[Rin]

I've been battling a bryopsis problem for the past several months. Last week it hit a peak. I manually removed enough from my 75 to equal the size of 2 softballs. And there was still enough in the tank to cover all the rocks. Removing the bryopsis is a weekly event for me.

So this weekend I finally installed my DIY refugium. Out with the Oceanic trickle filter (bio-balls were removed about a year ago) and in with the 30 gallon refuge.

Once I got the old trickle filter out, I found the source of my woes. The old sump was filled with detritis. Since Oceanic's filters use limo-tint glass, I never realized that so much garbage had built up in there.

I don't even have the lighting for the refuge set up, yet. Just removing the old sump made that much of difference. The algae is turning brown and it's decomposing. I've been removing everything I can reach as it is dying--don't want another round of new growth after all.

This is sweet. Now maybe I can have a tank I'd be proud to show off. Once the refugium is established and thriving, things should be even better.

[organicreefer]

it turned borwn and is dieing?!? let me in on the "secret",it cant be as easy as cleaning out youre sump .seriously congratulations,ive been battling the stuff for a good six months,still havent won .i m thinking about trashing evry rock that its on,but its hard because other than the bryopsis,there is so much life and they are all solid purple(who said it wont grow on top of corraline? ).
ive tried pulling (it comes back stronger) water changes ,no water changes (it got worse )just actinics for a week,nudibranches,praying etc etc. no luck.i just set up my new refugium ,im hoping that this is the answer ive been looking for.
again congratulations ,i know what a big deal it must be.

[Rin]

Hey, I know what you mean. I tried everything you mentioned except the Lettuce Slugs. There seems to be no correlation with the different techniques and the amount of algae that would grow. Some weeks it would hardly grow at all and then sometimes I'd see it almost double in size in a single day. It would play hell with my day/night pH cycles.

The only thing about the coraline is that it is a little easier to pull the bryopsis off the rocks that had good coraline growth. Otherwise, it would grow just as well. Maybe my star polyps will do a little better now that they have some room to grow.

The tank is still terribly infested with the stuff, but it's getting better every day. I hope I've conquered this.

One other observation: The algae wouldn't grow near the green hairy mushrooms.

So I guess the big 'secret' is to find the nitrate factory and get rid of it.