Remount those frags-Bryopsis.

[acroholic]

Seems like every internet coral dealer I have bought from in the last few months has bryopsis on their frag plugs.

I just bought a Tyree Pastel War and Peace Favia from an internet coral seller, and the frag came in this morning and looked good, so I thought maybe this one is OK. I have it in a specimen container acclimating, and sure enough, on closer inspection, a single 3 mm stand of bryopsis on the edge of the frag plug. I think my Seller went to good length to clean the plug, but I wonder if some folks just have so much bryopsis in their systems that they have given up on trying to eradicate it, and now they just live with it?

I would rather bleach my 9 eye My Miami chalice colony rather than reintroduce bryopsis back into my system. I don't understand how anyone can just learn to live with this algae in their tank?

So my procedure for new corals in my system now includes remounting every coral on a new frag plug, in addition to a CoralRx dip and an Interceptor bath. And any corals too large for that get any/all dead tissue cut off. Bryopsis will not attach to live coral tissue.

I guess you just need to consider all coral frags suspect, regardless of who/where they come from. I got bryopsis from a LFS 2.5 years ago here in Atlanta that knew they were selling me a coral with it on it, but I was too new to know the difference between bryopsis and hair algae at the time. That was the last coral I ever bought from that store. It took 4 months to get it out of my system. Never again if I can help it.

Don't be lazy about it. Remount those frags.

Dave

 

[jamescook]

So no reef safe critter will eat bryopsis? I thought those big mexican snails would, but not really. It's popping up on the LR in my tank w/o tangs. Do some tangs eat it?

 

[misu]

I feel that bumping the Magnesium high when you see it is a bit easier than checking every frag and rock but that's just me and I am a bit lazy

 

[acroholic]

misu;594138 wrote: I feel that bumping the Magnesium high when you see it is a bit easier than checking every frag and rock but that's just me and I am a bit lazy

IME a high magnesium level does nothing to bryopsis, unless you use Tech M as part of a system wide treatment that raises magnesium levels to 1600-1800, and you keep them there for two weeks. And with Tech M, it is not the magnesium that kills it, but a trace element that is in the Tech M. Straight Mag sulfate or Mag chloride does nothing to Bryopsis IME.

 

[acroholic]

jamescook;594131 wrote: So no reef safe critter will eat bryopsis? I thought those big mexican snails would, but not really. It's popping up on the LR in my tank w/o tangs. Do some tangs eat it?

Mexican Turbos do not eat it IME, and I don't think tangs eat. If they do eat it, they would just prune it. I have seen it growing in abundance in systems with lots of large tangs

 

[acroholic]

Sure enough, I remounted the favia frag and checked it out again before placing it in my system, and there was a tiny corner of the frag itself that did not have tissue on it, and there were two little strands of bryopsis on the edge, maybe 2 mm long. So out comes the Dremel diamond cutoff wheel. What a pain.

 

[misu]

Acroholic;594148 wrote: What a pain.

I'll go in with you on a big Tech M order fun to dose with the cup

 

[acroholic]

misu;594151 wrote: I'll go in with you on a big Tech M order fun to dose with the cup

I think I got it all before this frag went in my system. I'd rather get it before it goes into the tanks (2 reefs in this system) than have to treat a 450 net gallon system. That is probably $175 worth of Tech M needed for that.

I don't think you can do a Tech M dip and kill bryopsis. It takes a lot more time to kill it than a simple dip would allow.

 

[jamescook]

so is Tech M the only way to truly rid bryopsis?

 

[acroholic]

I don't want to sound like the only authority on this. My experience comes from having it and beating it in my own system. Anyone else is free to post their own experience regardless of whether it is the same or opposite mine.

But the only way I have found to eliminate it from an operating reef system, and I mean eliminate, not prune or keep it at bay, is Tech M, followed by ultra anal inspection of any frags and corals you place in your system after that. A separate coral QT system would be ideal, IMO, but I don't have one.

 

[glxtrix]

FWIW, and maybe this was just me...but I got rid of my bryopsis with good ole epsom salt.

 

[oz]

Acroholic;594164 wrote: ......A separate coral QT system would be ideal, IMO, but I don't have one.

Hence another reason why I'm looking for a 48x24x18 tank now.....

 

[chemically_balanced]

I had a wonderful outbreak on dry rock from an online vendor and I took care of it with Tech M and this guy.

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Still keeping my Mag up with Tech M for a while longer. It's been a couple months now since I first started dumping, not dosing Tech M. I did one water change with out dosing the water and I saw it coming back.

 

[acroholic]

glxtrix;594186 wrote: FWIW, and maybe this was just me...but I got rid of my bryopsis with good ole epsom salt.

I sure wish I could have....woulda been a lot cheaper.

 

[acroholic]

Chemically_Balanced;594217 wrote: I had a wonderful outbreak on dry rock from an online vendor and I took care of it with Tech M and this guy.

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Still keeping my Mag up with Tech M for a while longer. It's been a couple months now since I first started dumping, not dosing Tech M. I did one water change with out dosing the water and I saw it coming back.

That is quite a bryopsis outbreak. I would assume that sea hares prune bryopsis back but don't get the roots. That is the hard part, IME, is killing the roots off. After I treated with Tech M, over the next two months, I would get a strand here and there just appear out of the rock through a small pore in the rock itself, which makes me think it can root deep inside our LR. When I saw a strand, I would pull the rock out and place several drops of straight bleach on the rock where it was. A few times of doing that and the bryopsis has been gone for well over a year and a half.