Fluconazole vs GHA

Atrumblood · Apr 8, 2022

Day 12

Algae is still slowly dying. Every day there is more gone.

It does look like it's beginning to slow down though. I wonder if it's all used up or something like that.

With that in mind I am going to start doing bi weekly updates until the end of the 4th week.

Atrumblood · Apr 11, 2022

Day 15

There isn't much algae left. Some little bits here and there. The bulk of which seems to be on top of my rockwork behind my birds nest, and a bit at the base of my candy cane.

I turned my skimmer on last sunday and it immediately started pulling skimmate. I'd imagine that my water is loaded with organics after leaving it off for 2 weeks.

I'll update again this Thursday.

Atrumblood · Apr 14, 2022

Day 18

I think the die off has stalled. These last few spots don't appear to be getting any smaller.

That being said, I am pretty happy with the results and at the end of the 4 weeks I think a scrub is in order to get rid of those last remnants.

Check back Monday for the next update.

Atrumblood · Apr 19, 2022

Day 22

Forgot to post last night.

Looks like the fluconazole is still doing its thing, just very slowly. It might actually clear up the last of the algae before the end of the 4 weeks. We will see.

I should also mention that all of my coral (except a tenius acro) are looking much healthier now that they are not competing with the algae for nutrients.

Here is a full tank shot.

Check back thursday for another update.

Dburr1014 · Apr 19, 2022

So this has been 3 weeks and 1 day.
How are your nutrient levels today?
I also suppose you don't have a refuge or you pulled it before hand.

Atrumblood · Apr 19, 2022

Dburr1014 said:
So this has been 3 weeks and 1 day.
How are your nutrient levels today?
I also suppose you don't have a refuge or you pulled it before hand.

Nutrient levels as of yesterday.

Nitrate: 7.7 ppm
Phosphate: 0.05 ppm (running gfo for 1 hour a day)
Alk: 154 ppm (my alk dosing was running low and forgot to mix up a new batch. Tank went about a week with no alk dosing.)
Calcium: 437 ppm
Magnesium: 1425 ppm.
Salinity: 1.026sg

I don't run a fuge. I tried for a while but I was never able to to get chaeto to grow well. For nutrient control I have been dosing 12 mL of vinegar daily.

Atrumblood · Apr 21, 2022

Day 25

At the home stretch now. There is only a little algae left and it's in that last picture.

Well, so far I think based on when the algae die off slowed for my first run and this run, each time turning the skimmer on happened to coincide with the slow down.

Obviously we'd need a lot more data points to get even close to proving this as fact.

I did have one casualty, a small tenius acro that never really took off. I am about 75% certain that the fluconazole was not responsible and it was the fact that I forgot to refill my alk dosing reservoir causing my alk to plummet. That's fixed now.

Next update will be the usual pictures and water parameters.

4 weeks without a water change. Longest I have ever gone. I've been a once a weeker since the beginning.

Edit: added details about the coral casualty.

Atrumblood · Apr 24, 2022

Day 28

After 4 weeks of treatment, the battle is won.
There doesn't appear to be a spec of GHA anywhere in my tank that I can see, and for that, I am very satisfied.

The parameters tonight prior to the 30% water change:
Nitrates: 12 ppm
Phosphates: 0.06 ppm
Magnesium: 1405 ppm
Calcium: 445 ppm
Alk: 172 ppm

Flucozonale is very effective against GHA but takes up to 4 weeks to completely eradicate it.
I feel like fluconazole should be in everyone's tool belt for when everything else you've tried has failed.
Seems to be completely safe for at least 4 weeks for corals, fish, and invertebrates.

Let me know if anyone has any questions?

Hallowhead · Apr 25, 2022

Fish Think Pink said:
Good luck to you. Reef Flux did not do anything for our GHA, but likely there are different types and I'm glad it worked some on your GHA. I'll cross my fingers for you.

Tried Vibrant, GFO, and more and while they worked, they weren't the 'forever going forward' plan we needed. I'd still recommend them because they did work and likely would work again and/or for others.

Algae needs food from 3 sources: white light, nitrates and phosphates. Starving fish is NOT an option.
What is working for us is dual reactor chambers:
- biopellets with BioDigest dosed 2x month (nitrate control)
- Brightwell NoPO4 cubes (phosphate control)

We also:
- shades drawn all windows on southern facing outside view
- weekly (or more frequent) scrubbing and algae removal
- planted refugium (caulerpa) on 24x7 (LED 5K spectrum 60w equivalent bulb - $3.50)
- minor dosing of Red Sea NOPOX (because of reactor chambers, used to dose a lot more of this)

Not everything works for everyone, but this is what is working for us and our situation.

You just drew my attention to the shades.... My GHA tank is right next to my basement window and gets loads of natural light. I have to block that light.

Hallowhead · Apr 25, 2022

Atrumblood said:
Day 28

After 4 weeks of treatment, the battle is won.
There doesn't appear to be a spec of GHA anywhere in my tank that I can see, and for that, I am very satisfied.

The parameters tonight prior to the 30% water change:
Nitrates: 12 ppm
Phosphates: 0.06 ppm
Magnesium: 1405 ppm
Calcium: 445 ppm
Alk: 172 ppm

Flucozonale is very effective against GHA but takes up to 4 weeks to completely eradicate it.
I feel like fluconazole should be in everyone's tool belt for when everything else you've tried has failed.
Seems to be completely safe for at least 4 weeks for corals, fish, and invertebrates.

Let me know if anyone has any questions?

I have had success with reef flux, but it always comes back so be prepared. I am trying to find different ways to remove it now as I don't wanna use reef flux again

Atrumblood · Apr 25, 2022

Hallowhead said:
I have had success with reef flux, but it always comes back so be prepared. I am trying to find different ways to remove it now as I don't wanna use reef flux again

That is the plan. Now that I am back to a ground state, I'll definitely be paying closer attention. My hope is that carbon dosing will really let me keep those nutrients in check.

I also started to dose microbacter to help boost the bacteria population on the rock work. Hopefully that will help keep it away.

Hallowhead · Apr 25, 2022

Atrumblood said:
That is the plan. Now that I am back to a ground state, I'll definitely be paying closer attention. My hope is that carbon dosing will really let me keep those nutrients in check.

I also started to dose microbacter to help boost the bacteria population on the rock work. Hopefully that will help keep it away.

I need to dose more microbacter for sure

leroytigerjohnson · May 11, 2022

Fish Think Pink said:
Good luck to you. Reef Flux did not do anything for our GHA, but likely there are different types and I'm glad it worked some on your GHA. I'll cross my fingers for you.

Tried Vibrant, GFO, and more and while they worked, they weren't the 'forever going forward' plan we needed. I'd still recommend them because they did work and likely would work again and/or for others.

Algae needs food from 3 sources: white light, nitrates and phosphates. Starving fish is NOT an option.
What is working for us is dual reactor chambers:
- biopellets with BioDigest dosed 2x month (nitrate control)
- Brightwell NoPO4 cubes (phosphate control)

We also:
- shades drawn all windows on southern facing outside view
- weekly (or more frequent) scrubbing and algae removal
- planted refugium (caulerpa) on 24x7 (LED 5K spectrum 60w equivalent bulb - $3.50)
- minor dosing of Red Sea NOPOX (because of reactor chambers, used to dose a lot more of this)

Not everything works for everyone, but this is what is working for us and our situation.

Get a real grow light for the refugium, you'll be happy with the results.