Fendbendazole and Fluconazole simultanous Treatment, a report

metalruebe

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Hello fellow reefers,

i have a 90G mixed reef and ran into a problem after 4 weeks of vacation in fall. Massive infestation with GHA (looks like Bryopsis under the microscope) AND Blue clove polyps, which were residual and i thought i could control it, but nope, it exploded like a wildfire and started to overgrow all zoas and then started to overgrow SPS frags.

I did a Fluconazole treatment about 1,5 years ago vs Bryopsis and it helped a lot, almost exterminated it. Only residually there was just a bit which couldn't take hold.

After research, i saw there is no info available on treatment with both medications at the same time and concluded i give it a shot, because the alternative would be to cancel the tank and start from 0.

I quarantined all Soft corals, Gorgonians, as much snails as i could and Gobies+Lawnmower Blenny. BTA is staying.

Day 1: Application of 20mg/gallon Fenbendazole (Panacur, dissolved in Isopropylalcohol) and 20mg/gallon Fluconazole (FLUX RX), BCP shrank immediately, Skimmer, UV, Ozone all turned off. (I accounted for the volume of all stone, corals and equipment and dosed for 60G of total water volume)

Day 2: All coral polyps shrunken, BCP shrunk even further, Algae not affected, pigeon snails not affected interestingly

Day 3: start of "white dot phase" on bcp, all polyps are fully retracted and look like white dots on rock, all other corals seem to do just good, also BTA. Aiptasia not affected at all.

Day 4: Bryopsis starts getting grey, connective tissue of BCP start decomposing, all fish healthy, pigeon snails not affected, Aiptasia not affected at all, started skimming. Quite a bit of green Cyano present on sandbed, but nothing crazy.

...

Day 11 (today): BCP almost fully dissolved, Bryopsis very much dissolving with Cyano recycling the remains, Aiptasia is obviously not affected by Fenbendazole and thrives. All fish healthy and hungry, seems like Pigeon and Cerith snails are immune to Fenbendazole (laying eggs as before treatment). Being very cautious with alkalinity and nitrate monitoring.
Phosphate obviously will rocket too.... i'm at about 0.06 with normal conditions, now >1.



Take away with status quo today: It works very very good together, i couldn't see any ill behaviour of my fish (also wrasse seems very fine). BUT: all your worms will decompose, you get crazy nitrate spikes (normally around 5, skyrocketed to 30), your coral growth is effectively HALTED and you get a alkalinity spike if you don't monitor. Fenbendazole is crazy toxic to most snails, if you see a dying snail remove immediately. Aiptasia will flourish in that environment and you won't have a chance to add Berghias in a LOOOOONG time, big problem.

I will start to use my Torq with a lot of Carbon after Day 14, will start water changes on the same day, approximately 25% every 3 days. Plan on changing carbon every week.


Conclusion:
It's possible as a last resort, i would in hindsight try to eliminate Aiptasia as much as possible before treatment. But berghias will die with treatment, so quite expensive. With the conditions i had and with an available quarantine tank i would recommend that treatment. But is was totally my failure with not taking residual BCP serious, if you have that problem remove the infested rock ASAP, you can't win that battle otherwise, only with massively toxic Fenbendazole.

No snails, starfish, featherdusters for at least half a year and i think the tank will need surely 1 year to recover fully. Don't be like me and let pests take control of your tank, react ASAP.

Edit: added a picture of my tank before the apocalypse :(, will add one when treatment is done

20240703_195243.jpg
 
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tbrown

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This is great information! When you have the final results might I suggest creating an article detailing all of this?
 

tbrown

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@revhtree I believe there used to be an area for experiments... Does that still exist or was it only in my head that I remember it?
 

tbrown

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Here it is!

 

reef17

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Hello fellow reefers,

i have a 90G mixed reef and ran into a problem after 4 weeks of vacation in fall. Massive infestation with GHA (looks like Bryopsis under the microscope) AND Blue clove polyps, which were residual and i thought i could control it, but nope, it exploded like a wildfire and started to overgrow all zoas and then started to overgrow SPS frags.

I did a Fluconazole treatment about 1,5 years ago vs Bryopsis and it helped a lot, almost exterminated it. Only residually there was just a bit which couldn't take hold.

After research, i saw there is no info available on treatment with both medications at the same time and concluded i give it a shot, because the alternative would be to cancel the tank and start from 0.

I quarantined all Soft corals, Gorgonians, as much snails as i could and Gobies+Lawnmower Blenny. BTA is staying.

Day 1: Application of 20mg/gallon Fenbendazole (Panacur, dissolved in Isopropylalcohol) and 20mg/gallon Fluconazole (FLUX RX), BCP shrank immediately, Skimmer, UV, Ozone all turned off. (I accounted for the volume of all stone, corals and equipment and dosed for 60G of total water volume)

Day 2: All coral polyps shrunken, BCP shrunk even further, Algae not affected, pigeon snails not affected interestingly

Day 3: start of "white dot phase" on bcp, all polyps are fully retracted and look like white dots on rock, all other corals seem to do just good, also BTA. Aiptasia not affected at all.

Day 4: Bryopsis starts getting grey, connective tissue of BCP start decomposing, all fish healthy, pigeon snails not affected, Aiptasia not affected at all, started skimming. Quite a bit of green Cyano present on sandbed, but nothing crazy.

...

Day 11 (today): BCP almost fully dissolved, Bryopsis very much dissolving with Cyano recycling the remains, Aiptasia is obviously not affected by Fenbendazole and thrives. All fish healthy and hungry, seems like Pigeon and Cerith snails are immune to Fenbendazole (laying eggs as before treatment). Being very cautious with alkalinity and nitrate monitoring.
Phosphate obviously will rocket too.... i'm at about 0.06 with normal conditions, now >1.



Take away with status quo today: It works very very good together, i couldn't see any ill behaviour of my fish (also wrasse seems very fine). BUT: all your worms will decompose, you get crazy nitrate spikes (normally around 5, skyrocketed to 30), your coral growth is effectively HALTED and you get a alkalinity spike if you don't monitor. Fenbendazole is crazy toxic to most snails, if you see a dying snail remove immediately. Aiptasia will flourish in that environment and you won't have a chance to add Berghias in a LOOOOONG time, big problem.

I will start to use my Torq with a lot of Carbon after Day 14, will start water changes on the same day, approximately 25% every 3 days. Plan on changing carbon every week.


Conclusion:
It's possible as a last resort, i would in hindsight try to eliminate Aiptasia as much as possible before treatment. But berghias will die with treatment, so quite expensive. With the conditions i had and with an available quarantine tank i would recommend that treatment. But is was totally my failure with not taking residual BCP serious, if you have that problem remove the infested rock ASAP, you can't win that battle otherwise, only with massively toxic Fenbendazole.

No snails, starfish, featherdusters for at least half a year and i think the tank will need surely 1 year to recover fully. Don't be like me and let pests take control of your tank, react ASAP.

Edit: added a picture of my tank before the apocalypse :(, will add one when treatment is done

20240703_195243.jpg
How your tank update?
 

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