Finally defeated it.

[Goldpony75]

So I am happy to say I have finally defeated the nuisance hair/bryopsis algae I have had plaguing my tank.......Pic will come as soon as my light come on.....The only thing remaining of it is the tattered translucent remnants that my tangs are actually picking at now. Some of you may remember my original post on this stating that I tried every animal I could get my hands on to see if they would eat it and none of them touched it. I cant say 100% what it was that got rid of it but it was one of two things. either keeping my magnesium at or above 1700ppm or the continuing dosing of vodka. But actually I believe it was both that finally did it.

[Chad Vossen]

hmmm, looks like ill be buying some bulk magnesium soon, and dose sugar since im under 21...

i probably wont do sugar, tried it once before and didnt like the resulting bacterial slime in my fuge.

i have heard of the mag trick on RC though. i just now bought a euroreef rs80 for my tank, upgraded from a superskimmer 65, i think i should see big results from that alone. the new skimmer is used, and is loud (louder than i think it should be.).

cant wait for the picture.

[hypertech]

FWIW - I think Kathy tried the mag trick and her SPS got mad at her. Watch carefully if you try that one.

[David Grigor]

hmmm, looks like ill be buying some bulk magnesium soon


For whatever reason the reports are that Kent magnesium has better results than bulk. Depending on the size of the tank that can get pretty expensive. DIY recipe didn't take case of mine and had a number of corals bleach out some ( not bad enough to kill them ). I had to just take everything out of the frag tank and remount all the frags on new plugs.

a euroreef rs80 for my tank, upgraded from a superskimmer 65, i think i should see big results from that alone. Once byropsis has taken hold, skimmer upgrade alone isn't going to erradicate. Certainly can help the tank overall but don't look for it to rid byropsis.

[Chad Vossen]

For whatever reason the reports are that Kent magnesium has better results than bulk. Depending on the size of the tank that can get pretty expensive. DIY recipe didn't take case of mine and had a number of corals bleach out some ( not bad enough to kill them ). I had to just take everything out of the frag tank and remount all the frags on new plugs.

Once byropsis has taken hold, skimmer upgrade alone isn't going to erradicate. Certainly can help the tank overall but don't look for it to rid byropsis.


then what can i do to get rid of it?

[David Grigor]

There is lots of algae that gets categorised as Byropsis that may or may not be. Certainly can try Magnesium but I'd look more into the Kent if you do and extreme caution if you have delicate corals.

Good ole manual extraction. For me I took each rock that had it out, put a grinding bit on the dremel and actually grinded away part of the rock that had it on it. Others just nuke the rock totally.

[tcpm]

I too have beaten hair algae recently, though not with the 1-2 of a bryopsis outbreak. I got a tang and a lawnmower blenny, but the thing that seemed to make the biggest difference was when I cleaned out my DSB and ran the siphoned water through a filter sock. Then I repeatedly siphoned the hair algae off the rock (with a regular 1/2" hose then one of the hair algae brush/siphons you find on ebay) and filtered that through the sock as well. I kept the Mg level at 1350ppm and the vodka to myself. Congratulations to you no matter how you did it.

[spsick]

I beat it simply with good husbandry and scrubbing manually with a brush in a bucket. Congrats on beating it Sean!

[Goldpony75]

The bulk magnesium hexahydrate doesnt do the trick. I started by using Kent marine Tech M and then switched to magnesium sulfate(epson salts) hmmm, looks like ill be buying some bulk magnesium soon, and dose sugar since im under 21...

i probably wont do sugar, tried it once before and didnt like the resulting bacterial slime in my fuge.

i have heard of the mag trick on RC though. i just now bought a euroreef rs80 for my tank, upgraded from a superskimmer 65, i think i should see big results from that alone. the new skimmer is used, and is loud (louder than i think it should be.).

cant wait for the picture.

[Goldpony75]

Oh trust me I was religious about my husbandry routine. weekly 20% water changes, Lots of flow through the display in the neighborhood 4200 gph. this stuff would even grow in the direct flow. and I only feed my tank every 2 days with rinsed frozen foods.

[mattb]

The reefs have microalgae too and its nutrient levels are much lower than most reef tanks. Its he herbavores that keep algae in check. Until recently, I have been running Mag at 1650ppm, pockets of algae sprung up every so often. I think its more just a micro cycle...