Bryopsis Cure: My Battle With Bryopsis Using Fluconazole

[Huskymaniac]

Started treatment yesterday for Bryopsis. Reef Flux 5 capsules for a 50 gallon system. Mixed with RODI and dumped into my sock in the sump. Added around midday. ATM sanitized and offline. Skimmer running but turned down not to create skimmate
Had one clown acting weird and not overly interested in eating last night. Clown is fine today
Cat eye paly was a little unhappy yesterday and today is closed up. Blue hornets closed up also but they are tempermental. All other palys and zoas are fine.
Favias, Monti's, Lepto, Lepesteria,
Euphyllias are all looking irritated but not totally retracted. Duncan immediately retracted but is better today.
Very healthy Fuzzy Bear Acro went white over night. All other Acros showing no adverse effect.
Red Blasto closed up but purple is fine. Mushrooms closed up
All inverts look fine.

I'll try to keep updating as hopefully things go smoothly.

If you got that reaction in just 1 day it's going to get a heck of a lot worse. Just saying be prepared for total annihilation.

 

[tgafish]

If you got that reaction in just 1 day it's going to get a heck of a lot worse. Just saying be prepared for total annihilation.

I actually had an opposite reaction. Usually if something goes wrong with one of my corals it goes wrong fast and continues downhill. I expected the Fuzzy Bear because I had heard of several others who had lost this exact coral. The other softies and Euphyllia have reacted how others have reported here with initial irritation and have come back within a few days. Hadn't heard much on duncans but he's retracted again after being open this morning. Hoping for the best. The way the bryopsis was starting to spread in the tank I really feel like there is no other option so I'm in it for the haul.

 

[kimros1986]

I think I'm dealing with bryopsis in a few spots on my tank. Have now ordered the flux rx. I'm not doing water changes as a routine. Am I meant to change out all water after treatment period have ended, to get the meds out the system?
Could someone just confirm it's bryopsis?

 

[tgafish]

I actually had an opposite reaction. Usually if something goes wrong with one of my corals it goes wrong fast and continues downhill. I expected the Fuzzy Bear because I had heard of several others who had lost this exact coral. The other softies and Euphyllia have reacted how others have reported here with initial irritation and have come back within a few days. Hadn't heard much on duncans but he's retracted again after being open this morning. Hoping for the best. The way the bryopsis was starting to spread in the tank I really feel like there is no other option so I'm in it for the haul.

36 hours in. Starting to see the first whiting of Bryopsis. Maybe 2-5%. Fish are all at 100%. Have another acro starting to go white. No big loss as I only have 4 acros total and none of any expense. Dragon soul favia is unhappy but still very colorful. Euphyllia still about 25% extended but not retracted. Had a Ultron favia retract last night and not come out all day. Duncan was back to normal today. Red Blasto looked a bit better today. Skimmer goes back online tomorrow.

 

[tgafish]

Everybody except the 2 acros are looking better. Woke up this morning to big changes. All bryopsis is white. One if my turbos is really going to town on it. Rock in picture was 100% covered in it yesterday. Couldn't see the rock at all.

 

[Huskymaniac]

Everybody except the 2 acros are looking better. Woke up this morning to big changes. All bryopsis is white. One if my turbos is really going to town on it. Rock in picture was 100% covered in it yesterday. Couldn't see the rock at all.

Glad it worked but another one that shows flucanozole is not Acro safe.

 

[Ross Petersen]

New to the bryopsis/fluconazole world. Made the mistake of dosing the ~15mg / gallon on 4 straight days. Dummkopf move on my part. That said, we should update the first page on the thread with a few concise notes (e.g., dosing, side effects, etc.). Had to scroll through the Q & A to find my blunder.

At 4X the dose, my flame hawk is ghostly, 2 davinci clowns are healthy appearing, acans are closed up, hellfire torch is 95% retracted, scolymia are retracted 50%, but all other euphylia and hardy SPS are ok for now.

Did a 50% water change and starting running some carbon to bring fluconazole levels down. Hoping the flame makes it. One of the most compelling and lively fish I have owned.

 

[Huskymaniac]

New to the bryopsis/fluconazole world. Made the mistake of dosing the ~15mg / gallon on 4 straight days. Dummkopf move on my part. That said, we should update the first page on the thread with a few concise notes (e.g., dosing, side effects, etc.). Had to scroll through the Q & A to find my blunder.

At 4X the dose, my flame hawk is ghostly, 2 davinci clowns are healthy appearing, acans are closed up, hellfire torch is 95% retracted, scolymia are retracted 50%, but all other euphylia and hardy SPS are ok for now.

Did a 50% water change and starting running some carbon to bring fluconazole levels down. Hoping the flame makes it. One of the most compelling and lively fish I have owned.

My experience has been nothing that was impacted recovered. I am over a month out finishing a failed treatment and things continue to die and tank looks like utter crap. It's quite annoying this is marketed as a reef safe solution. If you have another tank I would get the fish out into some clean water.

 

[Ross Petersen]

My experience has been nothing that was impacted recovered. I am over a month out finishing a failed treatment and things continue to die and tank looks like utter crap. It's quite annoying this is marketed as a reef safe solution. If you have another tank I would get the fish out into some clean water.

Jeepers - is it this bad? I spent an hour researching fluconazole before dosing and didn't see many red flags. Then again, just seeing this 287 page thread...

Any other insights from folks out there? I don't have another tank. I did a 50% water change and running new carbon. Hoping that's sufficient. 4 hours later my flame hawk is already perking up a bit.

 

[Huskymaniac]

Jeepers - is it this bad? I spent an hour researching fluconazole before dosing and didn't see many red flags. Then again, just seeing this 287 page thread...

Any other insights from folks out there? I don't have another tank. I did a 50% water change and running new carbon. Hoping that's sufficient. 4 hours later my flame hawk is already perking up a bit.

Maybe do another 50% water.

 

[Hermie]

Jeepers - is it this bad? I spent an hour researching fluconazole before dosing and didn't see many red flags. Then again, just seeing this 287 page thread...

Any other insights from folks out there? I don't have another tank. I did a 50% water change and running new carbon. Hoping that's sufficient. 4 hours later my flame hawk is already perking up a bit.

acute overdoses are kind of rare, so there's not much documentation about the effects

this is from nih.gov and maybe marginally helpful,

There have been reports of overdose with fluconazole accompanied by hallucination and paranoid behavior.

In the event of overdose, symptomatic treatment (with supportive measures and gastric lavage if clinically indicated) should be instituted.

Fluconazole is largely excreted in urine. A three-hour hemodialysis session decreases plasma levels by approximately 50%.

In mice and rats receiving very high doses of fluconazole, clinical effects in both species included decreased motility and respiration, ptosis, lacrimation, salivation, urinary incontinence, loss of righting reflex and cyanosis; death was sometimes preceded by clonic convulsions.

for people:

(1) Hepatic injury: Fluconazole should be administered with caution to patients with liver dysfunction. Fluconazole has been associated with rare cases of serious hepatic toxicity, including fatalities primarily in patients with serious underlying medical conditions. In cases of fluconazole-associated hepatotoxicity, no obvious relationship to total daily dose, duration of therapy, sex or age of the patient has been observed. Fluconazole hepatotoxicity has usually, but not always, been reversible on discontinuation of therapy. Patients who develop abnormal liver function tests during fluconazole therapy should be monitored for the development of more severe hepatic injury. Fluconazole should be discontinued if clinical signs and symptoms consistent with liver disease develop that may be attributable to fluconazole.

 

[Ross Petersen]

acute overdoses are kind of rare, so there's not much documentation about the effects

this is from nih.gov and maybe marginally helpful,

for people:

Thanks for finding this. Hoping the flame hawk pulls through. The company that sells the product should really specify dosing with respect to treatment path (i.e., fish vs. algae) and provide some general information on side effects.

 

[tgafish]

Everybody except the 2 acros are looking better. Woke up this morning to big changes. All bryopsis is white. One if my turbos is really going to town on it. Rock in picture was 100% covered in it yesterday. Couldn't see the rock at all.

Day 5. All visible bryopsis is gone. Fish still great. Dragon Soul favia looking better but not 100% yet. Ultron favia back to 100%. Euphyllia still not 100% but looking better everyday. Red Blasto still at 50%. Still 2 white acros. No other ill effects. Most likely wait til day 10 to do water change. I'll have GHA left in the tank but I'm fine with that as I don't want to encourage a dino outbreak after treatment. I'll manually remove and should get some help when my ATM goes back on line. At this early point I'm happy with the results

 

[ID-Reefer]

Anyone have success with a lesser dose? I dosed 1/2 recommended amount and bryopsis is still dying.

Didn't see a response to this question and curious as well. Have a newer tank (4 months old) and have a couple frags that unfortunately brought along Bryopsis. I only have it currently in 3 spots but assume over time it will spread. Have a growing population of SPS, LPS, Nems etc. that I really don't want to harm. Because I have such a small amount I was thinking of maybe dosing half the recommended amount. Im guessing it doesn't matter weather you have a tiny bit or a tank that is ran over... dose the same but figured Id ask.

 

[Huskymaniac]

Didn't see a response to this question and curious as well. Have a newer tank (4 months old) and have a couple frags that unfortunately brought along Bryopsis. I only have it currently in 3 spots but assume over time it will spread. Have a growing population of SPS, LPS, Nems etc. that I really don't want to harm. Because I have such a small amount I was thinking of maybe dosing half the recommended amount. Im guessing it doesn't matter weather you have a tiny bit or a tank that is ran over... dose the same but figured Id ask.

Go all in or try something else. Lettuce nudi's maybe.

 

[ScottB]

I'll just speak generally, as a long term follower of this thread and a VERY infrequent user of fluconazole.

If you have bryopsis (not GHA) you don't really have many options. If you have GHA and acropora, go elsewhere to resolve that. You have many options.

If you have bryopsis and acropora, you can remove the rocks it is on and watch for a while to see if you can avoid dosing. That is best case.

If you have bryopsis and keep acropora (that you value), start making some plans to evacuate them before treatment.

Personal experience: One out of three treatments with acro and fluc was devastating. The other two went perfectly; there were no fatalities other than bryopsis. How lucky do you feel?

I used to think the odds were much better than that while following this thread. SPS crashes seemed more rare before. Maybe there were just fewer acro keepers back then.

 

[tgafish]

Day 5. All visible bryopsis is gone. Fish still great. Dragon Soul favia looking better but not 100% yet. Ultron favia back to 100%. Euphyllia still not 100% but looking better everyday. Red Blasto still at 50%. Still 2 white acros. No other ill effects. Most likely wait til day 10 to do water change. I'll have GHA left in the tank but I'm fine with that as I don't want to encourage a dino outbreak after treatment. I'll manually remove and should get some help when my ATM goes back on line. At this early point I'm happy with the results

Day 10. I did my 20% water change at day 8. My phosphate was up to .14 so I was anxious to get those down a bit. ATM is seeded and back on line and started up the carbon reactor.
Kept making a mistake on the name of the acro that went white first. It's pinky the bear not fuzzy bear LOL. Well over the past 2 days the encrusting area has gained back almost all of it's color. All polyps are extended to same levels prior treatment which they had been since day 6. 1 small stalk has also regained all it color. The other acro that went white is still 80% white and unchanged. Polyps still extend to prior treatment levels. I only have 4 acros and they are all small frags.
Looks like I might get through this with no losses

 

[Just John]

What should I do here? The below is all I see and since it is a newer tank and the frags can be removed, I guess I will take out the rocks and boil them and skim off the top layer of sand (not too hard - it's only a 13 gal AIO tank). I will also clean off the frag plugs. My questions are:
- should I dose the tank too just to be sure it's gone (it only has soft corals in it, no fish yet)
- Are there other things I should be doing other than possibly dosing the tank? I will get a phosphate test kit today but Nitrates are at 0.

-Thanks!

 

[Ippyroy]

I dosed Flux for GHA and some kind of weird algae/bacteria. Before I did that I scrubbed each rock outside of the tank and sprayed them down with H2O2. The small amounts of GHA left were turning white within 3 days. By day 4 I had a huge Dinos outbreak. I will adding a UV next week when it comes in.

 

[Just John]

New to the bryopsis/fluconazole world. Made the mistake of dosing the ~15mg / gallon on 4 straight days. Dummkopf move on my part. That said, we should update the first page on the thread with a few concise notes (e.g., dosing, side effects, etc.). Had to scroll through the Q & A to find my blunder.

At 4X the dose, my flame hawk is ghostly, 2 davinci clowns are healthy appearing, acans are closed up, hellfire torch is 95% retracted, scolymia are retracted 50%, but all other euphylia and hardy SPS are ok for now.

Did a 50% water change and starting running some carbon to bring fluconazole levels down. Hoping the flame makes it. One of the most compelling and lively fish I have owned.

Did everything survive?