Bry Posted May 8, 2011 Share Posted May 8, 2011 I have a little Briopsis here and there in my tank. It used to be really bad and I did the Tech M treatment which helped a lot but did not cure. During that I lost a green brittle star and it may have been the reason for a loss of a turbo snail and other snails. So... I don't want to go that route this time. So what I'm doing here is looking for an animal(s) that will focus on the briopsis, not one that is known for other algaes and 'may' eat briopsis. I've read about some but would like to hear from my local ARCers on what they've found. AND if you happen to have just such a proven briopsis eater and would like to sell it (in the Central, N, NW Austin, Cedar Park area) I'd like to hear more. Cheers! T minus 2 days before I get my Apex Controller Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+etannert Posted May 8, 2011 Share Posted May 8, 2011 If you find one let me know... high Mag has helped some but not totally eliminated the problem for me too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bry Posted May 8, 2011 Author Share Posted May 8, 2011 I know of Lettuce Nudibranch (Elysia crispata) working on briopsis, but only from reading. Seems IF the one you get will eat the briopsis (briopsys), when they finish it, you have to move them to another tank with more or they'll starve. And they like to get sucked into pumps. yikes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ramsey Posted May 8, 2011 Share Posted May 8, 2011 There's an ongoing thread on nano-reef.com talking about using hydrogen peroxide to kill it. http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=268706 http://reefbuilders.com/2010/03/29/uses-for-hydrogen-peroxide-in-the-aquarium-algae-removal/ I've not tried this and it still seems somewhat experimental but people have had success with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Hydro Posted May 8, 2011 Share Posted May 8, 2011 Have you tried marine SAT? I've had good success with it. If you have them you are supposed to turn off your skimmer and UV for 24 hrs for best results. My tangs would destroy that algae in no time at all, for some reason my tangs and rabbitfish have always eaten bryopsis. Cyrus has a metallic foxface that I originally owned that ate bryposis in my tank...its for sale. I'm not sure if 90 gallons is enough water for it, probably boderline. Its probably 5" long and eats acans. I would also recommend some mini blue leg hermits, get lots of them. When they get hungry enough they will eat it too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Alvarado Posted May 8, 2011 Share Posted May 8, 2011 I was able to fight back a bad bryopsis infestation by raising magnesium. I want to say the article was attached to the FAQ section on the ARC site. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Alvarado Posted May 8, 2011 Share Posted May 8, 2011 http://www.austinreefclub.com/page/FAQ/_/saltwater-101/defeating-the-evil-bryopsis-r30 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bry Posted May 9, 2011 Author Share Posted May 9, 2011 Thanks for the help. I had heard of SAT a while back and forgot about that. I'll look into it. I did have a Foxface Lo for about a year. I don't think he ate it but maybe... however he jumped out of the tank. I've heard of tangs eating it but I'm at my livestock limit and didn't want to invest in another fish if I didn't have to. I'll read more on hydrogen peroxide too. My aim it to not remove anything from the tank for many obvious reasons. Gracias, Bryan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jestep Posted May 9, 2011 Share Posted May 9, 2011 diadema urchins will eat it. Normal turbo snails will sometimes if it is weakened such as when dosing tech-m. My lawnmower started eating it one mine started melting a bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Jakedoza Posted May 9, 2011 Share Posted May 9, 2011 I went the natural rout... but nothing worked.. I tried snails hermit crabs urchins different types of fish including lawnmower blenny manual removal and darkness of the tank.... It grew back I even changed my entire RO/DI unit for better water quality The only thing that worked for me was magnesium.. I dosed every day for like 3 weeks straight, but I never could get it above 1200ppm. I now dose about once a week to keep it at that level. Here is a video of what my tank looked like... http://www.austinree...e__hl__jakedoza That was in December and it took a good 6 months to get rid of it all.. Good luck with the fight.. EDIT: I did not have much coral when this outbreak happened, so that is something I did not have to worry about. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+etannert Posted May 9, 2011 Share Posted May 9, 2011 Most of mine died with high mag. My problem is that I have some zoa frags with a few hairs here and there embedded in the frags/plugs. I keep my mag high and I've tried long (~5 mins) dips in half tank water, half hydrogen peroxide. I initially thought the H202 worked but by the time my zoas had opened back up the bryopsis had grown back too. I've gone so far as to try to remove individual strands with tweezers. At least none of it is on my live rock but I'd rather not risk it moving around the tank, and I don't want to lose my zoas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Alvarado Posted May 9, 2011 Share Posted May 9, 2011 I went the natural rout... but nothing worked.. I tried snails hermit crabs urchins different types of fish including lawnmower blenny manual removal and darkness of the tank.... It grew back I even changed my entire RO/DI unit for better water quality The only thing that worked for me was magnesium.. I dosed every day for like 3 weeks straight, but I never could get it above 1200ppm. I now dose about once a week to keep it at that level. Here is a video of what my tank looked like... http://www.austinree...e__hl__jakedoza That was in December and it took a good 6 months to get rid of it all.. Good luck with the fight.. EDIT: I did not have much coral when this outbreak happened, so that is something I did not have to worry about. I dosed half a large bottom on day 1, 1/2 what was left day 3, and the remainder day 5. Mag was at 2300. I did not lose anything, but it is important to note by tank was very new at the time. Probably only 6 weeks old. I did not have a lot of coral at the time (but I did have some SPS, LPS, and zoas and snails, pepermint). This was in my 125G which at the time did not have a sump. I did not lose anything. I then did normal water changes after 2 weeks, and slowly got it back down to normal levels. My mag stays around 1550 with regular water changes. I still don't have a lot of coral but willing to take donations Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jestep Posted May 9, 2011 Share Posted May 9, 2011 I had to get my Mg up to 2500ppm with tech-m along with reducing NO3 to get it to go away. There was negligible byopsis loss even above 2000ppm until I got the nitrates down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Alvarado Posted May 9, 2011 Share Posted May 9, 2011 I had to get my Mg up to 2500ppm with tech-m along with reducing NO3 to get it to go away. There was negligible byopsis loss even above 2000ppm until I got the nitrates down. When I ran mine, my nitrates were around 5ppm. Interesting information. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Jakedoza Posted May 9, 2011 Share Posted May 9, 2011 I did a mag test on the water I do my changes with. I use red sea pro and it sits at 1100.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Hydro Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 I did a mag test on the water I do my changes with. I use red sea pro and it sits at 1100.. You should switch to coralife, I had the same problem using instant ocean. Coralife mixes up at around 1500 for mag and 500 for calcium. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bry Posted May 10, 2011 Author Share Posted May 10, 2011 I, too, have this weed in between some zoas and small nooks in the rock so a lot of the animals won't work. When I did the Mg, I never did check nitrates so who knows if that would have helped finish them off. I just know I'm not willing to take the chance again as I didn't have great results and did spend some good $$ and hurt a few things in my tank. After I get my controller up and running, I plan on trying the H2O2 method and I'll post here how that went. If not, I'll keep trying things including running bio-pellets to get out every nitrate possible. My tests are probably not accurate (expired API brand) but they show I'm at about 15-20ppm nItrates no matter what I do. I do have a bit of hair algae as well so I'll post how that went too. I have a few blue legged hermits but I don't see them around it. My lawnmower blenny only cares about the film algae that's rarely on my glass and whatever I'm feeding. I'm willing thought to load up several more blue and red leggeds (need more anyway) and see what happens. Lights off for a few days had no effect for me either and I did also change out my whole RO/DI filter package. I'm afraid to "borrow" a tang as I fear I may never catch it even with my fish trap. Besides I may like him too much and never want to return it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Jakedoza Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 I just switched from coralife because it was testing at 900.... Sent from my Android using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Hydro Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 hmmm, what test kit are you using? Also what salinity are you mixing it at? I'm mixing to 1.027 and I'm using Salifert test kit. I wonder how consistent the suppliers are with their salt supplements, maybe that can be an issue too. I can never get my Mg over 1250 unless I spend about $50 on additives. This has always been an issue for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Jakedoza Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 Using an Elos kit and I mix the water at 1.025 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Hydro Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 I'll check some fresh saltwater tomorrow to see what I come up with, I have some already mixed up. I did test it and I think that even posted the results somewhere but its been a while since then, wouldn't hurt to double check. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.