Bryopsis Cure: My Battle With Bryopsis Using Fluconazole

[jwshiver]

I had to turn my skimmer off. It was making a mess and stinking up the house. Anyone run with their skimmer off? Will it hurt anything?

I started treatment 24 hours ago for GHA. I am running my skimmer without the cup and when I walk by the tank it smells like a marsh at low tide. I'm scared my pH will drop too low if I do not run it. Did you have any pH issues turning it off and did it still smell?

 

[Slevin007]

Wanted to post my experience

Have been a reefer for years. First time dealing with an uncontrollable GHA and Briposis issue. I was on the way out of the hobby until I stumbled upon this thread. It all started when my neighbor was watching my tank and dumbed a few gallons of fresh tap water in. I still don't understand why...

Anyway the GHA and briopsis came out of nowhere within 2 days. That was a year ago. Since then I've tried everything, massive water changes, scrubbing rocks, etc. enter fluco. I'll let the pics speak

Day 1 and day 21

If they don't show up I'll redo it

 

[rabbithazen]

Sorry I don't want to be the guy to ask. But has anybody found a place to order fluconazole in Canada?

 

[prsnlty]

Finished treatment either dome gha left or it starting to come back, how do people handle excess nutrients from die off?. I did a 25% WC can continue that but sometimes it foes not help the export

Bigger water change and nopox

 

[bif24701]

Ok here goes!

300 gallon system
Dosed 6,000 my
It's been just over 48 hours and seeming the tips of algae going white.

I forgot to turn off my carbon (GAC) reactor off. How much of a problem do you think this will cause? It had already been running for a few weeks before dosing so I'm sure its capacity had been reduced a lot by that time. I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

 

[prsnlty]

Ok here goes!

300 gallon system
Dosed 6,000 my
It's been just over 48 hours and seeming the tips of algae going white.

I forgot to turn off my carbon (GAC) reactor off. How much of a problem do you think this will cause? It had already been running for a few weeks before dosing so I'm sure its capacity had been reduced a lot by that time. I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

Just turn it off now. Hopefully it'll be fine

 

[bif24701]

Just turn it off now. Hopefully it'll be fine

I also didn't remove the skimmer cup.....[emoji32]lol.

 

[prsnlty]

I also didn't remove the skimmer cup.....[emoji32]lol.

It will skim it out. I would dump the cup in the sump.

 

[bif24701]

It will skim it out. I would dump the cup in the sump.

Ok, but I think I'll do that slowly.

This is just 48 hours worth. I cleaned the whole thing just before dosing.

 

[bif24701]

Dumped it all back into system. I'm going to shut off skimmer, just foams way too much.

What are people using as export methods while the skimmer is **** down??

 

[natalia la loca]

Update on treatment of my 1.75 gallon reefbowl: I discontinued treatment after 54 days. For most of the treatment I dosed at 9 mg/liter, but for the last couple of weeks I increased the dose to 10 mg/liter.

The flucon got rid of 2 varieties of bryopsis or GHA but failed to get rid of a third. So it's not a universal treatment, but still pretty good. No ill effects to any corals or inverts.

 

[ReefGuru]

Sorry if this has been covered. Recieved fluconazole in pink 100mg tablets. Are these safe to use?

 

[bif24701]

How are folks dealing with not being able to skimm? I assume no one has had real problems?

 

[prsnlty]

Dumped it all back into system. I'm going to shut off skimmer, just foams way too much.

What are people using as export methods while the skimmer is **** down??

Filter bags and check the bags daily.the really want an no3 spike 1 or 2 ppm but po4 went up if not using gfo.

 

[prsnlty]

Update on treatment of my 1.75 gallon reefbowl: I discontinued treatment after 54 days. For most of the treatment I dosed at 9 mg/liter, but for the last couple of weeks I increased the dose to 10 mg/liter.

The flucon got rid of 2 varieties of bryopsis or GHA but failed to get rid of a third. So it's not a universal treatment, but still pretty good. No ill effects to any corals or inverts.

It is really only meant to treat bryopsis and as a bonus your basic gha. It only works on species that have ergosteral. Ergosteral is what protects it plus makes it undesirable to being eaten by critters. Once that is destroyed the algae breaks down and becomes tasty to the clean up crew. Have you identified the other algae yet? If you can do that, there may be a specific treatment for it also.

 

[prsnlty]

How are folks dealing with not being able to skimm? I assume no one has had real problems?

I've got a good size bioload and was fine. I turned mine on days 8-14 but wish I had not. For 2nd treatment I didn't run it at all.

 

[natalia la loca]

It is really only meant to treat bryopsis and as a bonus your basic gha. It only works on species that have ergosteral. Ergosteral is what protects it plus makes it undesirable to being eaten by critters. Once that is destroyed the algae breaks down and becomes tasty to the clean up crew. Have you identified the other algae yet? If you can do that, there may be a specific treatment for it also.

I am aware that flucon was mainly touted as a treatment for bryopsis. However, people have also suggested that it will take out other forms of hair algae within 3-4 weeks. My experience indicates that this is not true, at least not at the dosage suggested (my dosage was actually higher).

My surviving alga has a branching filament structure like bryopsis, but does not look bushy or fernlike. Given the numbers of GHA and bryopsis species that are said to exist, I have no way of knowing what exactly it is.

I'm glad I used flucon because, as I said, it did get rid of two other varieties of nuisance algae. Given the level of uncertainty around algae ID, I think flucon is absolutely worth using, but I suggest that people use it in conjunction with other treatments. I have very little GHA in my bowl because I never stopped doing peroxide spot treatments while I was treating with flucon.

 

[prsnlty]

I am aware that flucon was mainly touted as a treatment for bryopsis. However, people have also suggested that it will take out other forms of hair algae within 3-4 weeks. My experience indicates that this is not true, at least not at the dosage suggested (my dosage was actually higher).

My surviving alga has a branching filament structure like bryopsis, but does not look bushy or fernlike. Given the numbers of GHA and bryopsis species that are said to exist, I have no way of knowing what exactly it is.

I'm glad I used flucon because, as I said, it did get rid of two other varieties of nuisance algae. Given the level of uncertainty around algae ID, I think flucon is absolutely worth using, but I suggest that people use it in conjunction with other treatments. I have very little GHA in my bowl because I never stopped doing peroxide spot treatments while I was treating with flucon.

Absolutely, and there are so many variables within individual systems no one can guarantee every species will die even if it's the same species that is in 2 different systems. System size, lighting, filtration, nutrients, bio load, what is being dosed or not, system age and so on plus types of algae and sheer amount of algae all play a role in how well this treatment works.

Many have killed GHA easily with fluconazole and for the average person it took about 21 days and others had little to no success at all. There are over 50 species of Bryopsis and well over 100 species of GHA. The great thing about it is that it has saved many tanks and people from leaving the hobby. But we are still all in the testing stages with this medication as a treatment specifically for bryopsis. But now we have something to kill of some of the previously unkillable bryopsis and some GHA that just made people give up

 

[drtrash]

After treatment gha persists and is growing due to nutrient load, should I retreat with fluc just for gha or use somthing else, wondering if I should retry vibrant

 

[prsnlty]

After treatment gha persists and is growing due to nutrient load, should I retreat with fluc just for gha or use somthing else, wondering if I should retry vibrant

You can retreat with fluconazole but h2o2 usually works on his as well. Maybe do both. Or you can try vibrant.