it did rid their bryopsis problem, but then it turn towards the corals and started a feast.....I have try the snail method and it doesn't work as well as I want it to. I have tried many different methods through out the years, lettuce nudis, many water changes, phosphate reactors, Tech M, etc. It all ended the same way, gets rid of them at the beginning, but it always come back. So far there's no adverse effects to anything in the tank including corals, they are actually growing and their colors looks better like before I had all these problems. I'll be on the look out though since you mention about the zoanthaliad algae within the coral's tissue. But so far I have very good health and some corals are making a come back just after one month of usage of this product. So I would have to say it's pretty impressive. I guess I have to see in the long term effect this can take. I'll keep this thread updated on a monthly basis....

 

[coralphreak]

I would be looking at whats feeding the algae. Its getting food from somewhere. It doesnt matter if your tests are coming out zero for nitrates and phosphates, its probally consuming it faster then you can test it. Find the source and correct it, then there will not be a problem.

 

[Mikeyjer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11764318#post11764318 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by coralphreak
I would be looking at whats feeding the algae. Its getting food from somewhere. It doesnt matter if your tests are coming out zero for nitrates and phosphates, its probally consuming it faster then you can test it. Find the source and correct it, then there will not be a problem.

I guess you haven't come by with Bryopsis yet....It's a hard algae to rid, not just any type of algae you can rid easily even with good water quality.....Go read up on it and you'll know what I mean....It can even survive without any lighting.....I can survive even through the weakest condition.....I can give you a piece if I see them again, we'll see how well it goes through in your tank...lol....:lol:

 

[coralphreak]

Ive had Bryopsis before, Ive had every kind of macroalgae pretty much. Keep your dkh around 12 and you're usually fine

Raising magnesium helps, but its a trick to keep it up all of the time.

 

[Mikeyjer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11769002#post11769002 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by coralphreak
Ive had Bryopsis before, Ive had every kind of macroalgae pretty much. Keep your dkh around 12 and you're usually fine

Raising magnesium helps, but its a trick to keep it up all of the time.

I've tried the magnesium trick, it still comes back after you drop down the magnesium to the proper level. I've had all kinds of algae before too, but this is the toughest one for me to deal with. The main reason to keep Alkaline up is to push the PH up to about 8.6 on a daily basis for at least a week. That's one of the ways to kill them as well. But I have a hard time maintaining it at 8.6 since I'm not home most of the time. Afraid I'll overdose the tank so I don't bother to try it anymore. But the new stuffs I'm using does work, still no signs of bryopsis in my tank after a month of usage.

 

[coralphreak]

The downside to the new stuff is hair algae...

If you pull out as much as you can manually, then there shouldnt be much hair algae. The reason why there is hair algae is because the bryopsis is dieing, thus feeding the hair algae. Ive battled them all, its caulerpa I have problems with. In a fishless tank, just corals, zero everything. You can totally clean out the calerpa, but it will still come back from its roots. I cant figure out whats feeding it. My source water is good, my water tests great before it shows up. But it still shows up. So Im willing to get that stuff a try to rid my tank of caulerpa.

 

[SRT80]

let me know how it goes. I wanna try and get rid of this razor caulerpa...

Steve

 

[rsteagall]

Steve, Michael's regal tang ate all his razor...so razor won't be a known.

 

[SRT80]

but mine is in a 20 gal. so no regal for me....

Steve

 

[Mikeyjer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11770047#post11770047 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by coralphreak
The downside to the new stuff is hair algae...

If you pull out as much as you can manually, then there shouldnt be much hair algae. The reason why there is hair algae is because the bryopsis is dieing, thus feeding the hair algae. Ive battled them all, its caulerpa I have problems with. In a fishless tank, just corals, zero everything. You can totally clean out the calerpa, but it will still come back from its roots. I cant figure out whats feeding it. My source water is good, my water tests great before it shows up. But it still shows up. So Im willing to get that stuff a try to rid my tank of caulerpa.

You got that correct, hair algae is blooming, that's the only downside to it. But to my thought, IF I kept doing water changes every 3 days and keep dosing this stuff til all the bad algae is dead and gone, kept taking away nutrients from the hair algae, perhaps they will diminish over time. I'm still working on that issue, I rather deal with hair algae any day over bryopsis.....I don't have any problem with razor caulerpa or any caulerpa because my regal ate'em all like Ryan was saying, but that was in my 90. In the 90 I've dealt with caulerpa, some sort of hair grass algae, some olga, bryopsis, some other type of unknown algae, hair algae, blah blah. Regal ate'em all down to nothing, plus the help of his sidekick Tomini Tang and Foxface. Snails took care of the left over......