Am I going to kill this Bryopsis ?

I am starting to have a real Bryopsis breakout every day it is worse and I am getting ready to either nuke this rock or take a sledgehammer to the tank here is my idea I am in New Jersey and it has been cold the past few nights around 30-40 degrees at night if I take the offending rocks out and place them in a dark container with a pump outside will I kill the rock and get rid of the algae ? I want to kill the rocks I am not worried about that I want no chance of the Bryopsis coming back. now

(1) if I don't remove all my rock only the rock that has algae on it am I wasting my time will it come back anyway?

(2) I have some corals that are being infested and I have some that are not should I nuke everything?

(3) is this stuff living in my sand as well ?

 

Tangster you have experience here what would you do?

 

I have bryopsis also and have tried all of the usual ways of dealing with it. Right now i have it under control because I had small patches in several places and I ripped out what I could and covered it with an epoxy so it won't get light and hopefully die. It's been on for about 3 weeks now and Im going to wait a little longer before I take it off. Anyways to your questions. I tried to remove only the rock with it on it, I nuked it and everything was fine for a while, until it started growing on other rock. What I have found is that even a small disturbance will cause piece to break off (microscopic or spores) and they will find a new place and grow there. I bleached the areas and it still came back to a certain extent. You probably need to take out all of the rock and nuke that. Also, I have found it growing in my sand, so it may come back that way, Although you can just suck that out and the sand around it. It's a Bi**h!!!!!! Im hoping I can get it under control without tearing down my tank. Good luck

 

There is hope, there is a product called Algaex that is supposed to work. Tangster used it, but didn't finish the dosing. It is supposed to be reef safe, but it is strong stuff and expensive, about $60 for a 500ml bottle. But it works

 

I am looking in to the Ultra Algae X there is a guy in California "Cherry Corals" I think who has told me he will have it on monday of next week . I am going to give that a try if I can get my hands on some of it before I break apart this tank I would have to rip out every rock and all the sand and bleach everything and a couple spores could be living in my sump and it would be back in no time I have no doubt. I know it might come to that but that also may be it for me with this hobby at that point. The funny part is my tank actually " died " this summer while I was on vacation my tank lost power "tripped breaker" and it was without power for a few days I lost everything I cleaned it up and went through a cycle and got a huge clean up crew in there and things looked great untill the bryopsis showed up .

 

that really sucks, I was "luckily" enough to catch it before it got too out of control, although I lost a bubble coral to it and my mushroom. Don't give up!

 

The very best thing to do is buy a phosphate reactor. After adding that you will still have to try to manually pinch off as much as you can until you eliminate all phosphate continually. Crabby, since you have a large tank, adding 2 or 3 Sea hares will get the hair under controll, however, many are paranoid about them dying in the tank where you can't get to them. Most LFS will actually loan them out and when they have eaten most of the hair and given the reactor time to get the water under controll, you give back and they give a credit.

 

Try this place: Ultra Algae X 500 mL - Ocean Aquatics Ltd.
I have read good things about it on RC.

 

Its best to know what species you are dealing with , I myself in my limited experience will not talk about what they say will work . I will find out some way to rid my tank of it totally its become an quest now.. Here is what they say!
Magnesium at 1600 for a few months/ I went to 4000 PPm for 3 months using Sea Chem Mag chloride/Sulfate then 3 more months with Kent's Tech M as that was supposed to rid the tank ? went to 5000 ppm Nothing looked weak for a few days I assume it was just developing its taste for magnesium ?
I tried th sea hairs and spotted rabbit fish that are said to eat it I starved the tank to death damn near hopping the tangs would get hungry enough . Tried barley extract a old F/W pond algae killer trick did nothing tried some other algae rid nothing .

Cut lights off for weeks with all above treatments also Nothing Then did massive water changes nothing that I had ever done saw no change but tweaked fish and lowered RED OX readings beats me why people do water changes

Got Red ox back up cut ozone up all the way and red-ox went to 500 just shy of burning everything in there . Algae was fine .

Tried to pull it from the rocks LOL yea right You can't take a tooth brush and scrub it from the rocks I had That Guy here yesterday he said I had that same algae he tied to pull mine like his LOL it don't pull off. Hint every little chunk that settles out that you pull and can't catch takes hold . I only had it on the very top until I tried to pull some now its tufts all over the tank.

Started using the algae x in August and went through 2 bottles . They say only treat 21 day LOL Mine looked weak for a week then it adjusted and started to drink it like Kool aide . What the algae X did do on the last series of dosing was to cause the algae to release alot of chlorophyll and the skimmer was pulling out pea soup looking stuff with the viscosity as tomato soup . Ten when that happened every coral I had been able to save RTN'ed

Oh did I mention I run a Phosphate reactor ? with about 150 Ml ROWPHAS in it changed out every few weeks and I run a refugium you have to stop all water to that when treating with algae x as with any algaecide , But you have to know what you are dealing with mine is the Bryopsis Penneta and it looks very much like hair algae !

My next Idea is while I'll be recupurating for the next few month again I am now setting up a 20 L in the basement and I'll grow nothing but this algae as a refugium and light it 24/7 with a off color 45K 175 M/H and lower the photo period in the main tank and hope the stuff in the 20 l will consume all the sources of what ever this thing are feeding on in my main tank .. I have no Nitrates either just incase someone thinks I over looed that.. I did not mentuon them ! and I'm sure someone would remind me to test them

So aside from the M/H and 20 L and my bryospsis garden I will add a few lettuce slugs to see if they may show interest in it ? Film at 11:00 ;D

At this point ?? I'll try anything in an effort to fix the problem this is the first issue I have ever had that I could not solve and I ain't finished yet But I did stop listening to people who though they had a bryopsis issue ..

 

Bryopis Removal

I simply boiled the main rock that had it and 5% left that I had one day disappeared after I reduced the feeding. Once you get it you never get rid of it for ever. Now all I can do is feed lighter. The kalk that I add to my topoff water I believe also helps. But the majoroty of the algae has to be scrubbed out of the tank. Don't pick at it in the tank as it only makes it worse.