Finally an easy solution to bryopsis!

[skeeter-doc]

Again,

Does this excess mag help to eliminate any hair algae?

[rcypert]

Bryopsis is a type of hair algae so yes.

[skeeter-doc]

ok, THANKS

[Mikeyjer]

Originally posted by jdieck
How much water does your system contain, how much tech-m are you adding and what is your present level of magnesium?

The magnesium is at 930ppm right now so it's very low. I haven't done much with it since the bryopsis went crazy cause I hate to look at it. It's a 55 gallon with a 10 gallon fuge. I guess I wasn't adding enough or something, I used that little cap thing that keeps the gallon bottle seal during shipping and dump 3 caps of that at a time. I used a syringe tonight to do the calculation. I think I might of over done it tonight by dumping 110 ml of this solution into my tank.......We'll see what happens tomorrow when I re-test it.....

[jdieck]

Originally posted by Mikeyjer
The magnesium is at 930ppm right now so it's very low. I haven't done much with it since the bryopsis went crazy cause I hate to look at it. It's a 55 gallon with a 10 gallon fuge. I guess I wasn't adding enough or something, I used that little cap thing that keeps the gallon bottle seal during shipping and dump 3 caps of that at a time. I used a syringe tonight to do the calculation. I think I might of over done it tonight by dumping 110 ml of this solution into my tank.......We'll see what happens tomorrow when I re-test it.....

110 ml of Tech-M will increase Magnesium by about 30 ppm in 60 gals of system water.

You will need 325 ml per day to increase the max recommended of 100 ppm per day; so, assuming your initial test of 930 ppm is accurate, a total of 1200 ml to increase your level to 1300 ppm and a total of 1,850 ml to increase it to 1500 ppm

So you still have about 5 daily doses of 325 ml each to reach the 1500 ppm.

I would recommend a water change to help normalize the levels and to check calcium and alkalinity and adjust them if necesary to 420 ppm and 10 dKh if necessary.

You can use the chemistry calculator to help you determine the amount of supplements to add.

http://home.comcast.net/~jdieck1/chem_calc3.html

[skeeter-doc]

how about this: how much Mag should I add to a total 100 gal system, that is already registering about 1400-1410 ppm of mag to help make the hair algae die out? Like how much daily? And for how long will I need to do this? When will I see positive results?

[ksouers]

Ok, count me in on Epsom salt test. I've been battling what I think is bryopsis since early June. Can someone confirm that is what I have?



My tang won't eat it, nor will the turbos. Though the hermits will frequently snack on it. This stuff is tenacious! It's difficult to pull off the rocks, though I've been pulling as much as possible.
My Mg above 1800 as of last night, not including today's dosage. It doesn't appear to be going away in the display, but my fuge is definitely clearing up, lots of stuff turning brown or gray.

[rcypert]

keep us updated please. That stuff looks just like mine.

[TWallace]

Originally posted by ksouers
Ok, count me in on Epsom salt test. I've been battling what I think is bryopsis since early June. Can someone confirm that is what I have?



My tang won't eat it, nor will the turbos. Though the hermits will frequently snack on it. This stuff is tenacious! It's difficult to pull off the rocks, though I've been pulling as much as possible.
My Mg above 1800 as of last night, not including today's dosage. It doesn't appear to be going away in the display, but my fuge is definitely clearing up, lots of stuff turning brown or gray.

That is almost definitely not bryopsis, so I doubt the magnesium will do anything to it. It seems a lot of people are still confusing hair algae with bryopsis. Magnesium is effective at killing bryopsis, though I don't think the same is true for hair algae.

[ksouers]

Thanks TWallace.

Nothing seems to like eating this stuff except the hermits, and they aren't very enthusiastic about it. This stuff is also very tough. I put a rock that was covered in a bucket with a lid on it for three weeks and this stuff was still alive. I changed out the salt water for fresh and it was still growing. I finally put some bleach in the water and that did it in. But I'm dang sure not gonna put bleach in my tank!

I thought tangs would eat HA? Mine won't touch this stuff except to pull a little off the substrate now and then, but will not eat it.

Please don't tell me I've discovered some new uber-algae?

[melev]

This is bryopsis.



Yours looks more like Derbesia to me. Here's what I recommend (article from my site):

Green Hair Algae (abbreviated as GHA for this article) - Derbesia - is a form of algae that looks like its name. It is usually dark green, grows quite long if left unattended and spreads across your tank rapidly. Once this problem has begun, it can get out of hand in a matter of weeks. And soon you start to look at your tank in disgust, thinking “Why me? What did I do to deserve this plague?”

A number of things may have contributed to it getting a foothold in your system. Your nitrates might be too high, your phosphates may be too high (.03 or less is the goal), your lighting has recently been replaced or perhaps your bulbs are so old that the spectrum of light has shifted, fueling algae growth.

First things first. You need to get your water parameters to Natural Sea Water levels:
pH 8.0 - 8.3
Ammonia 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 10ppm or less
Alkalinity 8 - 11dKH
Specific Gravity 1.026
Calcium 400 - 450
Phosphate .03 or less

A lot of these are affected by the water quality you use before you even begin to mix your saltwater. If you use tap water, you might be adding nitrates or phosphates to your tank on a daily or weekly basis. RO/DI water is your best and most pure option. If your phosphates are high, you can use products like Kent’s Phosphate Sponge (white granules) that fit in a filter area that will reduce them from 2.0 to .2 in 48 hours.

Okay, so your water is great. To get rid of the algae, you are going to have to prune it back manually. Fortunately, you can get some help from ocean dwellers, but like anything, when you have too much of something, you have to get radical to bring it within manageable levels. Nothing good ever happens quickly, right? This is going to take some specific attention on your part for a few weeks, but you can overcome it.

Get a container of fresh water (tap is fine) and put it near your tank. I like to have it on the top edge of the tank. If you can clip it to keep it in place, even better. Reach into your tank, and pinch off a clump of the stuff. Pull your hand out still pinching the GHA so none of it gets released into your tank, and dip/rinse your fingers off in the water. Repeat this a hundred times.

The reason you rinse your hand after each pinch is to prevent the filaments from floating around in your tank and reattaching elsewhere, just spreading your problem further!

When your hand gets tired, switch to the other hand. Take your container and dump it out, rinse it well and put more water in it and get back to work. Try to remove as much as you can see and reach, working at this daily. By ripping it out in bulk, you prevent it from spreading, and you give your hermit crabs and snails something they can actually keep up with. Buy more snails to help with the battle. I prefer Turbo snails.

Whenever you see a snail that is not working on the GHA, pull it off the glass/powerhead/plumbing and put it on an area of algae. They work for you.

Clean your skimmer completely. Clean the pump/powerhead thoroughly, make sure your air intake is clear. Clean your collection cup often, so you don’t have slime buildup hindering it. You want to skim out as much of the Dissolved Organic Compounds (DOCs) before they can break down in your tank and add to the A-N-N cycle. Remember nitrates fuel algae growth. You want 10ppm or less to avoid feeding GHA. If your skimmer is underpowered for your tank, seriously consider upgrading to a better unit.

If you’ll keep up with this process for a few weeks, you’ll see less and less in your tank, until one day, your tank is pristine again. If you come to visit, you’ll see my little reef is cured, but it did take time and effort. There are other things you can try, such as putting your live rock in a covered dark container for a month, trying fish (foxface, lawnmower blenny, yellow tang), or invertebrates (diadema urchin), but this system works well and allows you to beat GHA. After all, it is merely algae, right?

[ksouers]

Thanks Marc.

I've been all over your site, it was one of the very first ones I found when I set up my tank last year. By the way, thanks for posting so much useful information over the years. I know it has helped me tremendously.

I've been pulling stuff out almost daily for two months now. I never go more than three days without pulling something out. It just never ends. I can't believe how quickly this stuff took over, just in a couple weeks it completely covered the entire tank. Though I have to admit I let my nitrates get out of hand during that period and didn't change my Phosban when I should have.

My PO4 is now back down to 0 and nitrates are 5, at least according to Salifert. Though my calcium has dropped a bit from 400 since putting all the mag in the tank.

[melev]

If you have those numbers in check, and you've picked as much out as you can, and you've added more snails to mow it down and placed them on the trouble areas, the only other thing I can think of is that your lighting may been old and the bulbs need replacing perhaps.

Having the proper parameters can starve it out. If you decide to copy the '3 days of darkness' method, that would help starve it of any photosynthesis, and it should be easier to pluck and remove. Be sure to do a good sized water change afterwards because algae die-off would be released into the system.

[kypatriot]

For hair algae, I've had good success with using a siphon hose & small water changes with the manual removal. I use a smaller-diameter hose, allow the siphon to pull some of the algae into it, then close the hole with my finger & rip it off the rock.

It takes maybe 15 minutes to do this each time on my 135g, filling up a 5g bucket. This series of manual removals and small but daily water changes makes a big difference fast (works for cyano bacteria too).

Bryopsis is a different story, until this thread....

[airinhere]

I have a concern about dosing the Magnesium Sulphate (epson Salt). In order to increase my levels above the 1200 ppm mark they were originally at, I had to add a complete large container of Epsom Salt. I added this to my water change water. I tested my SG before I added any of my regular salt mix and had a SG of 1.018 (ish) Then I added my choice of sea salt. (Red Sea Coral Pro.) I added one cup (not the measurement, but a cup I usually use for this purpose) of salt to the new water and hit my required sg of 1.026. I usually add 6 cups to make a new batch of water. I know for a fact that if I dump in 5 more cups of salt, my sg is going to peak around 2.5 SG. I think this would be dangerous for anything living in my tank. I use a refractometer for my sg measures so I am confident in these readings. I do not want to add the new water until I am certain I will not be messing up my tank.

Does the Epson Salt count when determining the proper SG of my tank? If not, how do I get an accurate reading of my SG after I have dosed the Epson Salts?

[melev]

Since you only want to bring up the Magnesium in your tank 100ppm (MAX) per day, you wouldn't use nearly as much Epson's salt. It would be better to mix up your saltwater as normal, then dissolve Epson's salt in a liter of RO/DI water to dose a measured amount.

You might touch base with the guys in the Chemistry forum to get specific help.

[airinhere]

According to the reef chemistry calculator (Thanks JDieck!) http://home.comcast.net/~jdieck1/chemcalc.html I would need 1344.2 grams; 47.4 oz of Epsom Salts to bring the Mag from 1200 ppm to 1600 ppm in a 90 gallon tank. Even if I did this over the course of a couple of days, I would still end up with an increased Salinity reading on my refractometer of something like 1.030 (or higher, I believe) in my tank. 47.4 oz of epsom salt is a lot of salt to add! Am I just worrying about nothing? I would think somebody would have noticed if their sg was getting to the level people use to "cook" their live rock.

[melev]

Either ask jdieck, boomer or bertoni perhaps. They'll know the answer to that one. I don't dose like that.

[jdieck]

Originally posted by airinhere
I have a concern about dosing the Magnesium Sulphate (epson Salt). In order to increase my levels above the 1200 ppm mark they were originally at, I had to add a complete large container of Epsom Salt. I added this to my water change water. I tested my SG before I added any of my regular salt mix and had a SG of 1.018 (ish) Then I added my choice of sea salt. (Red Sea Coral Pro.) I added one cup (not the measurement, but a cup I usually use for this purpose) of salt to the new water and hit my required sg of 1.026. I usually add 6 cups to make a new batch of water. I know for a fact that if I dump in 5 more cups of salt, my sg is going to peak around 2.5 SG. I think this would be dangerous for anything living in my tank. I use a refractometer for my sg measures so I am confident in these readings. I do not want to add the new water until I am certain I will not be messing up my tank.

Does the Epson Salt count when determining the proper SG of my tank? If not, how do I get an accurate reading of my SG after I have dosed the Epson Salts?

No magnesium salinity does not count but you must notice that adding more than 100 ppm per day may bring impurities too fast and in the case of epsom salts shoot your sulphate in a way to create an ionic unbalance.

When the Magnesium level is too low as I suspect n your case my recommendation is to make water changes with a salt that has proper or high magnesium level (Reef Crystals or Oceanic) and then complete the adjustment by using a supplement or Epsom salts, this way you limit the total input of sulphates.

Why is so much needed? well you got to notice that about half of the weight of Epsom salts is water and only about 10% is magnesium with the rest being sulphate.

IMO adding so much epsom to your new water mix may create precipitation once you add the salt mix and that when making the water change you may increase the sulphate too much.
At this point you have IMO two alternatives.
a) Dispose of the water and start all over as described avobe, start water changes and then add epsom salts dissolved in RO/DI water to increase Mg no more than 100 ppm at a time.

b) Take a longer time and use the water with the epsom as top off.

[znut Reefer]

I'm also having a issue with some bryopsis algae. Is everyone here using the Epsom salts to raise their mag or Kents mag supplement?

I'm still waiting on my order to come in. Seems UPS beat up the last one. So they had to reship. I do have epsom salts on hand.

[airinhere]

JDiek, thank you. I will just use the water for top off. I took that reading with my refractometer and stopped dead in my tracks. No way was I going to put that into my tank without checking things out first.

[Mikeyjer]

jdeck,

I read the test wrong, it is at 1290ppm of mag since yesterday. I have dose some more today. I'm not sure if I'm looking at the bryopsis correct or what, but some seem like it's turning clear. We'll see what happens tomorrow.....

[jdieck]

Originally posted by Mikeyjer
jdeck,

I read the test wrong, it is at 1290ppm of mag since yesterday. I have dose some more today. I'm not sure if I'm looking at the bryopsis correct or what, but some seem like it's turning clear. We'll see what happens tomorrow.....

Good you found that out on time. That is why I usually start by.... "Assuming the level is..." when staing amounts to add as a signal to verify the readings when they seem a bit out of wack.

I'm gladd you are seeing results.

[airinhere]

Is anyone else getting accelerated growth on their Bryopsis from dosing the Epsom Salts at first? Mine seems to have doubled almost overnight. I just picked it down to a quarter inch tall last weekend. And it is starting to get clear looking. Maybe I need a paste of epsom salts to get rid of this patch.

[IMG][/IMG]

[wilsonh]

No I don't think that should be happening, as a cause and effect anyway.
One possible explanation you have not added enough yet and it's still growing unhindered?