Bryopsis-Trying to not Give Up!

[Steve L]

Diana,

Somehow I've managed to completely miss this entire thread over the last 2 weeks and just finished reading it beginning to end. So sorry to hear about your problems. I have to admit, I've never heard of this type of problem before and I'm glad that I've never had it (knock on wood). Glad to see your treatment and hard work is paying off. I'll keep my fingers crossed that it all works out for you. I'll now keep an additional eye out on my own tanks for this pain in the butt algae.

 

[coralrama]

Well, my update is that while the bryopsis did seem to be wilting, it was still spreading. I took PSU's suggestion about 5 days ago and removed an easily accessible piece, broke off the rock with the bryopsis, put it in a bucket with a powerhead, and really jacked up the Mg. It's still alive in there, but not looking great.

Yesterday I was on day 6 with magnesium at 1800, and decided to go the manual route. So I took out the infected rock and took hammer and chisel to it. My rockscape has now of course changed, but I don't currently have any bryopsis in my tank. I'm going to keep the Mg up for a another couple of weeks, then let it come down and start running some carbon to remove whatever else is in the techM from the water.

Hopefully this is the end of this tale for me!

I also made a disturbing little doll and used the bryopsis for its hair. I have it suspended over the tank, so if there are any survivors they know what's coming.

 

[Snid]

i also made a disturbing little doll and used the bryopsis for its hair. I have it suspended over the tank, so if there are any survivors they know what's coming.

lol!

 

[PSU4ME]

lol!

Double lol!

 

[moze229]

I've always had near 0 nitrates but my phosphate level has never been Zero. My water change water even tests at 0.06 newly mixed. I have not tested my tap water & I do use my RO-Di system testing at 0 TDS.
I don't think from what I read that Bryopsis has any thing to do with poor water quality at all. It can't be controlled by having perfect water conditions. My phosphate level tests at 0.08 & I am running a refugium that grows full of chaeto that I am now harvesting out on a regular basis.
Bryopsis seems to be unlike most algae with it's needs to grow I think that it more scary to have

Bryopsis is a vile weed, and I'm sorry that you're dealing with this. How's it going by the way?

I had this a few years back in my setup and it was a pain to get rid of. But, I did exactly as you are doing and it went away and I haven't seen it since. Kent Tech M kills it, but not right away. It's better used as a preventative than a herbicide, but it will work that way. Some suggest raising Mg to ridiculous levels but I didn't find that was needed because I don't believe it's the Mg that the bryopsis is reacting to, but rather something else in the mix working with Mg. I just manually removed as much as possible and dosed Tech M. It takes a few weeks, but it works. I also read in another post that you are getting a .06 reading of phosphate on your RO/DI water. You either have a calibration error on your TDS meter or your test result is not correct. If your water is coming out with any readings, something is likely wrong.

Bryopsis can grow on one atom of detritus. LOL Nothing eats it, and once it's there, it can feed off of one molecule of phosphate for weeks. (My super qualified scientific assessment. LOL) It comes from someone else's tank when you bring home a frag.

I also made a disturbing little doll and used the bryopsis for its hair. I have it suspended over the tank, so if there are any survivors they know what's coming.

I'm glad that I'm not the only one that thinks of doing stuff like this.

 

[DianaKay]

Update: I have NOT seen anymore algae that I believe to be Bryopsis since I manually removed two frag plugs & use hydrogen peroxide on what was growing on the one piece of LR.
Now I'm seeing this:

And it doesn't look like the same growth pattern or color of the Bryopsis....but my snails are not eating it
Not sure what kind it is. I posted in another thread and I hope someone can ID it.
Not sure why I'm having such crappy algae luck these days. :verymad:

 

[moze229]

Man, I don't know what the heck that is. LOL I've never seen that before. I'm no algae expert, but I've had my go at bryopsis and I'm glad that's gone for you. Looks like something that a tang would go after though.

We've all got algae of some kind or another. As long as it's not too invasive, there's not a whole lot we can do. I've got halimeda in my tank that I have to pick every now and again. It looks kinda cool and is not really invasive, but it's annoying. Ive also got that red single strand stuff that grows on some of my rocks. If my tank was big enough I'd put a tang in there and it would be gone in a day.

When it comes to hair, turf, or bryopsis though, it's time to move fast.

 

[DianaKay]

Well, I took that rock outside in a bowl of WC water & sat at the picnic table :snshne:with a pair of tweezers.
It's good that I don't have close neighbors, they might think I'm crazy!
Anyway, no visible "what ever kind" of algae it is on that LR now. We will wait & see how fast it grows back.
It might be Bryopsis but it sure doesn't look thick & feathery like the other patches did.

 

[Snid]

I'm still pretty sure it is indeed Bryopsis. Dave K posted a picture that looks just like your in your other thread I believe. I found this interesting write up that has a diagram showing some of the history life cycle of Bryopsis.

A review of life history pathways of Bryopsis species

I didn't read it all yet, but what I did read was very informative about what Bryopsis is exactly in deeper detail than most online references. Because it is more of a scientific observation, it is probably less informative about trying to get rid of it, but probably interesting and helpful none the less.

 

[DianaKay]

I just haven't seen yet how it goes from this:

To this:

I might find out soon but I never saw the feathers on the zoa plug until they looked like feathers.

 

[blackbeltmom]

I have had some show up in my tank, a little on the back wall. I tried to remove it. I also found some one a rock yesterday and removed it. I have had it pop up on my spin stream, when it does I swap out the spin stream for another one and clean all the algae off the one I removed. I have had to do this a couple of times. Until yesterday it seem to stay on the spin stream. My looks like the top picture.

I wonder if you could drown it with Pickling Lime, I know it will kill corals if you are careful. I have used it to kill unwanted palys before.

 

[DianaKay]

I have had some show up in my tank, a little on the back wall. I tried to remove it. I also found some one a rock yesterday and removed it. I have had it pop up on my spin stream, when it does I swap out the spin stream for another one and clean all the algae off the one I removed. I have had to do this a couple of times. Until yesterday it seem to stay on the spin stream. My looks like the top picture.

I wonder if you could drown it with Pickling Lime, I know it will kill corals if you are careful. I have used it to kill unwanted palys before.

I'm not sure if anything will kill it completely out of the tank except some unknown ingredient in Kent Tech-M.
I might be so unlucky as to have TWO different kinds of Bryopsis I'm not sure yet but the dark green feathers have not re-appeared anywhere yet. Maybe they won't :grind:

 

[PSU4ME]

I do not believe that is bryopsis......the pattern is not the same. Shoot John a note at reefcleaners and send the pic.....he is the man at identifying things like this.

The other issue here could be what is fueling these algaes? are your phates and trates in check? By the way you chaeto grows )) you definitely have some fuel in your water!!!

 

[DianaKay]

I do not believe that is bryopsis......the pattern is not the same. Shoot John a note at reefcleaners and send the pic.....he is the man at identifying things like this.

The other issue here could be what is fueling these algaes? are your phates and trates in check? By the way you chaeto grows )) you definitely have some fuel in your water!!!

Thanks for the suggestion to ask John @reefcleaners. I sent him an e-mail and here is his reply:

It isn't a byropsis species, that is the good news. The bad news is that there are a lot of branching green macro algae. This isn't a usual one, so it would take some effort and probably a microscope to get the species name for you I am afraid. Sort of looks like a member of the enteromorpha family, I can't tell too much detail from the picture. If you can isolate the algae against a piece of white paper and take a very large picture I may be able to help you further.

All the Best,
John Maloney

My nitrates have never been over 5ppm since the 1st WC after my cycle but I've always had phosphate levels from 0.25 to now holding around 0.08. You'd think the chaeto growing so well in my refugium would be all I needed to keep algae & phosphate in control.
I will wait for whatever is growing now to grow back & try to get a macro photo shot to John Maloney.
Still watching close for dark green feathers but so far NONE :fingerx:

 

[DianaKay]

The good news is: the "not Bryopsis Mystery Algae" might be easier to get rid of so I'm a little bit relieved.
There might even be something that might eat it. I just want to make sure that I'm not going to have to follow through with adding an over dose of Kent Tech-M....then I will put more snails & CUC in my tank.

 

[blackbeltmom]

I think mine looks more like that first one and kind of wiry, not fern like. Which one is John saying is not bryopsis?

 

[PSU4ME]

I bought one of those cheap digital microscopes off eBay, it would be clutch for what you're trying to do here. You get great pics for John.

 

[DianaKay]

I think mine looks more like that first one and kind of wiry, not fern like. Which one is John saying is not bryopsis?

This is the one that's more than likely NOT Bryopsis
Just hope it's not as bad. Got to do more search on the type John @reef cleaners thinks it might be.
I will try for a macro shot picture if it comes back & I know it will....

 

[blackbeltmom]

I bought one of those cheap digital microscopes off eBay, it would be clutch for what you're trying to do here. You get great pics for John.

What magnification did you get?

 

[PSU4ME]

One of these do-hickeys

http://m.ebay.com/itm/200X-8LED-USB...cope-Magnifier-Camera-Black-New-/130725712479