Briopsys Question

My main DT has briopsys, and i've been working on fixing it. Currently overdosing mag, waiting for a big tub of oceanic salt (switching from IO reef), and also waiting for RODI unit to arrive so i can stop using tap.

In meantime, I've got a 10 gal nano thats about 70 days old. One of the LR pieces has started to show some briopsys ( i think a sponge that i moved from big tank to my nano - the only transfer between the two tanks - brought it over). I took the LR piece out, for the moment its in the bucket. BTW, the nano only gets bottled distilled water, not tap.

My question is this - Can I put this piece of slightly contaminated LR into the dark sump under my big tank that's full of briopsys? Will leaving it in the dark (nuking?) for how long kill off this awful stuff?

TIA, doog

 

I killed bryopsis in my DT my covering it with epoxy you use to glue rock together. I removed as much as possible, then covered it with the epoxy for about 2 months, I removed it, and have been bryposis free for about 2 months. You could leave the rock in the dark for a month or 2, but it would be easier to nuke it.

 

Nuking the rock means to soak/cycle it with hypersalinity, well above 1.035 preferably higher, not putting in dark. When I had to nuke some my rocks for bubble algae that would not go away, I just bought some cheap IO salt and got my cycle water in a Rubbermaid tub to 1.050 and let it run like that for a month. Drained it once a week and at the end of the month, cycled it in normal 1.024 water for another 2 weeks before putting it back in my tank. No more bubble algae. In the dark, spores of the algae will just go dormant inside the rock and will reinfest when it gets exposed to light and food. High salinity, or bleach water will be a better bet on killing it, IMO.

 

tigermike - when you nuke rock like that do you use a skimmer, a powerhead, or any other equipment other than a tub and the rock?

 

When I had a bryopsis outbreak I took out the few main rocks and boiled and scrubbed them and after they dried put back in 1 piece every few days. The remaining 10% just dies off then with very little feeding. If I would feed too heavily today I could get the bryopsis agaiin. Once you have bryopsis in the tank I don't think you can ever get rid of it totally. I did the higher magnesium but I did not notice a difference.

 

Check out my blog for a recipe for nuking rock and nothing will be left alive on it afterwords....NOTHING!

This is what I do to all my rock before it enters the tank.