PLEASE HELP...Bryopsis "feathers"

fighton03 · #1 01/28/2007, 10:25 PM

I have about 40# of new rock cycling in my new tank. It just sprouted the tiny "feathers of death" \

Should I just pitch the rock? If I put it in a dark tub for a few days will it die off for good, or just come back? When I got the rock, it really was not live and had no sign of the algae. It has been in the tank for about 3 weeks and just sprouted this week. Please help quickly. I don't want it to infest the tank chronically before I even get it going.

Thanks

fighton03 · #2 01/28/2007, 10:40 PM

I'm sure this is one of those topics that keeps coming up, but I really need some feedback. I have all the affected rocks out of the tank. Should I scrub them, put them in the dark, boil them, leave them in the driveway for a few days, throw them in the trash, dump them in the sump????

drummereef · #3 01/28/2007, 11:40 PM

Can you post a pic of it? Are you sure its no just hair algae? Very normal in cycling tanks.

fighton03 · #4 01/29/2007, 12:07 AM

I tried to photograph it, but my camera doesn't have the ability to get the desired results

I did do a extensive search at available photos online and it is definitely not regular hair. I have had experience battling hair and won that fight. This looks like little feathers, definitely different and distinctive....unfortunately. I really don't want to have this stuff in my tank. Someone please advise

fighton03 · #5 01/29/2007, 12:13 AM

Unfortunately mine looks just like the photo in this thread http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...readid=1031325

you can see the horizontal fern like "leaves" on each stem. It also grows in the little tufts like in the picture.

BobTheBuilder · #6 01/29/2007, 12:23 AM

Just keep it in place so you can complete the cycle. Cover the tank with black trash bags for 2 to 3 weeks. No lights at all. That should definitely kill it while allowing anything else in the rock except the coralline algae to survive. You may need to get a small piece of live rock with coralline to seed the other rock once you are finished

fighton03 · #7 01/29/2007, 12:34 AM

If I put those rocks in the sump and keep the lights out, would that accomplish the same thing while allowing the display to continue to progress. I am pretty sure I'm pretty far along, if not done with the cycle. I seeded the tank with established reef sand from my other tank and approximately 40 gallons of water from my other tanks. I also put 30 pounds of my own live rock in the tank initially. It has been running for about 1 1/2 months already.

fighton03 · #8 01/29/2007, 11:01 AM

I'd really appreciate some guidance on this issue. Anyone who has experience or expertise, please help.

joeychitwood · #9 01/29/2007, 11:46 AM

I've battled hair algae at various times in my reef "career" and it is very difficult to eradicate. I'd recommend keeping the rock in the dark for a few weeks, with a skimmer and heater running, of course. Expose the rock to light for a few weeks and see if the hair comes back.

I've had a single, dime-size patch of HA in my tank on and off for two years now. Every time I think I've eliminated it completely, it reappears.

If you are in a hurry to use the LR, you can scrub the rocks with a stiff brush.

shutiny · #10 01/29/2007, 12:05 PM

I had the same green hair algae AND red hair algae in my new tank. I have good luck with Mexican turbo snails. In less than a week, all algae was gone.

fishgutz · #11 01/29/2007, 12:34 PM

I just finished my battle with bryopsis in my newly cycled 180. I had it under control in two weeks. I left the lights ON their normal ten hour cycle the whole time. I wanted to encourage the coralline algae growth so I left them on. I bought one sea hare, one long spine urchin, fourty astrea snails and ten mexican turbos. I removed as much as I could by hand and used filter socks to catch anything that got loose, and then just sat back and watched the bryopsis disappear. Sea Hares kick butt. Don't forget your water changes. Keep the calcium and alkalinity up and you'll be fine.

AZDesertRat · #12 01/29/2007, 02:55 PM

One lettuce nudibranch will eat it in a matter of a weeks. They are amazing how much they can eat but have a home for it once its done as it will soon starve.

jmcmahon66 · #13 01/29/2007, 03:45 PM

I won my battle by increase protein skimming, use a PO4 removing media, and getting a sea hare. The sea hare cleaned the rock while I adjusted my water parameters to be a little better. Bryopsis is tough to eradicate, and many animals will not eat it, even some species of sea hares. IME, it is hit or miss with them. HTH

fighton03 · #14 01/29/2007, 11:27 PM

Just tested the phosphate in the tank....barely detectable. All parameters are great...amonia a little up. I'm actually disappointed. If phosphates were up, I'd understand the outbreak. Got cheato and caulerpa in the fuge and all the rocks in a dark bin. My old rocks still have no sign of the bryopsis. Is there any drastic moves I can do immediately erradicate the algae, even if it kills the rock? I don't mind the rocks starting totally over from scratch. I have plenty of other rocks that can bring them back to life.

vessxpress1 · #15 01/29/2007, 11:57 PM

One of the many bryopsis threads around here:

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...+bad+BAD+algae

Good luck. I'm at about the one month mark for cooking my live rock and my paramaters were all zeros. I had no choice but to take the tank down. I think my canister filter and substrate caused the outbreak, but you'll see that my rocks were very dirty also. Byropsis is about impossible to get rid of. I've tried just about everything but a seahare and am using a lot of carbon and phosban.

vessxpress1 · #16 01/30/2007, 12:02 AM

BTW, shutting off your lights for a week isn't going to kill it. I swear some of the bryopsis that was in my covered tub getting no light survived for over 2 weeks. Not all but some.

I've also done 2, 100% water changes of that tub water and the nitrates were back up at 10 ppm again the last I checked. So something's still leaching nitrate in there.

fighton03 · #17 01/30/2007, 10:07 AM

I'll definitely follow your thread. I'm seriously considering dumping the rocks that sprouted. It is new rock that I got from someone, doesn't even have any coraline on it. almost totally white. There is no detritus on it at all. I think the guy may have just had it in a bucket under flow.

fighton03 · #18 01/30/2007, 10:33 AM

In the slight case that this is a rock cycling issue....how does this junk migrate?? Will it produce spores and flow throught the water column, or does it need to travel by contact? If I put it in the sump, will it make it up into the display? Is it possible that I can let it burn itself out? There can't be much nutrition in the rock, they are white, and I know there isn't much in the water. There are not any fish and I'm not feeding so I shouldn't get worse water conditions.

vessxpress1 · #19 01/30/2007, 06:03 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by fighton03
In the slight case that this is a rock cycling issue....how does this junk migrate?? Will it produce spores and flow throught the water column?

Yes.

If you have it in the tank anyway, it can't hurt to throw some in a sump with good lighting. If there's one spore in your tank, there's no point in throwing all the rock away now. You may as well just try to deal with it and keep the tank extremely clean. I had tiny clumps of it that kind of just hung around for quite a while and then all of a sudden the growth exploded. I don't know how you could completely sanitize your tank of it now anyway and, you never know when some of it will come in on a rock with a frag attached to it. Which is probably where mine came from.
The only solutions I can come up with is I'm going to try starting over with a new tank, using sand instead of CC, a lesser amount of live rock for stuff to get trapped in, a better pump for my skimmer, more flow and trying to keep the tank cleaner with little to no target feeding any more, and possibly get some different bulbs. If it comes back after that I might be ready to give it up.