Finally an easy solution to bryopsis!

[TWallace]

You can either dilute your water sample with half RO/DI water, and then multiply test results by two or you can figured out the ratio of mL of reagent to ppm of magnesium is, and continue adding more reagent beyond 1mL. I know that 1mL of reagent is equal to 1500ppm magnesium. So, if you add an additional .1mL it should be 1650ppm magnesium.

Diluting the water sample and multiplying results by two seems less accurate to me. But then I don't think you need really good accuracy in this case. An overdose of magnesium is not likely to harm anything. I got mind to over 1800ppm on accident and nothing died. I know others have had theirs over 2000ppm with no deaths. Just do it slowly.

[wilsonh]

Originally posted by iamwhatiam52
is it the concensus that people using Tech M have had the best results against bryopsis, followed by the epsom salts method?

yes as more have used that. epsom salt worked for me.

[jwardana]

Originally posted by wilsonh
yes as more have used that. epsom salt worked for me.

Wilsonh,
can you tell me how to use epsom salt in detail? mix it with freshwater? how much? how do you add to your tank?

I have a 350gal tank with GHA. and I have nothing to loose. So I'm going to test this method to it.

Thanks,
Jim.

[wilsonh]

I just simply dissolved it in fresh water (RODI in my case), and tipped it in. Wasn't very scientific about it, but if you want to be there is a calculator here so you can work out exactly how much to dose to achieve a certain increase in Mg. http://home.comcast.net/~jdieck1/chemcalc.html

[jennmac415]

I just bought the Red Sea mag test and I can't understand how the heck to perform the dang test!!! YES... I am just an old "reef mama", so sometimes these things do take a bit to understand...lol so if anyone can give me an"english" "old MOm version" on how to perform this test I would appreciate it..

THEN after I test my MAG... I am going to begin dosing with epsoms salt... but my ? is , shouldn't we also be testing CAL, ALK and PH and dose accordingly for those things so that we don't get out tanks all out of balance?

Thanks for your help...

[jdieck]

Originally posted by jennmac415
I just bought the Red Sea mag test and I can't understand how the heck to perform the dang test!!! YES... I am just an old "reef mama", so sometimes these things do take a bit to understand...lol so if anyone can give me an"english" "old MOm version" on how to perform this test I would appreciate it..

THEN after I test my MAG... I am going to begin dosing with epsoms salt... but my ? is , shouldn't we also be testing CAL, ALK and PH and dose accordingly for those things so that we don't get out tanks all out of balance?

Thanks for your help...

If your Ca and ALkalinity are at normal levels you do not need to increase them with the magnesium just keep your normal supplementation to prevent them from dropping.

The Seachem kit measure Magnesium as the difference in total Calcium and Magnesium content less the calcium content.
In other words you use the kit to measure the total hardness (Ca+Mg) and then the Ca Hardness and calculate the magnesim by difference.
Magnesium = Total - Calcium.

I am not very familiar with the detailed steps but most kits that work like that may need dissolving the sample in RO/DI or distilled water before testing.

The good news is that you got a kit that will also test your calcium along the way
Enjoy!

[burris]

What exactly is "Kent Tech M" ?? Is it snake oil?

[jdieck]

Originally posted by burris
What exactly is "Kent Tech M" ?? Is it snake oil?

Most probably a solution of mostly Magnesium Sulfate and Magnesium Chloride in RO/DI water with some other trace elements.

[jennmac415]

But I got the RED SEA test kit... there is no mention of it also testing calcium...

thanks!

[airinhere]

A couple of weeks ago I posted a nightmare image of Bryopsis growing in one of my display tanks. Nothing I did semed to slow its growth and it had been spreading alarmingly fast for months.

Now it has stopped spreading, is becoming quite patchy and has very stunted growth.

To give an idea of my situation here is a brief synopsis.
Added enough epsom salt to my top off water to get the Magnesium up to 1600 in my tank.

Left home for a week and a half.

returned home and manually pulled a fair amount of the Bryopsis and performed a 20% water change.

Started adding 1 oz of Kent Tech M daily.

Took this most recent picture.

Tonight I will do another manual removal of as much as I am able to pull out. along with another 20% water change tommorow.

My top off water and all water for changes is RODI.

The Sulphate seems to have stopped the growth of the Bryopsis, but since I am fighting my Nitrates in the tank (approx 20ppm) I am having trouble getting the Bryopsis to completely die. Trouble is, as the Bryopsis dies, it releases nitrates back into the water which feeds new growth. So I have added a refugium with Chaetomorpha. Hopefully that will uptake the free roaming nutrients in the tank and help starve the bryopsis out. And get my Nitate issue under controll. Once tha Nitrates are under copntroll, I will start using my Phos reactor to get any remaining phosphates out of the water and that should put a lock on any future growth of this nuisance algae.

This is an example of what a snowball effect algae can have in a tank. My other 90 gallon tank with the exact same care, (and no outbreak of mutant algae) is doing just fine with no algae at all.

Tank three weeks ago.
[IMG][/IMG]

Tank today
[IMG][/IMG]

Without flash. (kinda blurry, sorry).
[IMG][/IMG]

[jdieck]

Originally posted by jennmac415
But I got the RED SEA test kit... there is no mention of it also testing calcium...

thanks!

My humble apologies. I had a senior moment and tough Seachem's Magnesium test kit. Please disregard my post above.

[jennmac415]

LOL... I am the QUEEN of Senior moments...no worries...thanks for your help.

[jennmac415]

Hey... I just put 2 and 2 together... you are the one that made the chemistry calculator!!! I knew I had seen your name somewhere... thanks for making that... it sure is a big help!

[jdieck]

Glad it is helpful and not like my post above.

[jennmac415]

your post is fine... I am sure it can help someone that does have the seachem mag test! heck... this red sea is so hard to understand maybe I will go and buy it...

[jdieck]

Originally posted by jennmac415
your post is fine... I am sure it can help someone that does have the seachem mag test! heck... this red sea is so hard to understand maybe I will go and buy it...

Seems to me that the Red Sea is more similar to what we are accostumed. Belive me when I say the Seachem will be more complicated.

[wilsonh]

The Salifert kit I use is simple enough, although there are several steps which there have to be for magnesium, it's a titration test. It's also a respected brand accuracy wise.

[melev]

Originally posted by jwardana
Wilsonh,
can you tell me how to use epsom salt in detail? mix it with freshwater? how much? how do you add to your tank?

I have a 350gal tank with GHA. and I have nothing to loose. So I'm going to test this method to it.

Thanks,
Jim.

Jim, GHA is Green Hair Algae, or Derbasia. It is not the same as Bryopsis, and I don't believe anyone in this thread has suggested raising Mg in their tank will kill GHA. Sorry.

Manual removal, and a new hungry cleanup crew can help immensely. Better water quality, daily skimmer cleanings, and replacing bulbs that have aged (for too long) help as well.

[melev]

Originally posted by airinhere
Tank today
[IMG][/IMG]

I'd keep plucking all that you can reach.

[airinhere]

Oh, I am. Had a family event out of state that delayed my getting a good start on fixing this problem. Way I see it, if this works for me, with the severe patch I have growing there, it will work for anybody. I just want to share my success or frustration so others can see. Also, in doing more careful reading about the 2 part solution in RK mag it seems that Magnesium dosing like we are doing does count toward total salinity.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-02/rhf/index.php

After one year of adding 8 ppm of calcium and the accompanying 0.4 meq/L (1.1 dKH) of alkalinity per day (41 mL of both parts per day or 4 gallons of both parts per year in a 50-gallon aquarium, including the effect of the magnesium part #3A, 2440 mL/year), the following residue (Table 2) would remain after calcification and adjustment for salinity (there is roughly a 32% rise in salinity over a year using this addition rate without water changes).

This part.....

(there is roughly a 32% rise in salinity over a year using this addition rate without water changes).

So I again refer back to what I was originally concerned about.

Is the Magnesium dosing we are doing going to be ignored for future refernce regarding salinity?

Or

Should I consider the readings I get from it as valid towards my tanks total salinity?

I try to keep my salinity right at 1.026 and do not consider this a figure I can estimate about or 'fiddlle' with. My auto top off systems keep this very stable for me only if I do not go adjusting my salinity manually.

If we are disregarding the extra salinity that the epsom salts are adding to our tanks, and the salinity shows up above 1.026 SG, wouldnt we be effectively 'cooking' our display tanks just like people do to tubs full of live rock when they want to get rid of nuisance critters?

[wilsonh]

The extra salinity from the mg should be included.

[sammy33]

Originally posted by sammy33
I think I may have bryopsis and another algae that is more like a "tumbleweed". The tumbleweed algae is easy to remove almost coming off the sand and rock in clumps.

The other patches on the live rock however...must be bryopsis. Tough to pinch out with your fingers and a more dense low growth.

Here is a full tank shot showing the patches of algae. I had removed a good portion of the tumbleweed algae by hand. This is a "before" picture as I had a normal Mg level.


I have been double dosing magnesium sulfate and have incresed the Mg to 1470ppm over the last week from about 1320ppm. I am just about out of the Seachem Reef Magnesium (ingredients listed as magnesium sulfate, sodium, chloride) so I will get some Tech M and try to zap this stuff!

I have been dosing Tech M now for about 10 days or so and have had the elevated magnesium for about 5 weeks. I had been increasing my Ca, Alk, Mg as part of the Blu Coral method but kept going with the Mg (after reading this thread). I have recently had levels of 1500 + and now around 1600ppm.

The pic below is from today. Compare with pic above from about 5 weeks ago



The algae is receeding! I still have a few patches left but they are all starting to look either gray or brown. I will continue my Mg supplement with TechM until the other patches are gone.

My sincere thanks to TWallace for starting this great thread.

[Mikeyjer]

I have killed ALL of the bryopsis in both of my display tanks!!!! Finally I have them all gone.....Thanks for this thread!!!!!!!!!!! I should post a picture of before and after, it was badly covered everywhere, now I have hair algae problem, oh well, at least it's easier to treat, but I do have to say tech M killed my snails, I had to rescue the larger ones to my other tank that I did not treat with tech M, my fish took care of them. I found out that IF I prune the bryopsis short, my fish go crazy over the rest and they took a quick work into destroying the left over bryopsis. The fish that did the work is a Foxface and a Regal Tang. My Regal Tang eats ANY type of algae that goes into my tank which is kinda amazing, her name is Dory of course, she's ate razor caulerpa, some sort of grass looking algae, ogo, hair algae, bryopsis, etc. The foxface eats the bubble algae, dunno if she would eat the caulerpa or not dory ate'em all, bryopsis, the weird grass algae, hair algae, etc. They keep my tank looking clean from algae, of course they have a backup Tang too that helps out which would be my Tomini Tang. I still have another gallon backup of Tech M available IF I encounter the bryopsis again, at least I know this works. We have spent hundreds of dollars trying to find a solution that works, but this is the best thing ever!!!!!! Even losing a few snails is worth it since I've been battling with bryopsis for almost 2 years.....Thanks to Wallace who started this thread!!!!!!!

[dendro982]

Did anybody have problems with anemones? My condy was really unhappy.

[Mikeyjer]

Originally posted by dendro982
Did anybody have problems with anemones? My condy was really unhappy.

I think the same goes to anemones since they're inverts as well. My corals didn't really like it, but they did tolerate it. IF you read the ingredients, copper is one of the ingredients so I think that's part of the issue.