Coralline Algae
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I have a serious outbreak of red bubble algae in my 20 gallon tank. I added 8 capsules to the tank yesterday. Really hope it works on on these nasty red ones as well.
Killing Bubble Algae with Reef HD Reef Flux
- Thread starter ezcompany
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Red? That makes me wonder more about cyanobacteria or something besides Valonia/Bryopsis - I would post a pic of your algae (ideally to people more experienced than I in terms of algae identification). I will say that I haven't heard of red Bryopsis or red Valonia.
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There is red bubble algae. And yeah, it's no good.
joseserrano
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Coralline Algae
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I've had the Reef Flux in for 6 weeks and I don't see any red bubble algae at all now. I do still see what I believe might be a few red bubble algae holdfasts. I also had some green bubble algae, and it has been dying, but it's surviving much better than the red ones. Reef Flux murdered the red ones. It's taking longer that I hoped, but it will be wonderful to be rid of it. I'm just glad it works. I'll post some pics as soon as I can.
joseserrano
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any follow up?
Coralline Algae
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To make a long story short, I highly recommend this treatment for red bubble algae. It seems to be even more effective on the red than the green. It slowly devastated it. I didn't have nearly as much green bubble algae as the red ones, but the only ones I can find in my tank are a few half dead looking green ones that were far away from the lights or in shadow.
Desirable algae:
It took a while, but the chaetomorpha in my refugium did start to bleach out and die, though only the part closest to the light. Light really does impact how effectively the Reef Flux attacks algae. All shaded algae took longer to die off that brighter lit algae.
I don't have much, but the little bit of caulerpa prolifera I have in my refugium had the same reaction as the chaeto. The parts under the most light suffered while the shaded parts endured the treatment.
Corals:
The soft corals, trumpets and frogspawn in my mixed reef suffered. Some zoas looked stressed for most of the treatment while others reproduced and looked well the whole time. The mushrooms reproduced and looked healthy the whole time, but the ricordeas shrunk down and didn't look as happy. The Kenya tree retracted a lot as the weeks went on and is still shriveled up. The toadstool leathers usually didn't open until the lights were on for hours and rarely looked fully extended. Same with the green star polyps, though they continued to spread quite a bit. The lone two SPS corals in the tank, a montipora and a setosa, never missed a beat. No corals died during the treatment, but I won't rule anything out until everything looks fully recovered for at least a couple of months.
Now, it's hard to say whether the Reef Flux caused all of the stress for the corals. The lack of skimming, chemical filtration and water changes over the seven weeks likely caused some added stress. The medicine likely caused most of it as the treatment went on.
Pictures:
I'm terrible at taking pictures but I have a couple that came out okay. They're phone pictures and I only managed to use a decent color film filter for the last one. The first picture uses no color film, the second picture uses an orange film, and the last uses a very light orange film that helps it look closer to the actual look of the tank, only with less blue.
Here is what the Reef Flux fluconazole treatment did to the red bubble algae that was plaguing my tank for so long. It was a total knock out. Bit by bit the bubble algae became pale, developed holes, and eventually dissolved away.
Desirable algae:
It took a while, but the chaetomorpha in my refugium did start to bleach out and die, though only the part closest to the light. Light really does impact how effectively the Reef Flux attacks algae. All shaded algae took longer to die off that brighter lit algae.
I don't have much, but the little bit of caulerpa prolifera I have in my refugium had the same reaction as the chaeto. The parts under the most light suffered while the shaded parts endured the treatment.
Corals:
The soft corals, trumpets and frogspawn in my mixed reef suffered. Some zoas looked stressed for most of the treatment while others reproduced and looked well the whole time. The mushrooms reproduced and looked healthy the whole time, but the ricordeas shrunk down and didn't look as happy. The Kenya tree retracted a lot as the weeks went on and is still shriveled up. The toadstool leathers usually didn't open until the lights were on for hours and rarely looked fully extended. Same with the green star polyps, though they continued to spread quite a bit. The lone two SPS corals in the tank, a montipora and a setosa, never missed a beat. No corals died during the treatment, but I won't rule anything out until everything looks fully recovered for at least a couple of months.
Now, it's hard to say whether the Reef Flux caused all of the stress for the corals. The lack of skimming, chemical filtration and water changes over the seven weeks likely caused some added stress. The medicine likely caused most of it as the treatment went on.
Pictures:
I'm terrible at taking pictures but I have a couple that came out okay. They're phone pictures and I only managed to use a decent color film filter for the last one. The first picture uses no color film, the second picture uses an orange film, and the last uses a very light orange film that helps it look closer to the actual look of the tank, only with less blue.
Here is what the Reef Flux fluconazole treatment did to the red bubble algae that was plaguing my tank for so long. It was a total knock out. Bit by bit the bubble algae became pale, developed holes, and eventually dissolved away.
SteveConn
New Member
Well, I treated my 250g tank about 3 weeks ago with about 800-1000 mg (list my records), and I do see some dieoff, or at least pale (presumably dead) bubble algae still attached to rock, particularly that which is closest to the lights.
I just ordered 20,000 mg of flucanzole from a reliable Ebay source and will treat the tank with a 3x or 4x dose (per ReefFlux) when it arrives.
I bought a sea hare yesterday and it just disappeared. Not sure what happened to it (there is no other livestock in this tank). I was hoping it would eat BA, and there is some hair algae popping up since the treatment.
Could have been killed by the TON of Aiptasia. Getting Berghia Nudibranch (x4) tomorrow.
I sure hope I can get this tank back to something that looks nice again. It’s been a few years.
Radion blinking, Apex Neptune not working. Full time job with school courses (masters).. Ugh..
I just ordered 20,000 mg of flucanzole from a reliable Ebay source and will treat the tank with a 3x or 4x dose (per ReefFlux) when it arrives.
I bought a sea hare yesterday and it just disappeared. Not sure what happened to it (there is no other livestock in this tank). I was hoping it would eat BA, and there is some hair algae popping up since the treatment.
Could have been killed by the TON of Aiptasia. Getting Berghia Nudibranch (x4) tomorrow.
I sure hope I can get this tank back to something that looks nice again. It’s been a few years.
Radion blinking, Apex Neptune not working. Full time job with school courses (masters).. Ugh..
SwiftStorm
Active Member
This is 1 week at 4x dose in my biocube
Before and after
Good results. I'm going to try and cut feedings way back for a couple weeks to see if emerald crabs can get going on it. My son's algea is just starting to get a foothold.
SteveConn
New Member
I just treated my entire 250g with a 4x dose. Stuff isn't cheap at this volume, but I may have found a cheaper source for future (to those checking with their local vet, not worth it as they were charging 2.5x the amount). Sure hope it works. My tank is saturated with this nasty BA, even floating in drifts along the bottom (will scoop it out with a sieve soon). There are no fish in the tank, just LPS.
Since people are stating the stuff seems to die faster where there is more light, I added additional lighting to the tank and added H2O2 to the water to help stress the algae more (just this one day). I also let the dose of Flucanozole sit at a max dose in the display for 30 min before turning the circulation pumps back on, so upper tank was at about 6x dose for a while.
Yeah, I'm desperate.
PLUS...due to my aiptasia outbreak, I am culturing berghia in my nano now and they have laid egg spirals. 2-3 months from now, the babies go into the big tank and get rid of my second headache.
Since people are stating the stuff seems to die faster where there is more light, I added additional lighting to the tank and added H2O2 to the water to help stress the algae more (just this one day). I also let the dose of Flucanozole sit at a max dose in the display for 30 min before turning the circulation pumps back on, so upper tank was at about 6x dose for a while.
Yeah, I'm desperate.
PLUS...due to my aiptasia outbreak, I am culturing berghia in my nano now and they have laid egg spirals. 2-3 months from now, the babies go into the big tank and get rid of my second headache.
I used Flucon to help with bryopsis but it ALWAYS comes back. Could be a less pure FLuconazole, and perhaps the ReefHD is higher purity/quality. It also claims to do much more, in the fluconazole thread nobody has said anythin about it killing bubble algae, but I have stopped keeping up awhile ago so maybe now there's some info there.
OK so I am at day 27 and I have done three water changes of 3 gallons each time it is a 20 gallon and I add a new Each time I do it I also am running my skimmer and I know that it’s removing medication but I have a phosphate issue and was losing a coral and now everything is back to normal but I am currently probably way overdosed but now they are turning white or clear!!! I was dreading this so I’m very happy now to witness them literally disappearing And I know the zoo in them isndead being clear. I also woke this morning to my clowns with a new clutch. Pic of it and The closest shot I could get of one that’s not blurry but there is a second one that’s gorgeous.... you can see the actual socks that have depleted them selves and deflated popped or ripped and are no longer an issue but then right next to it fresh almost looking bubbles so it looks like I’m going to have to pop a new cap haha!! And are used the blister packs and had five and then had to buy reef flux. Thanks
I returned from a local event and that’s when I got both bryopsis and bubble. Bubble took over faster and it’s harder. So the extreme dose killed it fast!!!! This was set up 3 weeks after I learned what happened. Lost a tricolor acro that I’ve had for 3 years.....
SteveConn
New Member
Flucon is said to kill bubble algae at 4x dose over a month. I can see some of mine becoming pale and involuting. Way too early to say it was a success, but trying to be patient and wait. That amount of drug for my size of tank was not cheap.
Chris, hate to say but you cannot run the skimmer. Phosphates killing things is a total myth, look at all the aquariast of the year, most of them have very high nitrates and phosphates.
But besides that point... You need to have the skimmer off or meds will barely be effective. Sorry to say
But besides that point... You need to have the skimmer off or meds will barely be effective. Sorry to say
It is 100% what I’m dealing with almost day I would have to say 85 maybe 90% So the frags will b pulled and moved 2 my QT for further watching and picking or treatment.... as of now that 1 fox scroll has the “freshest lookers. I can pluck them tho.
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