I picked up from corals from another reefer that have the nasty fern-like bryopsis. I've already got the more typical hair algae. Luckily the pieces are all in quarantine, including the pistol shrimp since I don't want him pooping bryopsis into his new tank. Any ideas? Should I just take frags of all these corals and requarantine the frags? I'd love to buy a small UV filter to kill off the algae seeds.
Thanks, maybe that'll knock my hair algae in the 75G. Is it fairly easy to set up? I'm a bit retarded with plumbing. I have quite a few small frags: blue mushrooms with red spots, Kenya tree, pink zoos, blue palys, Aleopora, hammer coral, etc. Except for various hair algae and bubble algae I'm pest-free. BTW, I put in a 2.5G refugium into the 75G to help with hair algae, and it's doing the trick. I've also of course cut food, put in some phosphorus filters, clean weekly, etc., but I think even a small refugium helps.
Step up your water changes and possibly change your bulbs if they are older. You can also take a small wire brush and brush the algae off of the surrounding plug in a small bowl of your tank water. Then dip into another small bowl of tank water to ensure there is no loose floaters still aboard the frag. You can also increase magnesium (they say) to approx. 1,500 on a test kit. They say elevated magnesium also can kill bryopsis. Some folks also recommend emerald crabs to eradicate bubble algae. Good luck.
The Emeralds definitely eat bubble algae and some bryopsis. Pistol shrimps love the hair algae, BTW, but they only get the bottom of the tank. I've seen my tiger pistols out cleaning the rocks of algae many times. Raising the Mg level only works on some of the hair algae species. I'm almost at the point of trying it, but then again it's clearly dying off. I used to get a softball sized piece out every weak, now it's 1/3 as much. So the trend's good.
