Bryopsis in fuge

so i looked at my fuge today and noticed its got a ton of bryopsis in it, probally from the live rock rubble i put in it. should I be concerned about it in the fuge? how likely is it to get from the fuge to the tank?

 

I'm not sure, you may could remove the live rock rubble. I'm not 100% but I believe most people don't put rock in with there fuge. I'm am looking into building a remote fuge shortly so bump for curiosity. Also from my experience with it you'll want to get rid of it best you can, the stuff can spread like a plague!

 

I've definitly seen rock in other fuges, more rock is just more biological filtration, its only like 4-5 lbs of fist sized pieces so removing it scrubbing it and soaking it in coral RX will kill it all. I'm just wondering if i even should bother with the effort, I mean i have chaeto in my fuge and its never made it to my tank so im thinking the bryopsis wont either. one more algae to eat nutrients in the fuge

 

I'm with you there I have definitely seen rock in fuges, but I think the general consensus is to leave bio-logical filtration to the tank and sump area and to let the fuge be the fuge. I'm not sure of its ability to spread from fuge to tank but its definitely not a macro algae and prob not one that would be beneficial. If you do decide that it is a potential harm to the tank though I would remove it and or maybe even the live rock. How much live rock do you have in the tank compared to the fuge? Will that handful matter?

 

chaeto doesnt reproduce sexually lol ive heard bryopsis spawns off spores that are resiliant and diabolical. So in your xp coral rx kills it real good eh? I just ordered some for a couple of cool zoa frags (fire and ice/dragon eyes/eagle eyes) i got from a guy before i knew any better and have been micro pruning with tweezers :-/

 

yeah, I would definitely get rid of the bryopsis as quickly as you can. If that means nuking the rock, then so be it... you can always put the rock back in.

As far as whether to put rock in a fuge or not, it is perfectly fine to do so. Refugium comes from the word "refuge". Putting rock in the fuge means that copepods and other smaller inverts can have a place to reproduce without being eaten by fish.

I have a good bit of live rock rubble in my sump/fuge and there are tons of pods, mini brittle stars, bristle worms, feather duster worms, etc. that grow in there because of it. Plus it's adding to the biological filtration.

 

To my knowledge, chaeto an reproduce asexually, but it's a very low risk, while other macro algaes such as Calupera (sp.?) have a much great chance of doing so and spreading. I know bryopsis is very invasive but I don't know the risk of it reproducing and spreading. I would kill it before it does though.