what eats bryopsis

[Allmost]

There are plenty of things that are known to work while it isn't known WHY they work. That's why we have scientific research. To say it doesn't work when it has been used time in time again just because the why can't be explained is wrong. To say you don't want to use it because the why can't be answered is understandable. I too can say that TechM works for bryopsis. I tried raising Mg with a brightwell's supp and it did nothing. treating with TechM cured the green plague in a few weeks. I did nothing along with the Kents treatment, so it had to be the TechM. Good luck with your critter search, I can't help there outside of saying emerald crabs, lawnmower blennies, astrea snails, turbo snails, sotmatta snails and collestina snails did nothing for mine. At least you still have the chemical treatment in your back pocket if it fails

thanks for pointing that out, I did not mean it doesnt work, meant it more like if I dont know why I rather find out first

from all the reports, it seems like it works so I have no doubt in your words and others you guys are right I just personally would like to find out why, and perhaps its my researcher side asking that.
[many ppl dont use Zeovit cause they dont know the ingredients, I never push them to use it ! they do what they like]

thank you for your help. and your right, at least I have that as last option if things dont get better in next month !

Tuxido Urchin does not touch it, off to next urchin for now. and I have enough tanks to house him in. [he is with my lion as of this morning]

 

[ReefHoboBum]

Thanks for all who chimed in, this is great help.

 

[t4zalews]

If you want I have pictures of my bryopsis breakout with some time shots of when it started receding and finally it totally eradicated.

 

[Allmost]

If you want I have pictures of my bryopsis breakout with some time shots of when it started receding and finally it totally eradicated.

did you use Tech M as well ?

would love to see pics they always brighten up any thread.

thanks

 

[Cptn Spaulding]

+1 on the Tech M. It works, however high levels of magnesium I have noticed seems fatal to many different types of urchins. It literally rips apart the spores and structure of the byopsis itself, and it will all end up in your skimmer.

Sea hares do NOT eat bryopsis. If they did, which the occasional one does, they die because it is POISONOUS for them.

I have seen many a sailfin tang, yellow tang, powder blue tang, lawnmower blenny, and other tangs eat it as well, and in a reef those are safer than any rabbitfish (which also mow any green algae down). getting new light bulbs will decrease the growth most likely.

if you're dosing iodine/iodide, it makes bryopsis grow out of control, since it has one of the highest amounts of it in its structure of nearly any algae in a home aquarium.

hope this information helps. always good to bring this topic up because someone out there is always battling this horrible stuff. i know i have.

 

[KrazyOnetime]

OK.....Now when I first heard of elevated Mg levels to "eliminate" Bryopsis I reaserched it with the same internet you all have access to. There are several "scientific type" explinations of why elevated Mg levels have this effect on the algae in question. I can't just spit it out off the top of my hrad as this was close to two years ago. It's somthing to do with interfering with it's ability to feed itself through photosynthisis. Dah, right. Any way at the time I figured it would have taken 17 to 19 of the big bottles of Tech-M just to reach 1450/1500. I can assure you there is no "MAGIC" ingredient in the overly diluted Tech-M. It's simply a weak Mg suplement. I can't even say if it's ionicaly balanced between Mg clorides and Mg sulfates.( see Randy Holmes-Farley's articles for more on ionic balance) It takes IMO several things implemented at the same time to beat/control Bryopsis. I believe through long term control you'll reap the reward of eradication. 1) manual removal, I have several toothbrushes some zip-tied to acrylic rods and an asortment of dish type scrubber brushes. 2) serious nutrient control, If your having a Bryopsis issue you need to re-evaluate your nutrient ins vs outs it's obviously out of balance 3) IMO an ionicaly balanced MG level of about 1500/1550. Let me stop for a sec and explain why IMHO I think 1800 is a bit much. Your tanks water needs stable parameters of Alk,Ca and Mg. It (the water) can only hold so much. When you start really elevating one the others suffer leading to breaking a Golden rule of reefing : STABLE PARAMETERS at all times! It's your choice if you want to but a Bunch of Tech-M to raise your Mg levels. The only time I can think this might make sence is if we are dealing with a nano tank. I say use Randy Holmes-Farleys recipie for mixing MG chloride and Mg sulfsate as it pertains to your situation. Which can be bought in Bulk (hint hint) for next to nothing. As a matter of fact with the newer style change in mixes of salt ingredients, that have been around for years, and newer salts as well have elevated Mg levels already so unless you are using somthing like instant ocean which is technicly a FOWLER type salt with little to no elevated ingredients needed for reef tanks your Mg levels are going to be pretty darn close anyway. However this has only been the case in the last 6 months as far a Tech Reef salts, which I use by the way. Anyway: 4) limit feeding w/rinsing of frozen foods if not already. 5)Test,Test,Test and keep GFO/activated carbon or what ever you use for nutrient control fresh. 6) evaluate what else you might be able to do to help with nutrient export, cheto harvesting, possibbly in a refugium but not a nessesity, a bigger skimmer or just experimenting with skimmer depths and settings. IMHO if you keep up the good fight and use some of these suggestions you will at least make considerable headway. I wrote this mainly because I to almost fell for the diluted Tec-M Mg as a way to increase my Mg level, this was before there were salt choices with elevated Mg levels that weren't expensive except Brightwells which was using at that time but still needed to add a substantial amount to reach 1500/1550ppm Mg levels. Reef On

 

[KrazyOnetime]

Just raising Mg levels is far from a cure all for bryopsis no matter what Mg supplement you use. I know this was from 09 but good info is valuable and I wasn't able to locate much.

 

[Flame_Angel]

I've had good luck with Halloween Urchins getting rid of bryopsis. Obviously you shouldn't get yourself in a position to have bryopsis in the first place, but in my personal experience they do a nice job cleaning it up.

 

[Beefy_Reefy]

I've had good luck with Halloween Urchins getting rid of bryopsis. Obviously you shouldn't get yourself in a position to have bryopsis in the first place, but in my personal experience they do a nice job cleaning it up.

So if someone has perfect water parameters how did myself or whoever get themselves in this position? Not over feeding. Good skimming. Frequent water changes. Keeping up on all maintenence duties. What then?

And 1350 will not get rid of Bryopsis in a week like an old post said. I also dosed Kent Tech M for a few weeks to 1800 and all it did was melt my zoanthids/pallys.

From what I'm told and read it's a natural thing. It happens... Mine is coming back so I dunno...

 

[plyle02]

IME I have seen them eat it like mad. But then again, no two Emerald crabs are alike. Maybe some do and some don't. But IME they did eat it.

Old thread, but been dealing with it this nasty stuff awhile, time to revive... As the title states, it is about natural predators that will consume bryopsis... I would go the Tech M route, but I have a zeovit tank, only 2 two months in process, but do not want mag that high, so for me, it is all natural... I added 15 hermits, 3 emeralds, 10 trochus, and 12 astrealas, to an already decent crew. I can say within 10 seconds, my emeralds began chomping this stuff. Pics to prove...

Before Pic:

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After Pic, 12 hours after introduction of emeralds, watched them chomping all night on this piece, here is what I woke up to today

[/URL][/IMG]

 

[brandon429]

Excellent pics. I have no doubt there are some cuc members that will consume it

The problem is repeatability...someone in another state will have emeralds that won't go near

if i ever found a lucky reliable cuc animal it would be a blessing, no more chemical cheating.

 

[Buzz1329]

Sadly, my experience says that raising your Mg level may slow it, but it will not rid the problem from your tank. . . . here are some photos of my tank

Holy cow. Great tank.

 

[tcblue]

I was told by a guy from fauna marin to raise the nitrate in my tank to get rid of bryopsis as my nitrate was 0 and it was out of balance with phosphate it worked for me

 

[ACBlinky]

I had a horrible outbreak of bryopsis right after my tank's initial diatom bloom (recently set up tank). It spread like crazy, I was scrubbing rocks with a toothbrush and then filtering the tank with a diatom filter and filter sock after filter sock to get the floating algae and detritus out of the tank -- it was very labour intensive. And nearly completely ineffective.

I bought a group of turbo snails and two emerald crabs and between them, the bryopsis (and all other algae) is GONE. The rocks are bare. My Mg runs around 1300, Ca ~450, alk ~9.5dkh, pH 8.5. NO3 is always undetectable, but I can't get PO4 below 0.5ppm (working on it). I attribute the bryopsis removal solely to the clean up crew.

 

[plyle02]

My update:
Almost done with this algae pest. Amazed how the emeralds, which I have never had in my tank's(10 years), destroy the bryopsis at the base of each coral with the algae present, and work outward as they clear the algae away from that coral. They seem to do this, leaving some patches nearby,but move on to the next coral, kind of weird....

 

[likefish]

my 2 cents.....

Tech M did not work for me either. Killed the bryopsis back for a month but it has since started to re-appear. Im adding emeralds and hoping for the best!

 

[ArrecifeJunkie]

I tried TechM and it worked great in the beginning. I needed 1800 for it to start working. My serpent star went totally dormant. As soon a I backed off he woke up but so did the bryopsis.

I have 2 emeralds and can verify that mine too eat the stuff but they are not very efficient. My Halloween urchin though is a Cub Cadet zero turn bryopsis mower. He literally leaves a bare trail behind him.

Keep fighting the good fight.

 

[fshaqrmman]

I have been battling briopsis in my 90 gallon for months now...with no luck. I have tried used Tech-M...but it has only slowed it down.
My question when dosing Tech-M
Do you keep your skimmer off and remove your carbon?
I have left the skimmer on and carbon in place...and cannot get rid of this s#$%!

 

[coralsnaked]

What is your mag level? My bet is that is is low, and raising it to 1350ish will get rid of it in a week.

Low Mg levels IMO will cause several differwent species of pest algae to gain a foothold on your DT. However w/ Bryopsis simply raising to normal levels of Mg @ 1350 ppm will do little to nothing to eradicate it. More like levels of over 1700 ppm to affect it. And surely it is safe to raise Mg levels to 2000 ppm if needed. I have had best results with quickly raising Mg to 1600 in a 24 hour period and then raising again to 1850 in a 24 hour period and holding it above 1800 ppm for weeks at a time to eradicate it.

But you must also attack it at every posssible angle. Elininate PO4 and Nitrates thru good husbantry and exportation as well as carefully manually removing it. by plucking it away, but do not let the removed pieces loose in the tank. And if it is possible to remove the rock or coral from the tank where it is attached to pluck it outside of DT and scrub the foot where it was attached and rinse in saltwater.

Merry Skerry

 

[Reeferz412]

hydrogen peroxide. 3%. Had a zoa frag filled with the stuff and it was spreading. Dunked it in a 4 to 1 solution in a small container. BOOM it fizzled away