I'm at the end of my rope. Bryopsis infestation. Help?

[MichelleRay]

My very last idea for getting rid of a truly hellish bryopsis infestation is now bust. I ordered a magnesium kit to test my levels in hopes that raising my levels would kill it. My levels read as 1500, which should be high enough to kill it. Yet here it is strangling everything. Growing back overnight as usual. I have hermits, I have an emerald, I have a porcelain, I have a skimmer. My nitrates and -ites read 0 at last read, though my tests are expired now and I don't have the cash for more yet. I tried ordering a lettuce nudibranch and it was in the tank for all of about 5 seconds before one of my peppermint shrimp decided to be an butthole and killed it. (Yes I'm ticked at the shrimp and they will be going to the pet store soon) I am trying to remove said shrimp but so far I've only caught 1 out of 4. I have got some macroalgaes in there, and some chaeto I got in the last few days. The macros have done exactly nothing and in fact are getting killed by the briopsis smothering them.

I would like something that wont kill my inverts. I like my starfish and my coral and I really really don't want to lose them. However I'm now at the end of my rope and I'm about to take out what I can and nuke the rest. I am so sick of seeing this hair algae all over my tank. It's covering all the rock, the walls, the heater, the powerhead, and even the waterfall part of the hob filter such that its blocking the flow.

Does anyone have any idea I haven't tried? I would happily leave the lights off if that would work without killing my coral. Just not sure if it will given some of them are weak at this point from the algae and the shrimp (peppermints are SUCH buttholes) and all.

 

[rich nyc]

i would honestly use fluconazole. It works like a charm

 

[NanoCrazed]

There's a thread on killing bryosid using fluconazole... worth a read to consider?

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/bryopsis-cure-my-battle-with-bryopsis-using-fluconazole.285096/

I've had a few battles before... usually when I get an outbreak, it's when I have a crash and things die off while I am away so the protein content of the water is high. It takes a few weeks of stabilizing water parameters and changes to get them to go away.

Having a lawn mower and yellow eye / kole tang also helped greatly to reduce the growth...

Another thing I've down is to cover some rocks, after a few days the bryosid goes away. But, unless the rest of tank is free and stable, it will return since there's now a new surface to grow on... my rationale is I am trying to balancing the rate of growth to what my fish can eat...

Good luck!

 

[Kamden Uelton]

If you don't want to use chemicals Lettuce Sea Slugs consume Bryopsis as their main diet,

 

[mcarroll]

If you don't want to use chemicals Lettuce Sea Slugs consume Bryopsis as their main diet,

Actually all they eat is the chloroplasts from what I've read....the algae survive.

i would honestly use fluconazole. It works like a charm

Look through that thread and see how many folks have had it come back.

My very last idea for getting rid of a truly hellish bryopsis infestation is now bust.

Start with this very low impact "treatment": Algae Cure!! Spot Treating Algae With Peroxide

Your CUC may start helping once the algae is weakened.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Fluconazole. Seriously.

 

[Chris86]

Yeah I had bryopsis. Fluconazole wiped it out. I tried magnesium first, but that was before they figured out fluconazole would work. Magnesium got rid of it mostly, but apparently enough survived that I had to try fluconazole.

 

[jd371]

Fluconazole! This is where I bought it, free shipping too. https://www.fishlifeantibiotics.com/

 

[Kamden Uelton]

Actually all they eat is the chloroplasts from what I've read....the algae survive.

I had one for a while till he eventually ate all the bryopsis in my tank, for some reason no "pest" algae never grows fast for me but back to the sea slug. They consume the chloroplast and the algae turns white and dies 12 hours later.

 

[MichelleRay]

I'm gonna give the Fluconazole a try. I'm a little skeptical but if it works I'll be incredibly happy.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

I'm gonna give the Fluconazole a try. I'm a little skeptical but if it works I'll be incredibly happy.

Prepair to be incredibly happy.

 

[Tautog]

I could send you a Crown Conch, eats all algae’s including hair algae. Unfortunately, they don’t like other snails, and will eat your CUC.
Good Luck with the Fluconazole
Don’t give in, get even!

 

[mcarroll]

I had one for a while till he eventually ate all the bryopsis in my tank, for some reason no "pest" algae never grows fast for me but back to the sea slug. They consume the chloroplast and the algae turns white and dies 12 hours later.

I'm not sure if I saved the reference where I read this, but I was going off a journal report about algae palatability (IIRC)....there are apparently 2-3 critters than do this, but they did not report that any level of control of the algae was evident.

It's always great to have real-life tank examples to compare with these reports!!

 

[MichelleRay]

Fluconozole arrived today. I've just added it to the tank. 20mg per gallon would have been 5.5 pills so I added 6. Fingers crossed!

 

[jd371]

Don’t be discouraged if you don’t see results right away. I didn’t see changes until around 10 days.

 

[Greenfishman]

It worked a charm on my tank and 6 mths later it’s still gone!
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/fluconazole-vs-bryopsis-round-1.323625/#post-4025443

Keep us updated, and good luck.

 

[MichelleRay]

Its been 2 days now and the algae is looking less healthy. More brown, less green. And I'm noticing some bare patches that I am not sure if they were there before or not. I should have taken photos. I don't think they were though so it seems to be working?

 

[MichelleRay]

Can say now it's definitely weakening the algae. Right now it's still there, but noticeably whiter and shorter. Prior to adding this, I tried a toothbrush to scrub it off and it took off maybe 10% if that no matter how much I scrubbed. Just now I thought I'd check again to see if it really is weakening, and the rock was about 90% clear with just some light scrubbing.

So far I have not noticed any adverse reactions in inverts, fish, or coral. In fact a couple of my coral are looking better than they have in a long time, presumably because they aren't having to fight so hard to keep algae off themselves. The only thing unusual I've seen has been the appearance of a strange worm that I haven't been able to identify. It came out of the rock on day 2 and I captured it. There's a thread in ID about it. Otherwise the fish are acting normally, eating well, being little piggies as usual in the case of the clowns. 2 of my fish are the sort that don't eat fish food. A diamond goby and a tail spot blenny. Both of them still seem as healthy and active as ever and I have yet to get them to take any flakes or pellets, so their food sources are evidently doing just fine too. I was actually cleaning out my in tank coral holding area yesterday and after I took it out of the tank I saw copepods swimming around in the bottom as well as copepod-eating flatworms (EWW) so it seems the medications haven't been affecting either of them.

 

[MichelleRay]

Two and a half weeks later and it still looks the same as it did 3 days in. Weakened, and I can scrub it off but it's not staying gone. Where it came off before there is now new green growth below. If I remove it from new spots on the rocks, there is green growth beneath there as well. So I guess it helped a little, but it's definitely no cure. ;_;

 

[NCreefguy]

Two and a half weeks later and it still looks the same as it did 3 days in. Weakened, and I can scrub it off but it's not staying gone. Where it came off before there is now new green growth below. If I remove it from new spots on the rocks, there is green growth beneath there as well. So I guess it helped a little, but it's definitely no cure. ;_;

Can you post some pics of your algae? If it's been 2.5 weeks and looks the same I'm willing to bet that you've got GHA and not Bryopsis. Bryopsis will turn white in the first week of the treament. GHA can take as long as 6 weeks in some cases to get rid of. Also you shouldn't be scrubbing the rocks while running the treatment,you should let the algae absorb the meds.