Bryopsis Removal

I have a 46 gallon tank tested with API liquids. Phosphate, Nitrate are both showing 0. Ph is 7.8 in morning to 8 at night. DKH is 8-9 and Calcium is 400. I have never tested for magnesium yet but I will be soon. I once had a bryopsis outbreak and got a sea hare and he ate all of it. I believe I got another outbreak from feeding too much. I got a different sea hare(the last one I returned to the store). this time and so far he is just eating off the glass. If he does not eat the bryopsis please tell me how to go about increasing and testing for magnesium. I have a sunpod with 2 150 watt 14,000K Phoenix bulbs which are 3 months old. Lighting is 10 hours. I had a in-tank refugium with chaetomorpha in it but the chaeto was dyeing. I think this is because the bryopsis is taking all the nutrients. If the sea hare does not work out for any suggestions would be appreciated. I was doing weekly 10% water changes with Tropic Marine Pro reef. I now started doing a couple 20% changes every 4 days to help the algae leave faster. I have 2 clown fish, a mandarin and a fairy wrasse along with about 22 corals (mix of sps, lps, soft corals)

 

i found a good test kit on marinedepot.com for Mg. and there is supplements that you can add to raise the Mg, i am not sure but you may have to raise your KH in order to raise the Mg. but you need to know where the Mg is at right now.

 

I had a patch appearing on one of my rocks, and it grew very quickly even though my water levels were good. Lucky for me the rock was easy to remove from the tank, so I took it out and gave it a serious scrub. So far so good and there are no signs of it coming back. This happened about a month ago so I think I'm safe.....touch wood! I've seen on this forum that people with perfect water conditions can struggle with this algae, I wouldn't let it get a foot hold in your tank, if you can remove the rocks and take a tooth brush to it.

Good luck and hope you win the battle!

 

Try the following ways;

1. Stop feeding so much.
2. Raise your ph to 8.4-8.6
3. If possible, take out the LR that has the problem and scrub the hell out of it.

In order to have good Alk and Cal levels, you need to get your Mag to 1300-1500ppm. If you have a reef tank, and I know that you do, you need to know where your Mag levels are just as your Cal and Alk. Hope this helps. Luna

 

Bryopsis Removal w/Magnasium

I have Kent Tech M Magnesium and the Salifert Magnesium Test. I want to raise the mag to about 1700 to hopefull kill the bryopsis. The test kit only goes upto 1500. If soe one has used this terst kit and fully undersands it could you please tell me exactly the easiest way to get the mag to about 1700. Step 4 sayd to use the 1 ml syrings and draw the Mg03 reagent until the lower end of the black syringe part is at the 1.00 ml mark. When you do this there is an air buble that coems in when you use the plastic tip attached to the syringe. Is that ok? It says an air layer between the liquid and the piston is normal. What is the piston? I understand step 5 and 6 but I just want to make sure that the air that is in the syringe is ok when drawing in Mg-3? Any help is appreciated. All other water paramaters are good
Thanks,
Adam

 

The only way anyone's ever found to kill bryopsis is shutting off all light in the tank and fuge for at least 2 weeks. Unfortunately, some or most of the coral will likely die. Ask Tangster or Amcarrig. They will tell you the same that raising Mag will not kill it.

 

As far as the Salifert test kit, what I do is fill the syringe just a little and eject the liquid really fast a couple of times and that air pocket is gone. If you want to know if your at 1700ppm, after you empty the first 1500, jsut refill the syringe again and add the two numbers. Luna

 

Read through the last 5-6 pages of Amcarrig's 180 tank. See everything they tried that didn't work on their bryopsis.
http://www.3reef.com/forums/show-off-your-fish-tanks/180-up-running-37609-15.html

 

I started with the Mag back in Nov went to 2700 ppm did nothing Ca at 700 DKH at 18 skimmer skimming all it could do carbon no feeding for weeks Ozone PH at 89 to 93 2 weeks every kind of animal I could find or heard about nothing..
So I let just VHOs go from mid March until first part of may Was at a point of bleaching the entire system of trying the no light it had about killed off all the sps corals anyways as it ran them over. And long with the covering they used their toxins to make sure they had a clear space. I just said hell with it cut off all lights came close to wrapping the tank in Alum. Foil ..
But a little over 2 weeks with the high parameters and blasting water flows and no light at all it seems to have been killed off. Still not counting the chickens yet though . Let me know how that magnesium works out for you.. I know for sure we had Byropsis penneta I I.D it under a Microscope , the Boss I/D it then we sent off some to a Buddy of his in Boston to have them I.D it..

Amcarrig had fought this since 200 or so when she set up a tank using L/R and nothing did the job. It over ran the 90 she had when I first came up here in 05 I fought it every since .. Took one coral from that system and thought I had scrubbed the base totally clean using bleach and a toothbrush before adding that coral to this 180 . Wrong it went crazy in here.. better light and more room to expand.. Good luck with it and fight the good fight..

 

I have used Magnesium to successfully eradicate Bryopsis. I did it looooong before there was ever a post on RC on how to do it. But Bryopsis is a Genus and not a Species. Just because something works on one Species in a Genus doesn't mean it's going to work on all Species in a Genus.

Heck.....look at Caulerpa prolifera or Caulerpa taxifolia. The state of California has banned all Caulerpas simply because of these two species. I certainly understand that a state representative will not understand that the secondary metabolites (toxins to grazers) those two create are quite different from the majority of the rest of the other Species in that Genus.

Elevated Magnesium CAN be a viable method of Bryopsis removal......PROVIDED.....that you were fortunate enough to get the proper species that does react to elevated Magnesium. Unfortunately, not all of the species do.

For those who are now confused......
Our dog family pets are in the Genus of Canis....but so are wolves, jackals and coyotes. Tyson, my Boston Terrier, is sooooooooo different from my Labrador Retrievers I used to have. Same Genus....different species. In other words, you cannot say XYZ about a Genus. It may work, it may not work. You have to go down to the species level. I dare you to point your finger at a wolf and shout, "BAAAAAAD". (ACTUALLY, PLEASE DON'T DO THIS)