Finally an easy solution to bryopsis!

[Reeferhead]

Originally posted by TWallace
I'm not sure if people have tried using a mix of both. I know that magnesium chloride alone (like Mag Flake) will not kill bryopsis. I'm fairly certain that epsom salt (magnesium sulfate) will kill it, though.

I used 5:3 Magflake to epson salts because that's what I had already mixed up, its one of Randy's Mg maintence formulas. Worked fine but I had to bring my Mg level up to over 2000ppm. I've been bryopsis free for about 3 months now but my Mg is still at about 1700 ppm. The only coral I've noticed effected is my frogspawn which looks a little pale.

[Chuck H.]

I'm starting to get some Bryopsis myself. Not a huge problem at the moment and only on the undersides of two of my top chunks of LR, so I'm going to take them out and scrub with a toothbrush when I do a WC next weekend. I'm glad there is an option if I can't keep up with manual removal. Here's a pic:

[trueblackpercula]

Can someone please give a recap as to what worked on bryopsis? I have the dame thing and hate it please help.
Thanks
Michael

[UrbanSage]

Tech M.

[rwsoos]

It worked! Bryopsis is gone as a result of dosing Kent M. By the way, when I first tested for mag it was around 950. I'm switching my salt from IO to Red Sea to maintain the new mag level.

[DoctaReef]

Tech-M Worked like a charm for me, and i didnt have to raise the Mg very high at all. Ill post pictures as soon as I can, but im a believer!

[GoblinFish]

Is this bryposis??

[TWallace]

Looks like it to me, but I'm not positive. Does it have a fern-like appearance? Kinda like the feather caulerpa, but on a much smaller scale. It should also break apart very easily when you pull it if it's bryopsis.

[AussieSurfGirl]

Thanks for the info. And thanks for making the thread. Bryopsis is a pain.

[melev]

GoblinFish - I would say yes, based on what I see in the upper right corner of that patch of algae. That is the most focused area of the picture.

[PaintGuru]

Update on mine....my Mg levels are 1500+ and I am maintaining with Tech M. The byropsis seems to be slowly receding, but it has not disappeared totally yet. We will see if it continues.

[idareefer]

I had a l break out also, added some new rock and it just spreadeverywhere!
This is what I did and and in 3 weeks none left, I went with a natural approach, yes I know everyone sais you must have high nutrients etc, but checking, ph, 0, nitrates, 0 Mg, 1400 +, Ca, 475, DKH, 10.8, fuge full of assorted macro, chaeto, I added a lawnmower blenney, he loves the stuff, and a powder blue tang, now that there is no more he has turned his appatites over to spectrum, flake, nori, and about anything I put in, and no ich!, and no algae! and oh yes, I did 2 partial water changes also, that's it.

[Reefmack]

Hi. Over the space of a few days I finally got to the end of this thread. A couple questions. 1) Is the recommended daily dose of Tech M 5ml/gallon till the 1600+ level is reached? 2) I have a 34g tank, with 50-60 lbs. LR - I assume I should adjust the dosage down based on rock volume? 3) If it was mentioned in here I missed it - has anyone tried using a turkey baster or Sea Squirt to actually put the full strength Tech M directly onto a patch of bryopsis to see if patches could be killed off in this manner?

I've been dosing for 4 days, but at a 20 ml/day level, which I think is too low to get the Mg where it needs to be more quickly. I'll do some measurements today to see where I'm at.

[PaintGuru]

Originally posted by Reefmack
Hi. Over the space of a few days I finally got to the end of this thread. A couple questions. 1) Is the recommended daily dose of Tech M 5ml/gallon till the 1600+ level is reached? 2) I have a 34g tank, with 50-60 lbs. LR - I assume I should adjust the dosage down based on rock volume? 3) If it was mentioned in here I missed it - has anyone tried using a turkey baster or Sea Squirt to actually put the full strength Tech M directly onto a patch of bryopsis to see if patches could be killed off in this manner?

I've been dosing for 4 days, but at a 20 ml/day level, which I think is too low to get the Mg where it needs to be more quickly. I'll do some measurements today to see where I'm at.

I jacked mine up with bulk dry Mg from twopartsolution.com. I have maintained with Tech M and it seems to be working. This seems a bit more economical then using Tech M the whole time, especially if you are a great deal below the 1500 range or if you have a large tank.

[airinhere]

I had a serious bryopsis problem in a few spots, and used Epsom Salt to get rid of the bryopsis.

A few days later, I did a 20% water change and stopped adding more epsom salt to the mix.

Bryopsis came right back in about a week. Just little nubs, but growing nonetheless.

I had read many people had good results with Tech-M.

Dosed my tank over the course of a couple days bringing my Mg back up to about 1600ppm.

Bryopsis turned clear and stopped growing.

I used a toothbrush and scrubbed the rocks clean.

Next week, I did another 20% water change.

It has now been three weeks and nothing is showing up.

I think something in the Tech-M does a better job killing the bryopsis than just Epsom salts. I had been dosing epson salt for about a month or so and was getting good results, but it just wasnt working very quickly. Tech-M wiped everything out and it hasnt come back.

Just my experience.

Use the Tech-M.

Much better results.

[Reefmack]

Hi & thanks. I put 50ml of Tech M in today, although I was tempted to put in 100ml. I was at 1400ppm Mg after a couple of daily doses of 20 ml and the 50ml I added today, That's brought me up from 1300ppm. I'll add another 50ml tomorrow, or maybe 2 doses of 50ml spaced a few hours apart, and continue that till I get to 1600pm or above. I'm tired of the bryopsis growing too close to, or on, on my zoas - where it's impossible to remove without damaging the corals. Hopefully I'll see the same positive results so many others have.

[tonyf]

Originally posted by Reeferhead
I used 5:3 Magflake to epson salts because that's what I had already mixed up, its one of Randy's Mg maintence formulas. Worked fine but I had to bring my Mg level up to over 2000ppm. I've been bryopsis free for about 3 months now but my Mg is still at about 1700 ppm. The only coral I've noticed effected is my frogspawn which looks a little pale.

My experience with magnesium chloride hexahydrate (magflake) is that it has boosted the bryopsis each time that I have used it. Mg around 1500 ppm using this product has only made the bryopsis worse. Must be something in the magflake that the bryopsis really loves.

My reef tank has otherwise A1 water conditions and I run a monster dual recirculating beckett skimmer, but the bryopsis won't die.



Tone

[montrealreef]

Hi guys,

I just wanted to share my experience with you. I struggled with bryopsis for over 4 months, I tried different herbivores (Desjardini Tang, Diadema urchin, pincushion urchin, astrea snails, emerald crabs, trochus snails, mexican turbo snails, foxface, leopard rabbitfish) Non of them did any noticeable damage to the bryopsis population. I did daily 15% water changes for 3 weeks, still no effect. I tried pruning by hand but the algae would grow back within 2 days. I tried cutting down on feeding, and still no effect. Water parameters throughout this period were as follows: Temp 77-79, pH 7.9 - 8.2, nitrate 0, phosphate 0, Ca 440, Mg 1200-1300, Alk 14 (using salifert test kits)

I then stumbled upon this thread, and figured I would give it a try. My MG level was 1300 when I started. I raised it to 1800 over a period of 10 days using Kent Tech M, and I'm happy to report that the results are amazing. The bryopsis "bleached" on the 3rd day of treatment, and now it is almost completely gone. The rabbit fish and the urchins also seem to be more interested in the dying bryopsis.

I've taken a few photos to document the result (sorry about the quality)


[IMG][/IMG]

Before Mag treatment






[IMG][/IMG]
3 days into mag treatment (notice the "bleaching" bryopsis)





12 days after start of treatment! almost entirely gone (only a few withering strands) The algae left an area of bleached coral where the bryopsis was covering the coral tissue.




Thank you so much for this thread !!!

[montrealreef]

oh and I forgot to mention that the only side effect I noticed (and I'm not totally sure it is due to the Magnesium) is that the diadema urchin started to shed a few spines today. He has been "healthy" and active for three months. Time will tell how badly he is affected..

[Reefmack]

One effect I saw was that when I was at the start boosting the mag at about 100ppm per day levels with Kent Tech M a large colony of GSP didn't open for a few days (a smaller colony of a different type did however) - back to normal now. I still haven't seen a major effect of the Tech M. It did lighten in color and appeared to be looking sick, but didn't really disappear. In the meantime I picked up a small Foxface and he's thoroughly cleaned off a few zoa colonies of Bryopsis. Confirmed as I've seen him picking it off and eating it. I still have one big clump of Bryopsis that the increased magnesium hasn't had much effect on. I plan on manually pulling out as much of that as I can to see if the mag will take care of the rest better after it's thinned out.

[amcarrig]

I have not had any luck using Epsom salts, Mag Flake or Tech M and I'm on the verge of starting the tank completely over as my sps colonies are beginning to rtn from coming into contact with the bryopsis. It's horribly frustrating and heartbreaking.

[montrealreef]

amcarrig,

what is the level of Magnesium in your tank? are the other parameters in check (especially Nitrate/Phosphate)?

interestingly, there was one patch of bryopsis in my tank that did not seem to respond to the Magnesium treatment. After a few days I decided to coat it with superconcentrated calcium hydroxide paste after shutting off all the pumps and powerheads in the tank. I left it on for 60 mins then syphoned out what I could before starting the pumps again. The algae took a hit (basically burned from the caustic nature) and 2 days later was gone. I had tried kalk paste in the past, before using Magnesium and it did not work, so at least from this one isolated experience, it seems to me that the combo worked. You might want to give it a try.

[TWallace]

Originally posted by amcarrig
I have not had any luck using Epsom salts, Mag Flake or Tech M and I'm on the verge of starting the tank completely over as my sps colonies are beginning to rtn from coming into contact with the bryopsis. It's horribly frustrating and heartbreaking.

Are you sure it's bryopsis? I've never had SPS RTN from contact with bryopsis...or any algae actually.

[amcarrig]

I'm positive that it's bryopsis as I had it in my old 90 gallon. It made it into my current tank because I was stupid enough to transfer corals from the originally infected tank into the "new" one. We raised our mag to 1600-1700+ using all of the mag. supplements that I mentioned earlier. We've tried for weeks upon weeks (much to the chagrin of our LPS corals which shrivelled up). The treatement(s) stalled the growth of the algae but did not stop it. We also kept our ph very high which supposedly worked for some people as well. I've been pulling the longer stuff out manually on a weekly basis. The RTN is possibly a result of the high magnesium levels and high ph combined with the fact that the algae is constantly rubbing against the corals. We run a phosphate reactor with Rowa-Phos, a calcium reactor AND a kalkwasser reactor. We also have a refugium and run tons of carbon that we change frequently. We have no nitrates and no phosphates and this stuff is still kicking our butts

[mcrist]

I know some people on this thread where raising the magnesium to 2000 and over.