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My friend and I both had Bryopsis after our tanks finished cycling. It hitch-hiked on some figi live rock.
Both my 75 and my friends 120 have fuge's and grow crazy amounts of Macro algae including chaetoa, green grape, and sea grass.
Eventually both of us had a nasty outbreak of hitch-hiking Bryopsis. Once my cleanup crew was in, one out of four emerald crabs began eating this stuff. It cleaned off a patch the size of a baseball. Unfortunately I lost this emerald crab a few days later. Not sure why it died but the others are still alive but never touched the stuff. My friend never had luck with any of the emeralds crabs and resorted to hand pulling weekly.
Once I added a yellow tang, this stuff was history. The yellow would agressively eat all day. My friend began adding Tangs to his system fairly recently. His first was a Blue T. It never touched this stuff and preferred turf. Four months later, upon my recommendation, he added both a Kole and a Yellow. Like the Blue, the Kole wouldnt touch it. The yellow, on the other hand, went after it like mine did. His Yellow is not agressively targeting Bryopsis but is actively eating it and putting a dent in its growth and population.
Something I feel I should include, as if this isnt long enough already, is the infestion of my system by Dictyota. While one half of my tank was Bryopsis, the other with Dictyota. Eventually the two began a turf war in a few places where they met and the Bryopsis lost. Ive been fighting a 5 month war with Dictyota before I pulled all infested rock and placed it in a hospital tank in the garage. Total darkness for a month did the job and what was left in my system was wiped clean by both a long spine urchin and my Tang. It was a huge Pain in the rear to move all the rock and placement of corals was very difficult on my sandbed.
For all those that are battling some form of rampant algae, dont give up! You'll figure it out one way or another. I almost gave up and Im glad I didnt. It wont stay a salad bar forever.
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