Bryopsis...

[Corax]

Anyone have advice for ridding myself of this lush green carpet of death?

I use RO water, run a skimmer, even have some macro algae goin in the tank, yet the carpet keeps growing and growing...

 

[Dale W.]

Bryopsis algae's are one of the most detrimental algae's to an aquarium. They grow quite rapidly in the right conditions and will take over the tank in no time at all.

In general these conditions are caused from lack of maintenance which causes higher levels of Nitrates and an influx of calcium ph and alk in the system.

Getting rid of the dreaded stuff is not the easiest to do. The best method of course is to pull the algae out manually to get as much as possible out of the tank. You will then need to do some good water changes as well as bumping your Calcium levels up to around 475 to 500 keeping the PH up around 8.3. You should try buffering the water to keep your alk at a constant level to utilize the absorption of calcium in the water column.

I have an outbreak myself at this time and I will be trying some alternate methods as well and will keep you updated as such.

 

[Corax]

Good info Dale, I'll check my calc tomorrow morning and see where it stands. I've not been overly concerned with my calc because the only corals I have are like some small shrooms and polyps. Maybe that's my problem =) Thanks!

 

[heedicus]

hey raven,
long time no see, welcome back
Definetally check your alk... I found when I bumped up my alk (it was low) all the bryopsis pretty much dissapeared.
tren

 

[Corax]

Did some tests this morning:

calc 120-130mg/l (yeah, I guess that's the problem)
ph 8.4 (same as always)
alk 10dkh (usually runs 11, will bump it a bit when I top off today)
didn't test ammo, trite and trate yet, but I will in a little while just to confirm them...

Ok, so it's time to crack open the kalkwasser mix I bought all those months ago when I thought I wanted to do a reef tank instead of the FOWLR I ended up doing... Anyone got advice on using this stuff?

I have.................. <digs through cabinet for a minute>

Kent Kalkwasser mix
Seachem Reef Kalkwasser
Seachem Reef Advantage

To choose from...

For my alk buffer, I have............ <digs again>
Seachem Reef Builder
Seachem Reef Buffer

I normally use the builder, but I'm open to suggestions...

Also, I supplment with Seachem Reef Plus once a week, mostly for the Iodide for the crabs and shrimp in case anyone needs to know...

Ok chittlins, fire away!

Heed, good to see you again =) Hope yer right, I'm gonna get started on the alk right now!