Is this bryopsis?

I set up a new 65 gallon tank (RSM 250) on 12/7 with 15 lbs of cured live rock, 50 lbs of base rock and 60 lbs of aragonite. I used (and continue to use) RO/DI water. Diatoms showed up on Tuesday and I expected that. This stuff showed up on literally every rock on Thursday, 12/16. It was actually growing out of the diatoms but did not come off as easy. I began measuring phosphate when I first noticed this stuff and it has decreased from 0.30 to 0.06 with 10% daily water changes. It seems to be improving but if it is bryopsis, I know I will need to be more aggressive to get rid of it. Here are my basic parameters.

sg: 1.025
Temp: 79
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate 2.5
pH: 8.4


Any advice is appreciated.

 

Has the fern feather look to it, which means bryposis to me unfortunately. Best time to get rid of it is now with a elevated magnesium level.

 

It may be or may not, hard to tell at that stage and with those pics. I would assume the worst and since it's so isolated now, I would just take that rock out and apply a bleach solution to it with a q-tip to kill it. Elevated Mg can work, but only for some species and thus isn't guaranteed. Mine as well nip it in the bud before it gets out of control.

 

Unfortunately, there are small amounts like that on every rock. Can anyone recommend a good magnesium additive? I know my LFS carries Kent Tech M. My magnesium is at 1400 right now.

 

That is the one you want Kent Tech Marine. As the previous poster stated the treatment does not always work, but I think if it is bryopsis best to start treatment right away. Bump the mag up to 1600 to start with.

 

You will want to add only enough to increase your Mg by 100ppm per day. You should be able to go to 1800 safely for everything in the tank. Watch your SG it will most likely rise with the amount of Mg it takes to get where you need to go. Skim as wet as you can and change filter media at least weekly. Manually remove as much as you can also.

 

Thanks! I think I'm going to pull ut each rock and clean them tonight. I will still increase the magnesium level to try to hit it from a couple different angles. I guess it’s better to have the problem now when I can still easily remove each rock without fish or coral in the way.

 

Very true. Just another warning about manual removal. Make sure to get all of the little pieces. I had a pretty bad outbreak about 2 years ago and it spreads like wild fire. I pulled some up, which is actually pretty hard to do when it grows, and any tiny little piece will settle down some place and start to grow. So as I took care of the big patches, smaller patches began to pop up.

 

Man, sounds difficult. Does everything in the ocean reginerate? Now I'm supprised fish don't split in half to reproduce.