Bryopsis

[karlos]

How I can I tell if this is the algae that is starting to grow in my tank? It looks like a green fern leaf? If this is Bryopsis how do I go about removing it.
Thanks

[redwinger]

From your description it sounds like bryopsis. I have found bryopsis to be one of the mroe evil algae's. I fought it off with pulling as much out as possible and adding 12 lettuce nudis and beefed up my asreas and ceriths. Within a couple of weeks it was gone. others have has luck with foxface's and other rabbit fish. Tang will not touch it from what i have seen and neither will most other herbivores like crabs. Another way to help fight it is with a elevated PH that stays above 8.3 24 hours a day IIRC. The main cause from what I have read is a build up of detritus in the areas where it grows. Siphon as much of the detritus away and keep the nutrients at a minimal and beef up your cleaning crew or the other methods and you should be good to go.

Disclaimer: your results may vary

[karlos]

Where could I find some of these lettuce nudis?
I also installed a calcium reactor two months ago and I have noticed my PH drop 7.8 low with no lights to 8.1 with lights . We opened the windows here the other day and shut off the air and my PH went up to 8.4 high to 8.1 low. So from what you are telling me this could be the reason for the out break.
Thanks

[Graham]

Low pH won't outright cause an algae outbreak, just like "old lights" will never cause an algae outbreak in and of itself.
It primarily has to do with high nutrients and the presence of the algae in your tank. If that and "other" conditions become favorable, it will grow. pH may contribute, but excess nutrients is the primary contributor to the growth of any and all algae. Get rid of the nutrients and you'll eventually get rid of the algae.

My experience with nudis is not favorable. Most of them will end up stuck in the overflow or a pump inlet within a few days IME. It also is only a temporary solution if nutrients remain high.

[goetzc]

Originally Posted by karlos

How I can I tell if this is the algae that is starting to grow in my tank? It looks like a green fern leaf? If this is Bryopsis how do I go about removing it.
Thanks

Does it look like this:

Calurpa_Serulariodes

I find this page helpful in identifying all sorts of stuff:
http://www.reeffrontiers.com/photos_corals/

[David Grigor]

If CO2 is suppressing the PH, it could be playing a factor. Like others though, likely not the root cause but I'm sure not helping matters. Paying very close to attention to your water quality and ways to eliminate phosphate/nitrate is good but likely never going to be so perfect that it just goes away on it's own ( perhaps long term but definately not immediate future ). If it hasn't spread and is pretty isolated to a rock or two, I would seriously consider removing the rock vs. trying to find things to control it and hope in the meantime it didn't spread ( providing the nutirent levels are under control ).

If your tank is large enough to support one, I honestly can't say enough about rabbitfish. I find them to be not only a great fish to observe but they are such a good maintenance fish for most all of macro type algaes that may be present. True, they are not going to 100% eliminate but will definately keep in check.

[karlos]

I have a 125 with a 30 g sump. one of the overflows has a tee in it with a valve and it goes to a turbo floater 1000 and into the sump before the sand bed and cheto. I have another skimmer that is a hang on with a mag pump after the DSB. Both are making alot of dark green junk. No phosphate/nitrate I have had some bubble algae for a while but it seem that my Emeralds are starting to get it under control. I did buy a rabbitfish from Ocean devotion but he only lasted 15 days. never saw him eat. The only thing is I reworked my lights about a month ago and brought them closer to the water and my temp went up 80 to 84 max.

[Graham]

The thing about Bryopsis and other filamentous algae is that their morphology is perfect for trapping detritus. This gives them a constant source of nutrients. Even if you test zero (though I'd never trust a PO4 kit), the algae can still trap more than enough to keep growing. This means that in addition to doing what you can with your hands, you have to make sure you prevent detritus from accumulating in the algae. Easier said than done.

I had Bryopsis in my 90 gallon reef and it was with me the entire 3 years I had the tank. I did everything short of dumping a dozen nudis in (no rabbit either). David might have the best idea - ditch the rocks if you can.

[stuckey_t]

One trick I liked to use if/when I got that kind of crap is make a big saucer sized plate/patch with 2 part epoxy putty. Put the plate/patch over the algae and firmly push the patch over the rock and seal it down. Couple weeks later pull the patch off and "wal-lah" the offending algae is dead and you've got a nice big white spot on your rock where the algae had been. I've been able to kill just about anything using this method including unwanted corals/aiptasia/bubbles you name it....or certain types of lettuce nudis will suck the juice out of bryopsis and effectively kill it. You'll have to do a little research to get the exact ones. I believe I used blowfish aquatics before and was witness to them doing it to the plant. Running carbon, UV, effective skimming, feeding quality foods with no phosphate, water changes, do the bsic stuff after you knock the algae down and/or kill it

[capman]

Originally Posted by karlos

How I can I tell if this is the algae that is starting to grow in my tank? It looks like a green fern leaf? If this is Bryopsis how do I go about removing it.
Thanks

If it is any help, I have some nice photos of Bryopsis in my lettuce sea slug artcle in Reefkeeping magazine: http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/20...ture/index.php

Actually, that is one photo, followed by an extremely closely cropped copy of the same photo.

Also, the second and 5th photos in the article show Bryopsis too. These photos might be helpful since the Bryospsis is next to some zooanthids, which give an idea of scale.

(Gosh, I really liked those zooanthids. Came from a marine livestock collector in the Florida Keys. Lost them to those tiny seastars most of us have in our tanks.... they took a liking to those zooanthids for some reason all of a sudden and were relentless, even though I kept picking off the sea stars every day. Slowly I lost the colony.)

[stuckey_t]

Harlequin shrimp eat those seastars like candy

Originally Posted by capman

If it is any help, I have some nice photos of Bryopsis in my lettuce sea slug artcle in Reefkeeping magazine: http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/20...ture/index.php

Actually, that is one photo, followed by an extremely closely cropped copy of the first photo.

Also, the second and 5th photos in the article show Bryopsis too. These photos might be helpful since the Bryospsis is next to some zooanthids, which give an idea of scale.

(Gosh, I really liked those zooanthids. Came from a marine livestock collector in the Florida Keys. Lost them to those tiny seastars most of us have in our tanks.... they took a liking to those zooanthids for some reason all of a sudden and were relentless, even though I kept picking off the sea stars every day. Slowly I lost the colony.)

[karlos]

Well thanks for all of the feed back. It looks like I have some Bryospsis. I pulled most of it off but it would be nice to get a slug or two. Where could I find one local?