Anyone ever successfully beat bryopsis? Tech M vs H2O2 vs Nudibranch

[STiTCH87]

So I have been battling bryopsis for the past 3-4 weeks. Must've come in on a frag I overlooked (got some LPS so the flesh may have hidden it, idk).
I've already gone through one bottle of Tech M, just started the 2nd one after about one week of dosing the 48g.

The good news is that it has not gotten worse other than on a few tiny frags. I *think* some areas are lessening?

I just wanted to ask past experiences from people who've won the battle. I heard hydrogen peroxide shots directly into the patches (I can't remove rock) works well?

I've been direct applying Tech M currently.

I'd love to find a lettuce nudibranch and try that, but have had no luck.

So what has worked for you guys in the past? Let's hear your success stories!

 

[Greg Hiller]

I generally just ignore it. As long as you have decent nutrient control it's never been that large of an issue for me. I do have a number of roaming urchins than probably control it a bit.

 

[wdebenedettojr]

I feel the same as Greg. I have a small patch in one small corner of my tank. I,like you, think I got it from a new frag. This was 3 months ago for me. I keep my nutrients in check and it has not spread around the tank. Tanks battle bouts of invasive algae, it's kinda part of the hobby I have always felt. I have increased my Mg dosing a bit to see if I can kill it off. Other than that it hasn't affected anything.

 

[Marshall O]

I used Tech M successfully back a few years ago. It never returned since.

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[STiTCH87]

I generally just ignore it. As long as you have decent nutrient control it's never been that large of an issue for me. I do have a number of roaming urchins than probably control it a bit.

The trouble is, it seems to be growing almost exclusively around my LPS corals as well as in my sandbed. I came home tonight and it is indeed getting worse. -_-
It is literally smothering and killing my goniopora frag and as the frag dies its leaving more skeleton for more algae to grow. I clean it and it comes right back.
Thought I had it at least under control. Not good!!!

 

[choff]

I had patches showing up in my frag tank (connected to my display) awhile back. I have solid nutrient control, but it worried me and I wasn't in the mood to be patient with it. I was slow to react to a lobophora invasion from a plug and now I basically have to keep a Naso tang in my tank to control it. Anyway, as for the bryopsis, I went the Tech M route with great success and I had no downside. I did have to go pretty high with my mag levels getting close to 2k for a couple of weeks, but I have not seen so much as a spec of it since.

 

[JTM4UG]

+1 on tech m. First product ive ever used that solved a huge problem fast and easy

 

[STiTCH87]

I had patches showing up in my frag tank (connected to my display) awhile back. I have solid nutrient control, but it worried me and I wasn't in the mood to be patient with it. I was slow to react to a lobophora invasion from a plug and now I basically have to keep a Naso tang in my tank to control it. Anyway, as for the bryopsis, I went the Tech M route with great success and I had no downside. I did have to go pretty high with my mag levels getting close to 2k for a couple of weeks, but I have not seen so much as a spec of it since.

+1 on tech m. First product ive ever used that solved a huge problem fast and easy

This is some relief of news! How much did you two add per day? I have a 48g (40 breeder, and probably about 35 gallons water maybe after rock and sand?) and a ~20 gallon sump (probably with about 12 gallons of water)
So I was assuming total volume at about 45-50g. I've been adding 1ML per gallon per day so 50ML per day of Tech M.

It's not rising too quick tbh. Should I increase?

On the good news side, I put 5ml of hydrogen peroxide in a syringe and blew it with pumps off over the worst patch, and 24 hours later the bryopsis there is white and wilted.
I want to avoid doing that though if I don't need to as I have had some past issues with crashing tanks from going overboard on H2O2 and on dosing products and using carbon and GFO irresponsibly.

At least if need be I know that works. Doing a water change tonight and will remove what very few rocks I can and H2O2 soak them then soak them in fresh RO.

I'll have to take some photos. It's certainly not horrific in the world of what many consider a "bryopsis problem" but to me, in my generally squeaky clean tank, it makes me sad lol.

 

[choff]

My system is 330G and I went through a jug and half of the stuff. I can't recall how quickly I cranked it up, but it wasn't very slow. My understanding is that the only role Mg plays is as an inhibitor to keep CA and bicarbonate apart in the water column to allow our corals to to utilize them. I do not believe there is risk to raising it to quickly like Alk or salinity.

 

[Marshall O]

I did this years ago, so hopefully I remember correctly, but I believe I raised 100 ppm per day until I hit 1800 ppm.

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[STiTCH87]

I did this years ago, so hopefully I remember correctly, but I believe I raised 100 ppm per day until I hit 1800 ppm.

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Yeah the 100ppm per day seems on par with what i'm reading. Most suggest 90ppm per day. The levels people ran were near there too iirc I think I read like 2000ppm?

Where do you guys find jugs of Tech M? I only find the skinny bottles at Underwater World.

I'm doing a waterchange tonight and i'm removing what I can and doing an H2O2 soak and scrub since that worked AWESOME.

The area I sprayed in the tank with a syringe is 100% bryopsis free, and was one of the worst spots 2 days ago.

 

[Marshall O]

I bought a gallon online. That turned out to be much more than needed. A quart or half gallon would work.

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[STiTCH87]

So Tech M did not help, at all. Made my corals happier which is a plus, but did not reduce bryopsis.

H202 killed it back magnificantly and easily with target application, but (perhaps coincidently?) has also seemed to cause severe color loss in my ORA spongodes (literally brown as can be) as well as one acro, and what seems like STN on part of my birdsnest over the course of 2 weeks and to applications. Mind you it was target applied and not directly near the SPS, but with pumps on things get mad. I DID NOT use heavy dosing either.

So, plan C. Anyone find anyone local who can obtain nudibranch yet? I have been striking out left and right the past 3 months on them and am now looking to LiveAquaria as it's available there but I really don't want to pay ~$30 shipping for a $9 nudibranch.

 

[wdebenedettojr]

So I found a local guy and got 5 of them. I also started the tech m weeks ago. It didn't kill it but it seemed like it weakened it. I bought 6 more nudis online last week and that with the weakened bryopsys they are doing a number on it. I would recommend you get a number of them. I ordered from saltwaterfish.com

 

[reefercorey]

Tech m did a decent job for me. The real thick areas i used h2o2 with great success but it did really tick off my shattered space zoas. It didn't bother most of the other corals though.

 

[STiTCH87]

Yeah the Tech M didn't work at all, and the H202 like I said works awesome but pisses stuff off. If I order online (which i'm trying to avoid) it'll be from LiveAquaria.

 

[iroc2zep]

I had bad outbreak and it lasted about 6 months, i added mexican turbo snails and if i trimmed itdown to just about nothing they would finish the patches off. I believe there are a ton of different strains of it so seems people have different results. Tech m didn't work for me with raising mag up to 1900

 

[STiTCH87]

I had bad outbreak and it lasted about 6 months, i added mexican turbo snails and if i trimmed itdown to just about nothing they would finish the patches off. I believe there are a ton of different strains of it so seems people have different results. Tech m didn't work for me with raising mag up to 1900

Turbo snails always end up dying in my tank. Presumably from starving. Cerith do too. Oddly, the only snails that survive in my tank are my nerites and nassarius.

 

[KSC]

I read this,

"I had the same results recently with Tech-m but one day I read on one of the forums that Jack Kent had started a new supplement company called Continuum Aquatics and that their mag supplement is sourced from the original Tech-m source. Well I ordered it and what do you know it obliterated Bryopsis stubbornly attached to a new frag in about a week!"
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BUFUIYC/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_uQ58xbBF2WE5A

There is an experiment going on on R2R, some believe lithium is the "secret ingredient" that used to be Tech M.
http://www.reef2reef.com/threads/tech-ms-magic-bryopsis-killing-ingredient-lithium.200498/

 

[sfb911]

So, I'll hare my experience with this. I'd tried a bunch of stuff tech-m, lettuce nudi's that were commonly available etc. And I had no luck, then I got a bit more series about it and did some research and took an educated multi-prong approach and it worked.

First off lettuce Nudi's, were extremely effective in this process. The issue is that the most commonly available lettuce nudi's are from the Caribbean and are the species Elysia Crispata, these may or may not eat Bryopsis. The ones that I ultimately got which were effective were Eastern Pacific Lettuce Nudi's of the species Elysia diomedea. If you look at various forums and research journals that deal with sea slug breeding projects, what I was able to determine is Elysia Diomedea are the ones that feed exclusively on Bryopsis where as Elysia Crispata have a more varied diet. Elysia diomedea will typically be more expensive than Elysia Crispata. (I got mine from LiveAquaria for $12.99 a piece but unsure if they have them in stock still). I recommend 1 per 10 gallons of aquarium volume.

Secondly and in addition to the Nudi's I also took the aggressive step of dosing Hydrogen Peroxide (3%) at the rate of 1ml per 10 gallons for 5 days directly into my system.

At the end of the 5 days most of the bryopsis was gone and a few days later the nudi's had taken care of the rest (to the point where I ended up selling them to another BRS member so they wouldn't starve) . I can tell you that I have no more bryopsis. As always with anything reef related, it worked for me, your mileage may vary.