The Bryopsis thread.

[DragonReef]

Bryopsis... The very name makes me shudder.

Those that have been cursed with this algae will know what I mean

Probably one of the toughest plague algaes to combat and control once it gets a foothold in your system. most times the infestations are so severe that aquarists eventually pull all their rock out and boil it. No not "cook" it, literally put it on a stove, boil it and start from scratch.

Others have had success with lowering nutrient levels, heavy skimming and continous phosphate treatments.

This is typically what it looks like:

I will let Viper post more pics.. He's on a first name basis with this weed :012:

That are very few natural predators that we know of that will eat this algae. Mostly all tangs, hermits Foxface and other known grazers wont touch it.
Lettuce Sea Slugs are a known predator, but are mostly not suitable for our systems and generally they are too slow to make any impact. The bryopsis will grow quicker then they can consume it.
Also you have to try and get them in the first place, I have never seen them for sale here in SA.

 

[DragonReef]

The Good News

I stumbled across something that looks like could be a very viable cure for this pest.

Some quick scientific notes:

Adding Mg++ in the from of chloride, which is the only other way other than sulfate, is that it drives up the chloride level. The plants find this hard to deal with. The only means for them to counter react this to pull in Mg++. Their "hydrolic piump" pumps in the Mg++ to kick out the chloride ions that are being pumped into the cells. They usually can not handle this to long depsite elevated Mg++ levels. They may increase growth but then wiether and die. This is common in many plants and is the issue for the success of Mangroves in saline waters. Low Mg++ for Mangroves = death in the presenc of chlorides. If you keep the Mg++ in check it is not an issue. In FW Mangrove it is not an issue at all, as there are no chlorides, therefore no need for Mg++.

What !!!!

Basically what this sums up to is this:

Most plants, bryopsis included will bind up metals. But once a plants threshhold limit has been reached as far as metal uptake is concerned it becomes an enzyme inhibitor. In the case of Bryopsis this is a good thing.
So the plan here is to feed metals WHAT !!! to your system in order to get the bryopsis to reach it's threshold, the metal then starts to become an enzyme inhibitor and the bryopsis will start to dissolve away.

How do I add metal ?
Magnesium.... Raise magnesium levels to 1500 - 1600 ppm and keep these levels for a couple of months. Generally MG levels are around 1200 ppm so this must be increased gradually over a period of time.

This will have an effect on your other parameters. Calcium will increase and your Alkalinity wil decrease so adjustments to Calcium reactors and or manual dosing will need to be altered. Alkalinity is fairly easy to fix.

The results are fairly quick too, and you should start to see results after a couple of days until the Bryopsis eventually melts away.

Sounds a lot easier than ripping your reef apart and can't do any harm to any of your livestock if watched and controlled.

 

[DragonReef]

Another pic of Bryopsis - Different species to the first pic

 

[DragonReef]

Another one

 

[phat]

i had something similar in my previous tank but looked alot harder, googled it and also came up with bryopsis, so i think there is more than type of genre

Bryopsis plumosa



this one

 

[DragonReef]

Yip phat there's a lot. Heres a list:

Bryopsis corticulans
Bryopsis corymbosa
Bryopsis halliae
Bryopsis hypnoides
Bryopsis indica
Bryopsis pennata
(Bryopsis pennata var. leprieurii )
(Bryopsis pennata var. secundata)
(Bryopsis pennata var. secunda)
Bryopsis plumosa
Bryopsis ramulosa

You can google them for pics

 

[phat]

lol and each one with their own nutrient desires?

another one i hate it makes my stomach turn dude

got rid of mine successfully though

 

[DragonReef]

They pretty much all have the same diet - nutrients and phosphates which are the common cause for most nuisance algae's

Here are a few pics taken over a period of 4 days using the increased magnesium method

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

That's pretty convincing results !!

It's a pity that these pics were taken of a patch that had overgrown a colony of Zoa's, but still paints a convincing picture.

 

[phat]

interesting i have heard that raising your mg, will combat algae, but what are the pit falls of raising your mg and how should it be done?

 

[DragonReef]

interesting i have heard that raising your mg, will combat algae, but what are the pit falls of raising your mg and how should it be done?

I would like to research this more.

As mentioned raising MG will skewer your CA and ALK params so the neccesary adjustments would need to be made to your maitenance regime.
As with everything in this Hobby adjustments would need to be made slowly over a period of time. Also follow your regular water change regime and stick to the recomended 10% monthly (Either smaller weekly changes or a monthly change)

 

[irie ivan]

Interesting note I found on seachem reef advantage Mg tub:

Reef Advantage Magnesium™ contains no ammonia! This is a common contaminant in every liquid magnesium supplement on the market.

Their product is Mg chloride, and i know you need a whole lot to increase mg concentration in water.
Not sure on the concentration of MG in Magnesium chloride. If you gonna go this route, I would also advise going slowly. This should give bacteria in your system chance to convert the ammonia to less harmful substances..
just my take....

 

[DragonReef]

This should give bacteria in your system chance to convert the ammonia to less harmful substances..
just my take....

Good point.

 

[AfAqua]

You could also nip down to the pharmacy and pick up some Magnesium Chloride. Also, your coraline will love you.

 

[viper357]

Yes I have been researching this a lot, You ideally need to get magnesium chloride and not magnesium sulphate.

A known eater of this is Elysia Ornata

I have even got to the stage of thinking of taking a few rocks out at a time, immersing them in Hydrochloric Acid (pool acid), rinse them off then back into the tank to become live again. Bryopsis is just so hard to get rid of.

Here are some pics of when it started in my tank, now it has just gone ballistic

 

[phat]

geez dude, how is the cleaning going?

 

[AfAqua]

Viper, question time. Is your tank still up and running with the algae? Do you have a source for Elysia Ornata in SA. Are you going to try the raised Mg route, and lastly, have you browsed http://www.seaslug.info?

 

[viper357]

AfAqua

yes I still have this algae in my tank. I asked quite a few shops but none of them were able to source elysia ornata sea slugs.

I am definitely going to try the increased magnesium route, I was hoping to get a salifert test kit for this but they are unable to supply at the moment. As soon as I can get a test kit I will start with the increased magnesium levels, it will be interesting to see if it has any effect on the hair algae as well.

 

[Alan]

This really is a terrible algae, I have got some in my system at the moment came over from JD's tank on the frag plugs and it really is a tough algae to fight. None of my tangs touch the stuff and i have witnessed my tangs eating bubble algae.

 

[phat]

lol talking of tangs i have a bristletooth, which nails the stuff on some LR that i got with it on, think iwill name him bry

 

[Alan]

One of the methods for beating this algae as recommended by Anthony Calfo is to raise your PH with the use of Kalk to about 8.45 and maintain for a few weeks, this enables the corals to out compete the algae for the nutrients in the water.