My Bryopsis Story

[CoralHubb]

I recently had the please (sarcasm) of being introduced to our good friend bryopsis.

The short: ~220g SPS dominant reef tank. Tried manual removal of bryopsis for about 3 weeks and attempted to lower phosphates/nitrates without affecting coral. Was still growing too fast so i'm resorting to Reef Flux. I will update this every couple of days with my process and experience. so far (day 4), looks promising? (famous last words)

Day 1:
turned off protein skimmer, removed carbon
my total system volume is somewhere around 220g (standard waterbox 220.6 system with 40g breeder frag tank tied into it).
I was very nervous about it wiping out my SPS dominant tank so i started with just 10 capsules of reef flux (26 capsules is what is recommended for my system - they don't account for rock, sand, or air volume in their calculation).

Day 2:
No noticeable difference to coral, algae, fish, or inverts

Day 3:
I think my snails are starting to die off (I was already informed that it would wipe out my snails). My torch corals and hammers seem to be irritated, but still opened up and very much alive. but the tentacles seem less puffy.
I noticed random tiny bits of algae floating around the tank as if they started to get detached from the rocks/picked off more easily by inverts and fish. I also noticed that the tips of the algae are white and it doesn't seem to be as full/thriving like it was before treatment was started

Day 4:
Going to turn skimmer back on today. I will update with the status once i get home from work! fingers crossed i still have a reef to come home to lol.

 

[shakacuz]

fingers crossed for bryopsis eradication without losses!

 

[CoralHubb]

Day 4:
Everything looks about the same as day 3. more algae flying around since it's slowly detaching from the rocks.
Day 5:
I would say that when compared to day 1, there is significant receding of the bryopsis algae.
My torches and hammers look good today, so it must have been something temporary that made them irritated (not uncommon in my very busy tank). all my other coral seem to be doing just as great as they were before treatment.
My snail count seems to be low but there are still plenty of snails and crabs alive.

There is still a decent amount of bryopsis in the areas that had it the worst, so i imagine doing the full 14 days will be required for me.

thanks for following along.

 

[kzenoni]

Day 4:
Everything looks about the same as day 3. more algae flying around since it's slowly detaching from the rocks.
Day 5:
I would say that when compared to day 1, there is significant receding of the bryopsis algae.
My torches and hammers look good today, so it must have been something temporary that made them irritated (not uncommon in my very busy tank). all my other coral seem to be doing just as great as they were before treatment.
My snail count seems to be low but there are still plenty of snails and crabs alive.

There is still a decent amount of bryopsis in the areas that had it the worst, so i imagine doing the full 14 days will be required for me.

thanks for following along.

I’ve got a 350 gallon mixed reef. Just finished my 14 day wait, tank looks amazing and had no loss of corals. Adding bacteria to tank hoping it will balance the extra nutrients now that the problem algae is gone. Hope you have good luck as well.

 

[CoralHubb]

I’ve got a 350 gallon mixed reef. Just finished my 14 day wait, tank looks amazing and had no loss of corals. Adding bacteria to tank hoping it will balance the extra nutrients now that the problem algae is gone. Hope you have good luck as well.

oh this is great to hear! also, 350g <3 love it. what bacteria all are you adding. lastly, did you run GFO or anything during/after. i'm assuming you ran carbon after the 14 days to get any remaining nasties out of the water.
thanks for your input! it definitely helps.

 

[kzenoni]

No gfo, carbon after two weeks and skimmer after 3 days. Added fritz but am planning on several bacteria to increase population and diversity. Calls for 30% water change on third week. For my setup that’s about 120 gallons so I’m doing 30 gallons daily for four days.

 

[CoralHubb]

i was away on vacation so i don't have a daily update for the past week but...
day 13:
almost 100% of the bryopsis is gone and my coral seem to be doing better than every (likely due to the lack of algae irritating them is my guess). i still have a good amount of snails left although a decent portion of them did die (i was warned of this from the beginning so not concerned).

Tomorrow i will be doing a 75g water change per the instructions and adding some carbon and gfo to my two reactors to clean up the water. on sunday i plan to add some fritz bacteria per the suggestion of kzenoni (previous post in this thread).

I did not notice a huge spike in phosphates as of last time i tested but a lot of algae has died since then so i'm going to check again tonight and report back. my phosphate was already a little high so might need to start the GFO tonight instead.