End of game- Bryopsis (1) Vs. Higor (0!) - I will tear down my tank!!!

[higorc]

Not to down play anyone’s tanks issues, but… I would rather have the WORST case of Hair algae, Cyanno, Bubble Algae, Ick, you name it- then BRYOPSIS!!! At least there are measures to rid the tank of these things.





I have been fighting this thing for 6 months now and have to say it’s kicking my butt! I have tried almost everything I can think of; Nuddi Branch, Snails, Sea Hare, Lawnmower Blennie… If I heard a rumor that something would eats Bryopsis, I would be willing to try it. Well, no more. After finding out there are about 122 types/strands of Bryopsis going from "manageble" to "Helli-sh", well I give up.









I bought 3 Gallons of Kent-Mag and have had my Mag at 2300 for the past 1.5 – 2 months. The only thing I haven’t tried is dosing the whole tank with Hydro Peroxide or a Foxface fish. At this point even if I got something to eat it, it wouldn’t be a permanent solution since it’s everywhere now (overflow, plumbing, equipment, etc... I clean my MP40s and within a couple of weeks it’s covered with Bryopsis again!










I have come to the conclusion I will have to break down the tank, kill all the Live Rock, quarantine all my corals/fish and find a way to sterilize every inch of my tank, sump, plumbing, equipment. I just don’t see another way… I will probably be doing this sometime in January once I find a temporary tank (will probably be looking for a 75G) for my live stock and formulate a plan of attack.

If anyone has any suggestion/ideas I haven't tried yet, please let me know.


Thanks guys...
Higor

 

[JohnK]

Have you tried organic carbon dosing?

 

[higorc]

Have you tried organic carbon dosing?

I have been dosing Vinegar for the past 4 months. Helped with Cyano and Dynos, but didn't even phase the Bryopsis...

 

[SteveDola]

try bio pellets first. they worked wonders in my dads tank. got rid of the algea and then took them off line and the algea stayed away.not bryopsis but he had bad HA

 

[cilyjr]

I just saw your thread on rc. Think it is the curse of winning tank of the quarter. I won it and a few weeks I had a major tank crash..

Seriously though. When I battle bryopsis as soon as I seen even the smallest patch I will remove the entire rock it is on. It's a big pain in the butt but I figure it's better than the fight of having an infestation.

 

[jayinh]

I feel your pain, I had to brake down my 125 when this stuff took control of the tank. I too tried all the things others were having success with...did not help me tho. I ended up bleaching all the rock, then peroxide the rock to kill it off. in the end the tank was taken down and my will to carry on was broken....I setup a 60 cube last new years and so far( knock on wood) its byopsis free.

 

[Chrissy]

Oh no! I'm sorry, Higor. I would try the peroxide first. I'm actually going to start on my 20g frag tank today because I'm seeing the start of dinos. On a side note...I have a Powder blue tang that eats everything including calcareous display algae that I need to get out of my tank...

 

[mchartier]

I had it bad on my 90, tried the Tech M which worked for a short period and it came back, I ended up taking each rock out and apply H2O2 directly to the algae for about 20 seconds then rinse the rock of in fresh saltwater and placed it back in. Within a couple of days it was all white and falling apart, my yellow eyed Kole was seen eating it when it was white. I still have rocks from the 90 in my 57 and I still dont have any bryopsis after two years.

 

[Spaceman]

Buy 10 minimum lettuce nudibrachs scrub off all rocks you can and wait... nothing else works as well imo....its Kent m or lettuce nudies.. ok well after re reading maby 15 and a good scrubing maby hire a pro....tewch m norm does its job in 2 months but since its not working just do the lettuce!!! they work!!!!

 

[higorc]

Thanks guys for all the ideas, but I just don't know what else to do... I have tried pulling it off the rocks, but I think I made it worse. Now it just seems like the spores are everywhere and I have it growing in places in the middle of the sand!

I don't have a problem breaking down the whole setup, cleaning it and re-starting... My only concern is salvaging as much as possible and keeping my corals alive... No matter how I look at it, it's gonna be a pain!

 

[RiverRat]

You have tried many things......
Break it down and start again. Greatness can be re-built.
If you lose anything, you are welcome to have frags of what I have
Good luck.

 

[Spaceman]

lol its never that bad.. stiff brush and scrub all rocks and andd lettuce nudibramnbchs.... if i lived closer i would say in 3 visits once a week its would be on its way out never to come back... lol...

 

[jayinh]

lol its never that bad.. stiff brush and scrub all rocks and andd lettuce nudibramnbchs.... if i lived closer i would say in 3 visits once a week its would be on its way out never to come back... lol...

If you scrub this stuff don't do it in the DT, in my experience it will spread into area that will be impossible to reach. I had zero luck with kent tech m, never tried the nudi's tho. As river rat said, just break it down and re start. I watched a patch of this stuff die on a rock that was pulled and treated with peroxide then start growing back after some time. IMO the safe bet is to kill the rock, ditch the sand and start over, just be careful of hitch hikers on any coral you keep.

 

[Spaceman]

If you scrub this stuff don't do it in the DT
This is the key. Don't help it spread. but in higors case looks to be every where!
if your going to wait until January looks like you should try one more time before breaking down if it works would be nice no t to break down....

 

[cilyjr]

Thanks guys for all the ideas, but I just don't know what else to do... I have tried pulling it off the rocks, but I think I made it worse. Now it just seems like the spores are everywhere and I have it growing in places in the middle of the sand!

I don't have a problem breaking down the whole setup, cleaning it and re-starting... My only concern is salvaging as much as possible and keeping my corals alive... No matter how I look at it, it's gonna be a pain!

if you go to pull it it is good to have an airline tube siphoning up the area or pieces can float and re root elsewhere.
restarting is gonna be a pain not to mention any tiny piece of bryopsis you may have at the base of a coral could start the whole thing over again.

 

[Spaceman]

has no one else used lettuce nudi?? they work wonders!!

 

[dannyp02908]

I agree with others. If you are going to wait til January, try the hydrogen peroxide. Do it in conjunction with a blackout and try to place the doses close to the algae. If you have SPS, try to do lower doses. SPS don't like it much. If no SPS, you can safely double the recommended dose I believe. Good articles on nano reef.

 

[mannysmusic]

I had a bad outbreak and the only thing the worked for me was a sea hare. It took about a good month before it was able to clean everything. I also started dosing vodka and ran GFO. I would agree, that stuff is such a pain.

" 72 gallon bow mixed reef "
" 24 gallon SPS dominant "

 

[dannyp02908]

I just went through dinos. Easily on par with bryopsis as far as pain in the butt problems go. Lights out and peroxide. 3 days. No dinos. It's going to take longer for the bryopsis. But give the peroxide a try. No amount of water change or gfo or vodka is going to help as long as the nutrients are locked in the algae. Gotta kill it then target the source.

 

[AnthonyP]

I had a frag tank full of it and did the Tech M thing and kicked its A%% I also manually removed what I could and took the rocks out of the water and poked a pin hole in the H202 lid and squirted it all over the stuff and the rock and just placed back in the tank watching the rock and corals fizz! all this while daily doing the tech M building my Mag level up to 2200 mag levels and holding it there for 4 weeks. I think the bryopsis turned white within the first week but I kept raising the levels anyways and held it there and then gradually came back down over another month....by the 3 rd month levels were back to normal but green hair algae and cyano started growing where the bryopsis died and then I did some manual removal, syphoning and added some emerald, blue legged crabs and been spotless for months since.....All in all it was a 4-5 month fight from the 1 st day of dosing tech M to being spotless....Didn't lose a coral, sps, lps etc But the bryopsis was gone within the first few weeks and the rest of the battle was being patient with getting levels back and dealing with the fallout of the dead bryopsis with cyano and GHA but that was the easy month....The hardest is being paitent and trusting the tech M and worrying about coral health but once you get over that you are good....It worked for me anyways.....