Bryopsis Control

[NC2WA]

Lee,

A thought occurred to me last night when talking with the wife.

Can Bryopsis cause death of livestock?? From all the pictures I have viewed, this seems to be the closest class of alage that is in my tank. Wife wants to know if the algae is posioning the live rock or water.

I have a fair amount on my live rock. I do not know if this is the proper way to control it, but I am taking each piece of live rock out and cleaning it. I am puzzled as my nitrates and phosphate levels are both ZERO. However, when the fish were present I was feeding heavily (which is why I think the algae bloom occurred).

According to this article, one can use urchins or nudibranchs. Both I really don't want to place in my tank.

http://fish.suite101.com/article.cfm/bryopsis_a_common_pest_in_aquaria

What is the proper way to treat Bryopsis??

Kirk

 

[krisfal]

I am puzzled as my nitrates and phosphate levels are both ZERO.
Kirk

Your answer to this question is also in that article

"It is a sure sign of high levels of nitrates, though often, the nitrates are not detectable because they are being uptaken by the Bryopsis itself."

 

[leebca]

Kirk,

The subject is in an area where I don't have very high knowledge, little or no expertise, only a little experience, and no education.

My refugium competes for the nutrients, keeping a wide range of fishes in a community tank, plus chemical filtration for phosphates, and a whole group of snails that won't let anything get to the visible level, prevents nuisance algae growth.

Sorry I can't be of more help.

 

[NC2WA]

Is there a better forum that this question should be moved to??

 

[NC2WA]

Looks like high level of Mg is one possible answer:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1113109&perpage=25&pagenumber=1

Doesn't Epson Salt have high level of Mg in it???

 

[leebca]

I've moved these posts into their own thread and then moved the thread to the General Discussion Forum. I'm hoping it will get more attention from those who may have experience with this marine life.

Good luck!

 

[NC2WA]

Lee,

Thanks.

Does anyone know if the increasing Mg to a level of 1500 will adversely effect corals that are currently in the tank??

 

[edwing206]

I'll share what little experience I've had with it. In my brothers old ten gallon reef he had a huge bloom that took over the tank in a matter of days. The way we got rid of it was scrubbing the rocks and siphoning out all the big strands we could see. After scrubbing and siphoning we would always do a rather large water change. 50% or so. We also cut back on the lighting by a few hours. It eventually went away after a week or two of the same routine. Good luck with it.

 

[NC2WA]

the pieces that are loose and are able to take out of the tank I am scrubbing. However, the large pieces in the middle of the tank are zipped tied together. so I am going to siphon what I can.

I was able to get the rabbitfish and foxface out of the tank. they are in separate QT tanks and look alittle scared. The foxface made it thru the night; tonite will be the first night for the rabbitfish.

 

[burning2nd]

lol i wish i could remove this aglae from the world.. and ban the word from life...

in short the best way to rid it is to nuke the rock..

rasieing the MG level will kill it off for a while but it will return.... I think Truely that you will never be able to remove it from a system..

ive had great luck outgrowing its self in the sump... but once you loose that gatherd motion its right back to day one.

If you can go as far as removeing the rock... just go the next step dip it in boiling Ro water.

U MUST stop the flow in the tank b4 you can siphon it

I hate to sound down and depressed.. (cause this is a depressing subject)
but stupid as it seems.... just get use to it.. cause its gonna be a part of your reef for ever.



i did the same the same that 206 did... works for a while.,

 

[NC2WA]

Burning,

So I assume if one boils LR in RO water the rock will be dead and you are basically starting over again ??

Fair assumption??

 

[burning2nd]

fair fight against The killer B

i should have just done that so so long ago,

 

[TWallace]

Before you do something drastic like boil your live rock, I'd give Kent's Tech M a shot. There's no sense intentionally ruining your live rock when there's a much easier way.

To answer your question about high mag levels and corals, it has caused some bleaching in softies and zoanthids in my experience, but they recover. SPS and LPS were unaffected in my tank. I've never had anything die from high mag levels, but if you raise it too fast (more than 100ppm per day), snails may suffer and possibly die.

 

[burning2nd]

just from my experience

as said softies dont like the high mag... my GTA bleached (but was fed back 2 normal)

as said... Ive never seen anything die in my tank from high mag levels.... includeing byropsis

if you have it... and your sure (and if your tank is still new) i really really really can tell it the best way is to start over...

now that i have an established tank... its much harder to say that i can nuke it...

but when i first got the killer B at that time my tank was maybe 4 months old... i should have just nuked. it... If you have an established tank.. and when it starts to grow if it is confined on one rock... maybe remove that rock and nuke it..


what ever you do, DO NOT BRUSH IT, PULL IT, just leave it alone.



Ive tried everything under the sun... the best IMo is starve the tank a little raise the mag and do some water changes...
what i did is (the kent tech M isnt enough) get some new stuff comes in a powder i buffer my new water... and ive raised and kept the mag at or over 1600PPm with no problem


thats how strong i feel about that...

 

[burning2nd]

you know... it just occured to me. that it could be just me..

they make it sounds so eazy to fight.... Perhaps its just my setup, and my feeding

lately ive bin a little laazy on the tank... (moveing sux)


as far as can Bryopsis kill live Rock...

i vote yes it can.

 

[NC2WA]

My tank is established and I have no plans of boiling my live rock. For the rocks that are NOT tied down, I plan on taking them OUT of the tank and scrub the heck out of them.

The only corals I have in the tank are a candy cane and a brain and one crocea clam. The other corals are in a separate holding tank for the moment.

I just placed an order of a 3 gallon container of Mg from twopartsolutions.com (a sponsor here). I need to add 1 gallon of this stuff at once to get the desired effect I need.

 

[twilliard]

I swaer there is something in the TecM that does it. No other brands gave me good results.

 

[NC2WA]

unfortunately Tech M does not sell in bulk. I will let you know the results.

 

[TWallace]

Honestly, if it's not too late I'd cancel your order from Two Part Solution. I've tried magnesium chloride and it had no effect on bryopsis. Tech M has worked reliably for me and many others, though. You can buy it in 1 gallon containers for around $20.

 

[NC2WA]

Where?? So does Tech M use Mg chloride or sulfate??