Arrgh! Totally frustrated

[jason sartain]

Will Tangs eat this?

 

[twocute2b4u]

Leslie;439006 wrote: We had a similar battle with algae and tried Rabbit Fish and a mimic tang but they never got a handle on the situation. Finally got a Sea Hare from Creation and it was all cleaned up in 2 weeks. Can't confirm the type of algae but it's all gone now!!

If the sea hare ate the algae, chances are it was hair algae. I also had an outbreak of HA in my tank, Tim at Keen Reef hooked me up with the sea hare. Unfortunately once the hair algae was gone, the sea hare died :sad:

 

[johnr2604]

jason sartain;439025 wrote: Will Tangs eat this?

No. I did notice after the techM started killing it off my Tangs did start nibbling on it. The TechM had already melted most of it away though and chances are the bryopsis had lost most of it toxicity.

 

[schwaggs]

Don't just raise yout Mag, you need to do it with Tech-M. My experience with this method was not as good as the others. It did not kill the Briopsis in the low light areas of the system and I lost a couple corals. No problem for my inverts, however.

 

[johnr2604]

Schwaggs;439198 wrote: Don't just raise yout Mag, you need to do it with Tech-M. My experience with this method was not as good as the others. It did not kill the Briopsis in the low light areas of the system and I lost a couple corals. No problem for my inverts, however.

Interesting, I had mine hovering at the 2000 mark at one point with no problems but a little lower alk. I have heard of some softies bleaching though with this treatment but not outright dying. I mainly do SPS and they didn't show any stress.

 

[oil_fan]

I've also dealt with bryopsis in my 95 gallon and Kent Tech M is what works. I raised my mag to about 1700 ppm and kept it there for a month. You should start to see it dying after a day or 2 at this level. Most will be gone in a week or so. The reason to keep it up for a month to ensure there isn't a tiny spec of it anywhere. All it needs is a tiny, tiny amount to come back.

In my 95, I almost went through a full gallon of the stuff. But it worked and it's probably been a month and half now that I've been free of bryopsis. Good luck with it!!

 

[coolsurf]

It sounds promising and I can't wait to get some to start adding. It's been trying (as I know you are aware) and really makes you lose your patience. It's good to hear that Tech-M has had positive results and that others that read this post will learn from it as well.

 

[schwaggs]

johnr2604;439206 wrote: Interesting, I had mine hovering at the 2000 mark at one point with no problems but a little lower alk. I have heard of some softies bleaching though with this treatment but not outright dying. I mainly do SPS and they didn't show any stress.

I lost a huge pipe organ and a large acro colony that was directly under one of my halides.

 

[coolsurf]

I am on week three of dosing magnesium. I went to pick up Kent's Tech M but it was not available where I went. I decided to try the Brightwell instead and was informed is is was basically the same formula as Tech M (let's not start a war over that). My mag is now at 1700 and rising slowly and my algae on the rock is turning brownish. The algae on the back glass disintegrates on touch and is forming nitrogen bubbles which I am told that is a sign of it dying off. Some of it is still green but I hope that it will die off soon. I plan on taking the level up to 1800-1850 and hold it there for about three weeks. Some of my corals look a little stressed and others look great. My fish are all fine.

This will prove to be a good comparison between Kent and Brightwell.

Just wanted to post this update.

 

[llewella]

http://fish.suite101.com/article.cfm/bryopsis_a_common_pest_in_aquaria">http://fish.suite101.com/article.cfm/bryopsis_a_common_pest_in_aquaria</a>

I found this. They have natural way to deal with it as well as medications.

 

[mojo]

Sorry I'm late to this one.

Tech-M will work, but it's only a temporary set-back for the algae, and seems to stress the corals a good bit. I never lost anything, but I had a lot of browning out and some bleaching when dosing the Tech-M. I ran my magnesium at ~2300ppm with the Tech M for about 3 weeks, and then brought it back down with water changes.

While that worked temporarily, what really worked in the end was keeping up with water changes. You've got to choke out the food source - the nitrates and phosphates in the water column, and water changes are the only way to do this. Do at least 15% a week for 2-3 months. If you can do more, then do so. Yes, it's a pain, but it does work.

Tangs, nudibranchs, sea hares, etc, won't touch the stuff. The only thing that nipped at it was my foxface, but not enough to make a dent in it.

I had Bryopsis covering half my tank 6 months ago. Today, I have none in my display tank and only a small patch in my frag tank. It can be done, but it takes persistence.

Good luck with it.

 

[dartfrog]

Does anybody know if the Tech-M "solution" will do any harm to other Macro algeas in the tank, or does it just work on Bryopsis. I think I might try this as I have a patch of what I now know to be Bryopsis. (thought it was just hair algea). Thanks for the pic.

 

[johnr2604]

kevinsolar;457286 wrote: Does anybody know if the Tech-M "solution" will do any harm to other Macro algeas in the tank, or does it just work on Bryopsis. I think I might try this as I have a patch of what I now know to be Bryopsis. (thought it was just hair algea). Thanks for the pic.

My others Macro's survived with no problem

 

[johnr2604]

llewella;457154 wrote: http://fish.suite101.com/article.cfm/bryopsis_a_common_pest_in_aquaria">http://fish.suite101.com/article.cfm/bryopsis_a_common_pest_in_aquaria</a>

I found this. They have natural way to deal with it as well as medications.[/QUOTE]Well, having done a lot of research and experimentation with bryopsis I have no problem critiquing that article. ITS WRONG LOL. Naso tangs will not eat bryopsis. Its not the magnesium itself but seams to be more of a byproduct in the TechM (I know they said it wasn't at the seachem meeting) But I have other reputable resources that believe that's all it can be including Randy Holmes Farley. Plus I tested about 5 different brands of magnesium. Second they mentioned manual removal. That is not a good idea because it just spreads it. The PH method has not been tested very much although its been recommended by Anthony Calfo.

 

[coolsurf]

Here's my update....

Brightwell's Magnesion did work on killing the bryopsis which in turn provided all the nutrients needed for a serious cyano outbreak :sad:. I did end up with many war casualties. I believe that by the time I reacted, the damage was already beyond the point of no return. I also am not sure if the Magnesion had any negative affect but ultimately, I had a major crash. Here is what I lost..

Alveopora
Brn. Digitata
Birdsnest
3 Stylo..one ORA
Blue Acro
Grn. Digi
Pearlberry
Grape Monti
Tan and Blue Candycane
Blue and Green MR.
Australian Duncans
Leathers are about 50% recovered
Blue Zoas
Squamosa Clam
Cocoa Worms (Feather Dusters)

I was fortunate to have my Blasto survive along with my Toxic Green Candycane and Blue Candycane. My Durasa also survived. BTW...fish were not affected in the least bit.

I have been doing water changes, vaccuming, limited light cycles and feel that maybe there is light at the end of the tunnel. I am also taking another approach as I have added 14 Mangroves and a whole lot of Cheato. I'm still looking for some Ulva.

I was ready to tear it all apart...I think what helped was that I set up a 30 gallon while all this was going on and it kept me on a positive side.

Anyhow, I just wanted to update as i've been pretty secretive about all this up til now.

 

[twocute2b4u]

Larry,

I'm sorry for all of the loses. I am dosing Tech M to eliminate the bryopsis in my 72 gallon and so far I have only lost a clam. On the bright side everything in the tank is looking really good.

Good luck with your future attack of the bryopsis.

Denise

 

[jaustin]

If you do use Tech M don't raise it 100ppm a day....not a good idea. Raise if 25ppm a day untill your levels are around 1800. It's not the amount of mag that's in there, it's a trace element in the Kent Tech M and it's broken down quickly. It's better to have a steady daily dose of Tech M rather than 5 days of heavy dosing to get to 1800ppm.

 

[jcusmarine]

Sorry for your loss Coolsurf. I have kept reef tanks for 10 years and never had an outbreak of Bryopsis. I recently have been battling Bryopsis also. I raised my mag 100ppm a day and my corals did not die, but browned out and stopped growing. I stopped dosing Tech-M due to this and did water changes and things were looking okay - I was close to recovery. I then got super busy at work and my wife is very pregnant and was sure as hell not going to ask her to to water changes on my tank while I am travelling......needless to say my tank is now battling a major infestation of Bryoposis and I have given up. I am starting all over again.

My new tank will be dosed with Tech-M in very small amounts consistently from day 1. Maybe 10ml every couple of days or do. There is definatly something in Tech-M that helps, but in my case it was going to take a lot of hands on frequent water changes, manual removal and careful monitoring of dosing Kent-M of which I was simply not in a position to do due to other responsibilities. I have spoiled myself over the years and got lucky with tanks that required very little maintenance except weekly water changes - Bryopsis, in my experience, needs a lot of attention.....

Best of luck.

 

[darren24]

I do not have this type of algae but use TechM to keep my Mag at about 1650. I have not seen any problem of color loss or any problems with sps, lps,or softies.

 

[jcusmarine]

Darren24;472695 wrote: I do not have this type of algae but use TechM to keep my Mag at about 1650. I have not seen any problem of color loss or any problems with sps, lps,or softies.

That is my plan also. I was way too agressive with Tech-M dosing. Def. worth using as a supplement to an already healthy regimen of aquarium husbandry....