Finally an easy solution to bryopsis!

[20 20]

I'm currently 2 months into 'rock cooking' episode, due to briopsis. I figured I need another 1 or 2 months to make sure it's dead. Sounds like maybe upping the MG in the 'cooking tank' would help ensure it's dead?

[davidryder]

Sounds like it... we need to get the word out about this

[TWallace]

Originally posted by 20 20
I'm currently 2 months into 'rock cooking' episode, due to briopsis. I figured I need another 1 or 2 months to make sure it's dead. Sounds like maybe upping the MG in the 'cooking tank' would help ensure it's dead?

Based on other's experiences, cooking the rocks won't usually kill the bryopsis. It can live with no lights and extremely little nutrients for a long, long time. So, yes I'd up the magnesium in your cooking tank to somewhere between 1500 and 1600. The bryopsis should be all gone within two weeks (most of it will be gone in 1 week, based on my experience).

[blide]

Very interesting...

Bump - Maybe someone in the plant/algae field nows more about this.

[illcssd]

Interesting, very interesting. Chewie just lmk about this thread and i have a freind that has been battling this algae for close to a year now. He has done everything twallace stated to no avail. I will let him know and see if i can get him to take pictures of the progress as it goes.
Thanks twallace.

[mr.gaboozlebag]

Do you know if this would work with other kinds of algae?

[Peter Eichler]

Originally posted by mr.gaboozlebag
Do you know if this would work with other kinds of algae?

I didn't have othe nuisance algae at the time but the high mag levels had no ill effects on coraline, Halimeda, Gracillaria, a few different Caulerpa sp., Botryocladia, and a few other macroalgaes.
If it is in fact the magnesium levels the killed the Bryopsis I don't think it will work on many other algae species.

[neelix]

How is it doing? Still fading away?

[TWallace]

Yep, here's a pic I took last night of the same rock:



There's barely any bryopsis left on the rock.

[Grunt]

Can we see a FTS, did you happen to take before and afters of the FTS or just that area?
Cheers

[TWallace]

Sorry, didn't take any FTS before the treatment. This particular rock was one of the worst spots in the tank, though, which is why I picked it.

I did have a minor tank incident this morning. I spent the night at my GF's place last night. When I got home this morning I noticed a strange noise coming from the tank. The return pump was sucking in air. The cause of this was the bryopsis in the fuge was falling apart and getting blown out into the main tank. The trouble with that is there was an astrea snail in the output tube. The dying bryopsis got stuck on the astrea snail, restricting the output of the refugium, which caused it to overflow, which then caused the sump to run low. I moved the snail and pulled out the dying bryopsis from the refugium to fix the flow.

Then I did something stupid. I poured water into my kalk top off bucket (I should have just poured it in the sump directly instead), which mixed with the kalk at the bottom of the bucket. The bucket then pumped that freshly mixed kalk into the tank, making the water very cloudy. I did a 25% water change, but all 4 of my clams (3 crocea, 1 derasa) have been spawning today as a result of the kalk. Nothing else seems affected and the water is finally clearing up now. I know that clams spawn when they're stressed. I don't know if clam eggs/sperm are detrimental to the system. This is the first time they've spawned.

[Spracklcat]

Clam eggs and sperm will do nothing but good for the tank--it's good coral food. And don't worry about the kalk addition either. Many people add a freshyly mixed slurry of kalk nightly with no ill effects. The water will clear and it will be fine. If anything, the extra pH boost will help kill off the Bryopsis.

Christine

[jdieck]

I doubt it is spawning. As filter feeders, that is the way they will expell the suspended precipitated carbonate that they filtered out from the water column.

[Mr31415]

Once one has reached and maintained the 1600 Mg level - how do you get it down to 1280 again? Water changes?

[BFG]

Why would you want to lower the mag level? Sorry, newbie asking a silly question.

[JB NY]

Water changes will bring down the mag. Most salts mix up to about 1100 mag with a SG of 1.025.

[Mr31415]

Because a Mg level of 1600 is much higher than natural seawater and it is not a good idea to keep it there indefinitely.

[Gary Majchrzak]

Originally posted by TWallace
Nope, no ill effects from the mag. All corals, fish and inverts still look and act normal. The biggest surprise to me is that the chaeto in the fuge deals with the magnesium fine, but bryopsis is killed by it.

have you noticed any increase in coralline growth since upping the Mg?

[mazdaghost]

do high mag count affect Anemones. because i have been fighting this for six month and this is the only thing i have not tried.

[TWallace]

Originally posted by Gary Majchrzak
have you noticed any increase in coralline growth since upping the Mg?

No, I haven't, but I added a tuxedo urchin and a pincushion urchin to my system in the last couple months and they've been mowing down some coralline forests for me. Apparently they mostly like to eat the stuff on the back of the tank, not the front or sides. They're plotting against me, I can sense it.

[TWallace]

Originally posted by mazdaghost
do high mag count affect Anemones. because i have been fighting this for six month and this is the only thing i have not tried.

My large GBTA is unaffected by the magnesium.

[Neptune777]

TWallace,
Did you perform manual pruning as it was dying or did you let it "wither on the vine" so to speak?

[neelix]

I noticed all snails have been impacted. Mostly the real large ones seem to be in shock. Also the cuke I have seems to be in shock as well.

How are the snails in your tank??

[Neptune777]

Originally posted by neelix
I noticed all snails have been impacted. Mostly the real large ones seem to be in shock. Also the cuke I have seems to be in shock as well.

How are the snails in your tank??

Same here....snails do not like the new high Mg levels in my tank. Everything else looks fine. Looks like I will lose a bunch!

[TWallace]

I let mine "wither on the vine" so that the photo series would show only what the magnesium did, not any manual pruning.

Weird about the snails. I didn't notice them have any trouble with the mag in my system. I have about 12 kinds of snails, too. Though some are nocturnal so it would have to notice them have trouble with the magnesium.

The only possible downside I noticed in my system is my pulsing sinularia turned paler, almost white. Some toadstool leathers also turned whiter, but my green polyped toadstool leather was unaffected. None of those corals look like they're in danger of dying, though.