Bryopsis-Ugh!

[acroholic]

I was feeding some cyclop-eeze to my 93 gallon tank, and I noticed a plume of bryopsis on the base of a yellow torch coral I have. This torch is at the bottom of the tank, and the tank is bare bottom. The base of the torch is a small round rock with the torch glued to it. I looked carefully and I cannot find any more bryopsis. The funny thing is that I have had this torch coral for months and have never seen bryopsis in this tank at all since it was set up 3+ years ago.

I removed the torch and dipped the entire base of the rock in pure bleach. I hope this is the end of it. If not, Tech M here we come!

 

[jdavid]

I'm not sure if it was bryopsis, but I had some "little green plant" algae popping up in a few places. Haven't seen it since the addition of Mexican turbo snails

 

[sharkbait]

Dave, sorry to hear. I know you have had your fair share of fights with bryopsis. Hopefully it was just that one small area.

 

[ripped tide]

Prionurus punctatus.

Not a frequently seen tang, due to the mature size that they get, but they are champion algae control. Mine didn't start this voracious behavior until he got about 3.5". He's about 5" now and a beast. I have witnesses that have watched me put a frag with random algaes and he tore it up.

 

[acroholic]

Sharkbait;862250 wrote: Dave, sorry to hear. I know you have had your fair share of fights with bryopsis. Hopefully it was just that one small area.

I'll monitor the tank closely. Bryopsis is bad, but at least it can be eradicated with Tech M. I've had my fair share of different corals in and out of this tank lately, so I assume it hitched in with one of them.

This was not bad because I could remove the rock and bleach it. Gets harder when the bryopsis is on a big rock or main support of the reef structure.

Also, I have beeen feeding more lately because I have a couple NPS corals in this tank that need target feedings, and the Wyoming Whites are still babies. Maybe the nutrient levels in the tank spawned the growth? Got a little red cyano as well.

 

[ralph atl]

Nutrients, yes, most likely.

H2O2 is a much better Bryopisis killer than chlorine bleach, IMHO. Outside of tank.

 

[eric b]

mysterybox;862284 wrote: Nutrients, yes, most likely.

H2O2 is a much better Bryopisis killer than chlorine bleach, IMHO. Outside of tank.

I have to agree with Ralph on this one, but as long as you nuke it what ever works!

 

[dough]

I've been experimenting with H2O2 in and out of the tank on a few small patches. So far dipping seems to work better than trying to nuke it in the tank. During my next water change I may try in tank nuking a small patch that is out of the water during water changes. FWIW, I dipped a plain jane acan frag in a 3% H202 for 2 minutes. The acan did not like it but has recovered and the bryopsis was gone the next day. I've read that SPS don't like such dips.

 

[jmaneyapanda]

Peroxide is a rather potent oxidizer, so I'd use caution with coral dips for sure. It's extremely volatile too, so application has to be specific for it to work well. But entirely safe once rendered inactive.

 

[jef4y]

Ugh Dave... I have a nice sexy 150g bryposis farm. It's absolutely painful. It happened back in Jan when we went to Belize for 2 weeks and I had the tank on the auto-feeder. Obviously it was overfeeding and BOOM I came back to it.

I couldn't find Tech M so I used Continuum which I was told "is the exact same thing" and "will knock out bryopsis the same as Tech M". Yeah, don't believe that one bit..... Raised the MG to 1800 and it sat for 2 months with zero change. Switched to Tech M, but my MG is so high right now (1900) that I'm reluctant to keep pushing it up to get enough Tech M in the tank to kill it.

VERY VERY frustrating...

 

[jmaneyapanda]

The key to Tech M is knowing what it is IN Tech M that kills off bryopsis. You'd be surprised what it is. Personally, I'd opt for alternative methods, such as spot treating with peroxide.

 

[acroholic]

jmaneyapanda;862424 wrote: The key to Tech M is knowing what it is IN Tech M that kills off bryopsis. You'd be surprised what it is. Personally, I'd opt for alternative methods, such as spot treating with peroxide.

I've always guessed that it is ionic copper that kills off the bryopsis. As a trace element in Tech M, I would guess it raises copper levels to higher than NSW, but stays at a level still non-lethal to corals. The original Tech M label listed about 20 ionic trace elements, among them copper.

My anedcotal reasoning is that copper is used as an algaecide in FW tanks and ponds, and in reef tanks, snails, particularly sensitive to copper, can sometimes, but not always be affected by treating with Tech M. The idea of copper being at a higher than NSW level, but non-lethal to corals, kind of fits in with the effects I have seen with Tech M.

From the original Tech M label some 4+ years ago:

Deionized water containing the following elements (as ions): magnesium, chlorine, sulfur, calcium, potassium, bromine, strontium, boron, fluorine, lithium, rubidium, iodine, iron, molybdenum, zinc, nickel, copper, manganese, vanadium, cesium, cobalt, tungsten, selenium, and chromium.

But if you know what it is, Jeremy, spill the beans please.

 

[jef4y]

Spot treating an entire tank take-over isn't really possible.

 

[sewer urchin]

VERY VERY frustrating...

Yeah, talk about an understatement. I had an explosion of this aquatic devil weed that is just now disappearing. I did several things all at the same time so I don't what actually worked, I believe that it was a trio that did the trick- water changes ( 5g on a day on 120g system), carbon dosing ( Lime + vinegar in ATO) and H2O2 ( diluted 10% on all small pieces that I could take out) squirted on larger rock that I couldn't take out. The addition of a lawn mower blenny and sea hare helped a lot as well, They both eat the stuff, but seem to prefer any other algae ( like hair algae) first.
There are only a few small spots that I can see, so I think that the worst is over.


I was ready to throw in the towel, it had gotten so bad that it covered about 30 to 40% of all rock in the system and I was grabbing handfuls out weekly just to have it grow back. I ended up removing about 100 lbs of rock and doing a sodium hypochlorite solution/ rinse then air dry. Later I did a muriatic acid dip, rinsed multiple and air dry. The rock has nothing on it now- mostly because it is in the basement waiting for me to do some structures ;-), I was thinking of experimenting using new rock as a control to see if this works better then just a H2O2 soak.

All I can say is good luck and ..."Never give up, Never surrender"

 

[acroholic]

FWIW, I was chatting with Sanjay Joshi at the 2011 Frag Swap, and he said he thought it was the ionic manganese in the Tech M. How he arrived at that conclusion I don't know.

 

[jef4y]

And for reference, here's what a 150g bryopsis farm looks like.

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class="gc-images" title="ImageUploadedByTapatalk1367253805.100560.jpg[/IMG] style="max-width:400px" /></a>


iPhone, Tapatalk, Tpyos

 

[cedzaquaddiction]

Man, sorry to hear this. Please believe me that I know your frustrations. I have done the peroxide out of tank treatment on a couple of my rocks with good results. I'm in the boat with Jef4y, but am very reluctant about dosing the entire tank with peroxide. Tagging along to see what I can learn about this TechM product...

JeF4y;862399 wrote: Ugh Dave... I have a nice sexy 150g bryposis farm. It's absolutely painful. It happened back in Jan when we went to Belize for 2 weeks and I had the tank on the auto-feeder. Obviously it was overfeeding and BOOM I came back to it.

I couldn't find Tech M so I used Continuum which I was told "is the exact same thing" and "will knock out bryopsis the same as Tech M". Yeah, don't believe that one bit..... Raised the MG to 1800 and it sat for 2 months with zero change. Switched to Tech M, but my MG is so high right now (1900) that I'm reluctant to keep pushing it up to get enough Tech M in the tank to kill it.

VERY VERY frustrating...

I have a byprosis farm myself. I believe my autofeeder is the culprit as well. I had it on do feed during the day, and I would feed frozen at night. I could monitor how much they ate when I fed them, but not while I was at work, and the autofeeder was on...

I also re-aimed my powerheads to create more ciruclation in the water column, but learned when it was too late that it wasn't blowing the crud off of my rock...

Edit:

JeF4y;862474 wrote: And for reference, here's what a 150g bryopsis farm looks like.

>

class="gc-images" title="ImageUploadedByTapatalk1367253805.100560.jpg[/IMG] style="max-width:400px" /></a>


iPhone, Tapatalk, Tpyos

Dang, Jeff. Looks like you have Don King instead of LR in your tank!!!

 

[jef4y]

CedzAquAddiction;862475 wrote:
Dang, Jeff. Looks like you have Don King instead of LR in your tank!!!

Only in America! Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk!!!

 

[grouper therapy]

JeF4y;862474 wrote: And for reference, here's what a 150g bryopsis farm looks like.

>

class="gc-images" title="ImageUploadedByTapatalk1367253805.100560.jpg[/IMG] style="max-width:400px" /></a>


iPhone, Tapatalk, Tpyos

Are you sure that is bryopsis?

 

[merkywater]

grouper therapy;862492 wrote: Are you sure that is bryopsis?

+1

Looks more like hair algae to me