Bryopsis

[Steve973]

Hello. I have two small patches of bryopsis in my tank, and they don't appear to be getting out of control *yet*, but I'd like to find some (hopefully natural) method of elimination of this crap before it makes my hobby experience a nightmare. I try pulling some of it out, and it thins the patch a little bit, but the stuff always comes back. Any suggestions?

Steve

[dgasmd]

Dude, I battled this stuff for nearly a year before it under control. Not eliminated though. Knowing what I know now, this is what I would do:

1. TAKE THE ROCK OUT and scrub it with a wire brush until all you see is bare rock. Go beyond where the bryopsis is by a couple of inches if you can.

2. Rinse the rock very well before placing back in the tank.

3. Place it in the tank with the patch you scrubbed upside down.

4. Add a phosphate binding substance like rowaphos or phosban. Macros should not be sensitive to phosphate changes or deficiencies, but this stuff seemed to be. That was the one thing that finally put this in check for me.

I would forget about natural predators. That stuff is hardly even touched by anything. You can put 1000 lettuce nudibranchs in the tank. They will start eating it, but the bryopsis will grow at 6 times the rate of consumption. Adding fish is not goo either. I added 2 fish that were highly recommended and neither touched it. You'll be hard pressed to find a fish that will touch it unless you get extremely lucky.

[AquariaUSA]

Hi Steve,
Sometimes certain algae will take hold in a system, but you are not always doomed to failing if you let a patch pop up here or there. I have had years of experience with Derbesia, Bryopsis, Cladophora, etc. and have always found a way to work with natural predators. Lettuce nudibranchs however are a bad choice as Alberto mentioned. They can be specific feeders, and they do not always enjoy consuming bryopsis (depends on what they ate in the wild, where they were collected, etc.).

If you can and want to take the rock out, short of scrubbing, soaking, etc. you are more than welcome to drop the rock off at our house in Columbia or at the warehouse in Baltimore (downtown). I have a trio of tangs and a few Mithrax crabs (I forgot Tom had one for adoption!) that can clean an entire rock in a few hours. Few days ago dropped in a 5-10 lb. rock totally covered in Bryopsis late in the evening, and came back the next day to a totally clean rock. The rock is "seeded" so you need to have some herbivores in your system (blue leg hermits, emerald crab or sally lightfoot, and tangs) to keep macro and micro algae to a controlled state after it is cleaned.

Establishing a balance in the system is always tricky in the beginning, but once you get the hang of your tank's tendencies you will notice things right away, and know what works best for you. Goodluck either way you go about the Bryopsis issue.

[Steve973]

I live in Ellicott City, so Columbia is very close. I have some gsp on the one rock and some xenia on the other, but if the bryopsis persists, I wouldn't mind taking you up on your offer. Thanks!

Steve