Bryopsis Cure: My Battle With Bryopsis Using Fluconazole

Ocean Lotion · Mar 10, 2017

Uwharrie said:
Aww I actually liked my pulsing Xenia. But it has almost completely melted.

I just blew off my rock work. Lots of algae floating around ( and Xenia parts) Every think else looks good so far

My mushrooms are all shriveled up. But I am I not my second treatment almost 5 weeks since I first started.

Scorpius · Mar 10, 2017

Approximately, on average, when are people seeing Bryopsis start to be affected by Fluconazole?

Elwood Dowd · Mar 10, 2017

Prsnlty, your aquarium is quite impressive. If you could set it up on a live feed I could break my tank down and use the space to stack old magazines.

On a serious note, I'm just over 4 days in and most all of it is white. Low flow areas are matted, and higher flow areas are wilting. It's pretty exciting. The dead red wire algea was eaten by my emerald crab. I am closely watching a large section attached to the glass. It has all turned white, except for the root/base where it is attached to the glass. If that dies, I'll have more confidence in it killing roots that are embedded into sand and more importantly live rock.

prsnlty · Mar 10, 2017

Scorpius said:
Approximately, on average, when are people seeing Bryopsis start to be affected by Fluconazole?

4-5 days bry, 10-11 gha

prsnlty · Mar 10, 2017

Elwood Dowd said:
Prsnlty, your aquarium is quite impressive. If you could set it up on a live feed I could break my tank down and use the space to stack old magazines.

On a serious note, I'm just over 4 days in and most all of it is white. Low flow areas are matted, and higher flow areas are wilting. It's pretty exciting. The dead red wire algea was eaten by my emerald crab. I am closely watching a large section attached to the glass. It has all turned white, except for the root/base where it is attached to the glass. If that dies, I'll have more confidence in it killing roots that are embedded into sand and more importantly live rock.

Why thank you sir [emoji2] .... I wonder how many people actually do that? I bet there are some [emoji12]

That is terrific news!

I am in the process of a second treatment for roots. My 1st was over 2 weeks ago but I wanted to get a couple of water changes in before starting a second treatment. And by the way if you have roots left it will try to grow back

I could see mine starting to get thicker so I decided I wasn't going to wait any longer.

Elwood Dowd · Mar 10, 2017

Ohhhhh, that sucks. Most of mine is in some really porous tonga plate.....

prsnlty · Mar 10, 2017

@Ocean Lotion and @ Uwharrie , what are your po4 and no3 levels? Are you running gfo or carbon or dosing anything at all besides fluconazole? Your algaes seem to behaving kind of similarly. Do you have an up close picture of a sprig of it in a little water? I am curious

prsnlty · Mar 10, 2017

Elwood Dowd said:
Ohhhhh, that sucks. Most of mine is in some really porous tonga plate.....

All the root locations I had left were all in low lit areas. So since we know light levels affect it now, why don't you put some extra lighting on your Tonga and you may not have to go through a second treatment.

Elwood Dowd · Mar 10, 2017

The Tonga is 12 inches directly under 250w 14k MH. It's actually the space that is showing slower death of bryopsis to be honest. I know what we have been seeing but my tank kind of bucks that trend. I did do things differently though. No return pump, 12 hrs of light a day vs the normal 7.5 I was giving it, 2.5 days no skimmer. I also have continued to dose vodka (in my aquarium and into ice with vermouth and a lemon twist).

I bleached a green birdsnest that was in my substrate by bumping my light duration. The side facing the light has bleached tissue and polyps.

I did keep a full dose of fluconazol just in case. I'm sure I'm good.

Ocean Lotion · Mar 11, 2017

prsnlty said:
@Ocean Lotion and @ Uwharrie , what are your po4 and no3 levels? Are you running gfo or carbon or dosing anything at all besides fluconazole? Your algaes seem to behaving kind of similarly. Do you have an up close picture of a sprig of it in a little water? I am curious

I have not tested my water at all since all my corals except shrooms are very happy. My gha should be gone in another 5 days by my guess making my treatment 21 days on first dose and a little less than that on the second dose. Will give final verdict when I can say all gha is DEAD!!!

GoVols · Mar 11, 2017

Elwood Dowd said:
I also have continued to dose vodka (in my aquarium and into ice with vermouth and a lemon twist).

Lol

prsnlty · Mar 11, 2017

Elwood Dowd said:
The Tonga is 12 inches directly under 250w 14k MH. It's actually the space that is showing slower death of bryopsis to be honest. I know what we have been seeing but my tank kind of bucks that trend. I did do things differently though. No return pump, 12 hrs of light a day vs the normal 7.5 I was giving it, 2.5 days no skimmer. I also have continued to dose vodka (in my aquarium and into ice with vermouth and a lemon twist).

I bleached a green birdsnest that was in my substrate by bumping my light duration. The side facing the light has bleached tissue and polyps.

I did keep a full dose of fluconazol just in case. I'm sure I'm good.

Hmmmm, I think most of us had LEDs or T5s. I'm wondering if metal halides affects it differently. That is very interesting.

I like vodka dosing and may return to it soon if I can't get the no3 in check soon. Some of my acros aren't too thrilled at 20ppm.

Elwood Dowd · Mar 11, 2017

GoVols said:
Lol

I feel like a poor host at times. I am certainly not treating my aquatic guests to the same quality hooch that I myself partake in.

I shook and shook and shook my sky vodka martini with a twist. I shook until my arms felt like noodles. I consumed it while using a syringe to squirt 1.4 ml of plastic bottle Taaka brand vodka into my tank. It's vodka so cheap I was embarrassed to purchase it. The hobos outside laughed at my purchase.

prsnlty · Mar 11, 2017

Elwood Dowd said:
I also have continued to dose vodka (in my aquarium and into ice with vermouth and a lemon twist).

Haha now you sound like my husband! I had to pour the Vodka out of the vodka bottle into a dosing container to keep him out of it [emoji12] As for me I'm a Dewar's and ginger ale gal lol

Elwood Dowd · Mar 11, 2017

prsnlty said:
I like vodka dosing and may return to it soon if I can't get the no3 in check soon. Some of my acros aren't too thrilled at 20ppm.

I'll take 2ppm of it off of your hands. Just toss the phosphates in the trash.

prsnlty · Mar 11, 2017

If you lighten up on your vodka consumption you might acquire 2ppm ... er the tanks vodka I mean lol

GoVols · Mar 11, 2017

prsnlty said:
I'm wondering if metal halides affects it differently. That is very interesting.

Yes, It's something to try to see if MH has a different pattern.

GoVols · Mar 11, 2017

prsnlty said:
If you lighten up on your vodka consumption you might acquire 2ppm ... er the tanks vodka I mean lol

+1

prsnlty · Mar 11, 2017

Seriously, I stopped vodka to get some no3 as I heard that (at the time) it helped vibrant to kill of the algae. I went from 0ppm to around 168ppm in seconds! I o'd the tank accidently on stump remover. Instantly began massive water changes then began fluconazole treatment. Oh and stopped dosing vibrant. My poor tank! But it survived with very minimal loss.

Elwood Dowd · Mar 11, 2017

I know, I'm going to stick with no/low nutrients, by continuing the larger dose of vodka, until the bryopsis is a goner. My worry at the moment is that as the bryopsis dies off it could release nitrates and phosphates that I will have to fight to get back in check. Once I know that bryopsis is dead and my nutrients didn't sky rocket I am planning on cutting my dose in half that way I can continue to overfeed......