Fluconazole with mangroves and BTAs

ScottF · Apr 7, 2025

Hello reefers!

I have been losing a battle against bubble algae in my 15gal nano tank for a while. I've been doing manual removal with a dental tool and added two emerald crabs, but the bubble algae is winning.

The tank isn't big enough for a Foxface. I thought about getting a baby foxface and then moving it to my 250gal, but I only buy QT's fish from the internets, so I don't know if I'm getting a baby, and I already have a one spot in the 250gal. I am under the impression that you shouldn't have more than one in a tank. Also, the bubble algae would probably just come back once I moved the fish to the other tank.

The bubble algae has formed columns encasing the roots of my mangrove tree. I am afraid that I will damage the roots if I try to manually remove the encasing bubble algae. I am at the point where I think I am willing to risk fluconazole treatment.

Does anyone have experience using reef flux with mangroves and/or BTAs? The tank only has a toadstool leather, some xenia, a Nexus Joker BTA, a mangrove, a tuxedo urchin, two emerald crabs, some snails and a small lemonpeel angel that was eating my corals in the big tank.

tbrown · Apr 11, 2025

I have run Flux a few times with my Nexus Joker with no ill effects.

My concern would be the Mangroves. I know that Flux does kill some macro algaes (first hand experience there) but I'm not sure what effect it would have on the Mangroves.

ScottF · Apr 11, 2025

tbrown said:
I have run Flux a few times with my Nexus Joker with no ill effects.

My concern would be the Mangroves. I know that Flux does kill some macro algaes (first hand experience there) but I'm not sure what effect it would have on the Mangroves.

Yeah.. I'm a bit concerned about that. I guess we'll find out. I just added the Flux this morning.

DaJMasta · Apr 11, 2025

If the roots aren't too grown in, you may be able to just physically shade them to remove the bubble algae from them.

I would say the same as above, the nem should be fine but the mangroves may not survive in the long term. They're a bit different from macroalgae, so it's not impossible, but flucanozole seems to be pretty effective on a lot of multicellular plants.

ScottF · May 10, 2025

I wanted to post an update on this.

I dosed the Flux at x4 dosage. 6 capsules for a 15gal tank. A couple of days later, I realized that I am an idiot and forgot to remove the carbon. I removed the carbon and waited a week or two. Seems like the carbon removed the Flux. So I did a 50% water change and started over.

I dosed it again at x4 the recommended dosage. This time without carbon. It's been two weeks and the bubble algae is dying off. So far nothing else seems to mind. My soft corals look happy. My nem looks happy. My mangrove looks happy. My fish looks like he would rather be back in the 250gal tank, but it looks healthy.

I'm going to let it ride for one more week before I start doing water changes and add carbon back in. Hopefully everything continues to go well.