Couple questions about tech m & bryopsis

[CoryD]

I've been reading up on treating bryopsis with kent tech m. Couple questions I can't find the answers too.

1. Does it matter what my starting mag is. (It is about 1350 now)? I know I should bring it up to 1600-1800 ish. Is there a certain amount that it should be raised in order for the "secret ingredient" to work?

2. Do you continue to do water changes during treatment and then bring mag back up after change or don't do water change and just keep mag in 1600-1800 range?

3. How long should I expect it to take to rid my tank of bryopsis?

4. After it's gone should I do water changes to bring it back down to 1300 range or just let it drop slowly on its own.

Thanks for any info you can provide,
Cory

[Aquanaut of WA]

adding plenty of emerald crabs and foxface did the trick for me. Doesn't hurt to tweeze out clumps either. Adding a scrubber in sump will allow it to grow and out compete what is in the DT.

Old gal

[Yogre]

Originally Posted by CoryD

I've been reading up on treating bryopsis with kent tech m. Couple questions I can't find the answers too.

1. Does it matter what my starting mag is. (It is about 1350 now)? I know I should bring it up to 1600-1800 ish. Is there a certain amount that it should be raised in order for the "secret ingredient" to work?

2. Do you continue to do water changes during treatment and then bring mag back up after change or don't do water change and just keep mag in 1600-1800 range?

3. How long should I expect it to take to rid my tank of bryopsis?

4. After it's gone should I do water changes to bring it back down to 1300 range or just let it drop slowly on its own.

Thanks for any info you can provide,
Cory

1. I started at about 1300ppm and raised Mg 100ppm daily till I was at 1600+ppm. Here's the calculator I used to determine how much Tech M to add:

http://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chem_calc3.html

2. I did water changes to assist with nutrient export and just resupplemented with Tech M to get back into the 1600ppm range.

3. I started to see the bryopsis clumps start to go pale after a week or so, and if memory serves it was all gone in a couple of months.

4. I just let Mg fall slowly on its own, while continuing my normal water change routine of about 10% weekly.

Hope you can beat this stuff, it's tough and Tech M doesn't work for everyone. Good luck!

[thegrun]

Originally Posted by Yogre

1. I started at about 1300ppm and raised Mg 100ppm daily till I was at 1600+ppm. Here's the calculator I used to determine how much Tech M to add:

http://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chem_calc3.html

2. I did water changes to assist with nutrient export and just resupplemented with Tech M to get back into the 1600ppm range.

3. I started to see the bryopsis clumps start to go pale after a week or so, and if memory serves it was all gone in a couple of months.

4. I just let Mg fall slowly on its own, while continuing my normal water change routine of about 10% weekly.

Hope you can beat this stuff, it's tough and Tech M doesn't work for everyone. Good luck!

+1, but mine all died off after 4 weeks

[CoryD]

Thanks guys. I've been just controlling it by picking it off and siphoning during water changes. It's getting old so hopefully the tech m approach will get rid of it for good.

[Portsie]

Originally Posted by Yogre

1. I started at about 1300ppm and raised Mg 100ppm daily till I was at 1600+ppm. Here's the calculator I used to determine how much Tech M to add:



http://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chem_calc3.html



2. I did water changes to assist with nutrient export and just resupplemented with Tech M to get back into the 1600ppm range.



3. I started to see the bryopsis clumps start to go pale after a week or so, and if memory serves it was all gone in a couple of months.



4. I just let Mg fall slowly on its own, while continuing my normal water change routine of about 10% weekly.



Hope you can beat this stuff, it's tough and Tech M doesn't work for everyone. Good luck!

+2 Mine was gone in about a month too

[Spyderturbo007]

Keep an eye on your snails when bump up your Mg. Mine started having problems staying attached to things and kept falling off. You might be flipping snails for a few weeks.

[FishN00b83]

I had a outbreak of it not too long ago. I wasn't sure what it was a first, but it started to spread and I saw the fern-ish tips. I bought a big bottle of Tech-M and brought my mag from 900 - 1400 during a water change. I kept it at 1400 and it slowly went away over about 2 weeks. I haven't dropped back down to 1200 yet, I'm thinking about just keeping mag around 1400. I don't want that stuff coming back lol

...now only if my dinos would go away on my sandbed id have a spotless tank! :'(

[CoryD]

Originally Posted by Spyderturbo007

Keep an eye on your snails when bump up your Mg. Mine started having problems staying attached to things and kept falling off. You might be flipping snails for a few weeks.

I only have a couple of snails in my tank, and a few hermits. I'm a little worried about my coral banded shrimp. Anyone have any issues with shrimp when raising mag so high?

[Spyderturbo007]

I have a skunk cleaner shrimp and he didn't seem to mind. He still stole food from my corals, so I suspect it didn't bother him. I went to about 1550ppm.

[davocean]

I did this in my tank and a few tanks I took care of, bumped from 1300ish to about 1500-1600 and bry started to fade in less than a week, and all gone in a couple weeks, never came back, no ill affects on anything at all.
I let it drop on it's own w/ regular WC's

[Yogre]

Originally Posted by Spyderturbo007

Keep an eye on your snails when bump up your Mg. Mine started having problems staying attached to things and kept falling off. You might be flipping snails for a few weeks.

I noticed this too.

[CoryD]

any issues with running GFO while doing this?

[Yogre]

Originally Posted by CoryD

any issues with running GFO while doing this?

I didn't have any.

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Does it matter what my starting mag is.

There's not a lot of clear evidence, but my expectation is that it may since it may well not be the actual magnesium that is added, but rather an impurity that has the effect. So boosting from 1500 to 1700 ppm magnesium adds a lot less of other impurities than does boosting from 1100 to 1600 ppm.

[CoryD]

Originally Posted by Randy Holmes-Farley

Does it matter what my starting mag is.

There's not a lot of clear evidence, but my expectation is that it may since it may well not be the actual magnesium that is added, but rather an impurity that has the effect. So boosting from 1500 to 1700 ppm magnesium adds a lot less of other impurities than does boosting from 1100 to 1600 ppm.

That's kinda what I was thinking. I just added my first dose of tech m last night, with a starting point of 1360 mag. Any suggestions on just how high I should take it?

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I'd try 1700 ppm and see what happens.

[davocean]

I had planned to bump mine higher, but in the course of taking it slow in bringing levels up I saw bry dissipating before I even got there.
As I mentioned my tanks were at 1500-1600 and it wiped it out, but many do take it higher, I think 1800 is about as high as I've seen people go, and I have not read of any ill affects in doing so.
From my reading mag would have to be extremely high to have negative affects.

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I agree that limiting the addition to the minimally needed amount of a very good idea.

[CoryD]

So it's been 3 to 4 weeks or so since raising mag to ~1700 will no noticeable effects on bryopsis. It's continuing to grow normally. I was wondering if there are different types of tech m available? In other posts I've read the tech m ingredients contained all types of different things. The bottle I have lists di water, mag chloride and mag sulfate, that's it. Did I get the wrong stuff? Should I continue to raise mag? Give it more time? Or am I just one of those guys it's not going to work for?

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

That's the only Tech M product that I'm aware of, unfortunately.