Potential Start of Bryopsis

I've had what I thought was hair algae creeping around the edges of my 90 gallon reef for a little while. Its on some of the intakes and returns to the sump, but nothing really on my rock structure. Recently its started to look a little bit less like hair algae, and I think its starting to take on that more feathery bryopsis look. Theres one rock up top thats starting to get a touch and Im going to take that out and bleach it. Any advice from anyone who's had bryopsis? I know nothing eats it, nothing kills it, and once it gets a hold its pretty much over, so I could really use some help.

 

There's a few things that eat it. Some Elysia genus slugs being some of them.

Another option is to raise magnesium to 1600-1700, and keep it there for a long period of time. It's worked in my tank; the bryopsis hasn't grown, while the cyano has, so it's preventing it from utilizing nutrients for some reason.

 

Whats the effect of the magnesium on the rest of the life in the tank?

 

It can mess with anything photosynthetic. Some of my corals went downhill when I raised the levels; they were mostly acans.

The levels should also be raised slowly; 100ppm per day or so is a safe jump, but more is risky.

 

my atl blue tang has made short work of it have even seen my blue legs eating it. I no longer have a problem with it at all.

 

Tangs and blue legs don't eat bryopsis, at least regularly. Bryopsis contains (and releases into the water) toxic compounds, so they eat it as a last resort if they have to. That's why bryopsis is harder to get rid of than hair algae.

I think there's a kind of hermit crab that eats it, though. Scarlet leg hermits, maybe? I saw it on wetwebmedia one time.

 

just stating what i have seen with my own eyes sir. with that and the total absence of the bryopsis that i see in my display why would i be led to believe other ?

 

There's more than one species (bryopsis is a genus) where some species are eaten more readily than others, it isn't present in every DT and is hard to ID sometimes, you may have had another hermit or hitchhiker eat it instead of the ones you think ate it, or you may still very well have had a very hungry fish and crab eat it, as I suggested before.

 

Any suggestions on what I should do?

 

From what I understand, the only real way to kill off most bryopsis is to raise magnesium. If you use a dedicated bryopsis eater, it's likely that there will still be spores by the time they starve to death. There's no guarantee that the hermits or other non-obligatory eaters will keep eating it, so that's not a guarantee either.

I have a hermit that took out an entire patch (about 2x2 inches) of bryopsis in a couple days. He sat on it the whole time, just eating away. It's not a regular blue leg hermit, I think it's a Mexican hermit. He ate the whole patch on the top of my locline flare nozzle - but left the bryopsis that was on the sides, so it's not a permanent fix. I have my MG levels up, so it doesn't just come back.