Oh no! Please Not Bryopsis!

I use hydrogen peroxide to great effect. Best to spot treat out of tank, but I normally can't and just spot treat in tank.

 

First - take a pic and post. If it is bryopisis, it is a challenge to eliminate. But that is from the perspective that it can be deep in a rock and thus hard to eliminate. The algae itself is very fine/feathery. It would appear to be easy to remove in the tank with a toothbrush. But that will mostly result in it floating away and spreading to somewhere else. So, if the algae you have is 'tough' then it is probably not bryopsis.


I purchased a cube tank (complete set-up) 2 years ago. I didn't realize the algae in the tank was bryopsis. So, I've tried several methods over the 2 years to remove it from the cube. In hindsight I probably should have just dumped the rock, but it has the most beautiful blue corraline on it that I didn't want to part with.


First thing I tried, was simply to remove all the algae and scrub the rocks really well. They were totally covered in the algae. That worked only a short time. After a month or so, the algae was growing again, and at that point I learned it was bryopsis.


So the first method I tried was to raise the magnesium level. That method has been know to work for some/many (but didn't work very well for me). You slowly raise the magnesium level using Kent Marine Tech M magnesium to about 1600 or 1700. NO other magnesium works. The speculation is that there is actually a contaminant in Kent Marine that is killing the bryopsis. Instead of going into a long discussion here, do a search on the internet. Many articles are written about it and the method - if you want to give it a try. Although it initially worked for me, after many months the bryopsis came back. And I fought small outbreaks in the cube tank for about a year.


So this spring I tried the hydrogen peroxide method. I've used it and found it to be more effective. As Hart indicated, it is best if you can remove the rock from the tank and treat. I removed all the rocks and treated them one at a time by scrubbing with a mixture of hydrogen peroxide and water and leaving them set for 5 or 10 minutes. Then back in the tank. That has worked quite well.


3rd method - Ultra algea X - from Fauna Marin. Probably the best method for me. It pretty much eliminated the remaining bit I had. Nice thing with it is that you can treat IN the tank. Cons are that are it is expensive and I had a difficult time finding/obtaining the product. It is manufactured in England. BRS carries the product, however it was on Backorder when I wanted it. I found it listed in their inventory in March - but could not get it until July. The first shipment they rec'd to fill backorders in April was sold out within hours of the product showing on inventory. They weren't able to get more until the middle of July. Not sure if it is currently in stock or not.

 

If it is or isn't byropsis, this option works for either. H2O2, squirted onto the algae, or the rock dipped into the H2O2 will turn it white and then any algae eater will eat it . 2nd I'd find some lettuce slugs. They work wonders on anything algae related. Just be careful as they can get blown around or sucked into a pump.

I've never had high Mg levels to be that useful for me. But either way, good luck.

 

Yeah - it looks like the nasty stuff...

 

+1 to peroxide, recently tried tech m and it didn't work.

 

Water changes water changes water changes. After my fight with the big B. I learned what I had feared and hoped. That its just another algae. TechM and Mag levels don't do much, you can copper the crap out of your water but your best fight is to pick off what you can. scrub with a stiff bristle brush in the water, run a skimmer and keep your params at 0.

don't fret or freak out, it will spread before it dies off. just stay on top of it. And run heavy lights on your macro fuge. That tends to help.

 

If you are using Tech M correctly there have been countless documented success stories. But you have to do it correctly to have any hope for success.

Right now there is no sense in dosing Tech M if you don't know what your Mg levels are to begin with. Plain and simple. First find out what your levels are, then dose slowly, test again, dose and repeat until you get to the recommended mg level. Only then can you tell if this method will work for you.

 

There are also countless stories of how garlic cures cancer in fish.
Bottom line is we don't know if they have changed the formula or not, and we don't know the correct dosing. Some say 1600 for months others say 2200 for months while others say 1900 for a week. It's a **** shoot. Until you truly understand reef chemistry, you shouldn't go dumping large (extremely large) doses of something you are not even testing for in the first place into your tank.
Get an Mg kit. You will want a titration kit. And just clean your tank.

 

Sorry to hear, but thanks for following up.