Well ... they no longer look black, to me, they look red or brown. If you are close to realizing they are red, they will rarely be sensitive to Fluconazole, but the green and brown filamentous algae usually respond.
Best Regards
Bryopsis Cure: My Battle With Bryopsis Using Fluconazole
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Best Regards
BertieBones
Community Member
I'm day 6 in, trying to kill what I think is GHA, and as far as I can tell there is little change, although I sometimes see the odd bit of algae floating around in the water. When would I know if I need to second dose, and how do I do that?
If you removed the activated carbon filter, skimmer cup (keeping the skimmer turned on for oxygenation) and turned off the UV filter, the effects of fluconazole tend to persist for a long time in the aquarium due to its molecular stability and there are control reports of GHA in 03 weeks or more with a single dose, but ... it is very necessary to keep an eye on the parameters, since the death of the algae returns many nutrients to the aquarium and, if they are toxic algae, they can have unwanted side effects .
If, during the course of the treatment, undesirable side effects or significant changes of any parameters are observed, partial water exchanges may be made by maintaining the same proportion of medicament from the first dosage in the exchange water.
GHA and BHA are often much more resistant than Bryopsis to the effects of fluconazole and some strains may not respond to treatment, but if signs of drug action are observed, such as developmental stopping, bleaching of the tips or changes in color of the structures algae, it is to be expected that its control is a matter of time and in such cases the best course is to perform partial water exchanges when necessary, replacing fluconazole in the exchanged water to maintain the initial concentration, until you get the control.
PS: Still, and as an aquarist, I must say that fluconazole gives us the opportunity to control an outbreak of difficult algae, such as Bryopsis, which for many years was considered a terrible plague and often because it is so resilient to control , came to determine the dismantling of many aquariums and discourage many other aquarists from continuing in the hobby, but giving us the "opportunity" should not be considered as having given us the "solution" ... the real solution is to persist in the pursuit of balance of parameters and persist in careful observation of everything that happens and everything we put in our aquariums, especially quarantining all animals and carefully inspecting all coral bases and shells of molluscs and gastropods, to avoid as much as as is possible, the undesired introduction of these pests.
In doing so, we certainly will not find it so necessary to resort to medication.
Greetings
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Yes, it may, there is no known negative interaction between amino acids and fluconazole.
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40B Knasty
Valuable Member
Reef Flux by Reef HD. 1 full week results. 6.5 capsules for my 65g tank. You can follow my results on YouTube at 40B Knasty.
40B Knasty
Valuable Member
@Jose Mayo, since things are looking good for the bryopsis. Would it be a bad idea to use one more capsule for the next week before I pull the Reef Flux out of the tank and do a water change?
Ideally, let the medication do all the work before you take it off. Bryopsis is very resilient; if you get a single viable fiber after you take the medication, it will come back. If there is a need for any water exchange during treatment, which may be 14 or more days, fluconazole should be administered to the exchange water in the same proportion as the initial dose.
Regards
40B Knasty
Valuable Member
I was not going to do a water change. Just pull 4 cups of tank water and add a capsule to that.
40B Knasty
Valuable Member
BTW thank you for your help.
The reason I thought to do this was for any of the treatment loss by it foaming up on the side of the tank and when water starts to evaporate it could build up on the glass losing the treatment to the tank. So I am thinking it would bring the treatment back up to par of the 6.5 capsule ratio that I did for the remainder of the 2nd week of treatment before doing a water change.
Everything in my tank is great! Fish, corals, numbers, and inverts are fine.
Bryopsis doesn't seem to go away for me, sadly.. It's come back for a third time. The second return was my fault, pulled the plug too early.. But after a full 4-5 weeks of Flucon everything was clean and clear. Like a month later, it's back.
It's patchy, not too bad.. But still, it's a jerk.
It's patchy, not too bad.. But still, it's a jerk.
Sometimes bryopsis algae can establish deep rhizoids on the rocks ... this may favor them in resisting fluconazole and returning later, regrowth of the rhizoids. When this happens, they will almost always sprout on the same points on the same rocks, and perhaps it might be interesting to treat these points of the rocks in addition with H2O2 after cleaning. Random sprouting is usually due to early cessation of treatment or reinfestation by reintroduction of contaminated material.
Best regards
For the same reasons already discussed above and considering that most of those who do this treatment do not see the algae returning, perhaps the condition that allows the return is a combination of factors of the tank itself and the algae strain.
Once the algae returns and before they re-dominate the entire tank, a new treatment should be attempted and this time keeping the medication in the tank for a longer period of time until there is certainty that the outbreak has actually been controlled .
Some precautions such as avoiding pruning of algae, increasing water circulation over infested areas, collecting algae falling off a sock filter, better illuminating shade areas containing algae, keeping the GFO in line to reduce phosphates released with the death of algae, keeping the skimmer on without the cup to stabilize the pH and oxygenate the water, can also help.
Regards
Once the algae returns and before they re-dominate the entire tank, a new treatment should be attempted and this time keeping the medication in the tank for a longer period of time until there is certainty that the outbreak has actually been controlled .
Some precautions such as avoiding pruning of algae, increasing water circulation over infested areas, collecting algae falling off a sock filter, better illuminating shade areas containing algae, keeping the GFO in line to reduce phosphates released with the death of algae, keeping the skimmer on without the cup to stabilize the pH and oxygenate the water, can also help.
Regards
Velcro
2500 Club Member
I’m sure it didn’t help that I kept my skimmer running with the cup on. I’m just afraid too many organically might cause issue in my SPS system
Unfortunately fluconazole can be withdrawn by the skimmer and there are no studies that tell how much is withdrawn so that one could simply replenish daily the same amount and maintain treatment effectively.
The way it has been used to control the organics and other nutrients during treatment is the partial exchange of water, keeping in the exchange water the same concentration of drug as the starting dose.
With time and practice, the ideal would be to establish the pharmacokinetics of fluconazole with all customary devices attached to avoid this recurring problem of increasing nutrients, organic and inorganic, by the destruction of algae.
Regards
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