Bryopsis Cure: My Battle With Bryopsis Using Fluconazole

[ScottB]

Seeking an algae expert - does this look like bryopsis?

About 6 months ago I dosed fluconazole which seemed to have a mild affect on the algae (if any). The algae in the photos appears very wire-like with perhaps not as much branching as bryopsis typically shows?

What would you recommend?

Thx

Usually has more of a "fern-like" frond structure but hard to be sure with those pics. I would guess "other".

 

[Ross Petersen]

Usually has more of a "fern-like" frond structure but hard to be sure with those pics. I would guess "other".

Thanks. Here’s a few more snaps. Not much better.

Any suggestions to mitigate? Vibrant? Brightwell Razor? My nutrients are quite low (N=1; P=0.01… likely because of this algae).

 

[DeniseAndy]

That does not have the normal appearance of briopsis. No feathers/fern structure. I would try hand removal, peroxide, and good nutrient export. If still struggling, Vibrant. Then fluconazole.

 

[ScottB]

Thanks. Here’s a few more snaps. Not much better.

Any suggestions to mitigate? Vibrant? Brightwell Razor? My nutrients are quite low (N=1; P=0.01… likely because of this algae).

Not an algae variety I am familiar with. What do you have in terms of herbivores? My foxface will eat anything that will fit in its snout.

Sometime you have to trim back the "tough" stuff so they can get at the younger growth.

Peroxide also helps soften it up. Applying outside the tank is best, but if you cannot, pumps off and squirt direct a few times a week.

Vibrant and fluc are very often effective but not without risks for SPS.

 

[Ross Petersen]

That does not have the normal appearance of briopsis. No feathers/fern structure. I would try hand removal, peroxide, and good nutrient export. If still struggling, Vibrant. Then fluconazole.

Thanks - going to give this a go. Spot dosing of peroxide in the tank is risky but it seems like others are doing it. It’s not feasible to take the rocks out.

 

[Ross Petersen]

Not an algae variety I am familiar with. What do you have in terms of herbivores? My foxface will eat anything that will fit in its snout.

Sometime you have to trim back the "tough" stuff so they can get at the younger growth.

Peroxide also helps soften it up. Applying outside the tank is best, but if you cannot, pumps off and squirt direct a few times a week.

Vibrant and fluc are very often effective but not without risks for SPS.

Thanks. Just a tomini tang with some trochus and bumblebee snails.

I’ll try manual removal with spot dosing peroxide and improved nutrient export (mainly less feeding, as well as more blue light).

 

[MartinM]

I wanted to read this, but the OP is in eye area Ching, 1996-era electric blue…

 

[Macdaddynick1]

Did my treatment, was extremely paranoid but also very impatient. Read through the entire thread read horror crash stories. Here is what I did, followed what Todd did, thought it was a great idea. My tank has large Derasa clam, two inferno anemones, Grandys palys (I was worried about these releasing toxins per previous poster), and top to bottom acros. I dose nitrates because my no3 is always 0 due to bryopsis, acros were not in their best shape due to constant bottoming out of nitrates. This was another thing that worried me.
0. prepared 25 gallons of water in case of an adverse reaction. Alk ~7.2
1. Day 1: I did not turn off the skimmer, just took off the cup and had it running for aeration purposes. Alk 7.2
2. Day 1: mixed only one(1) tablet in R/O water fully, about 500ml and a lot of shaking. It was a bottle for the hair dye so I inverted the bottle and squirted it directly into some patches of bryopsis. (Probably not necessary, but I did it for fun) Alk 7.2
3. Day 1: Did not notice any adverse effects after 1 pill, so I added another 3 pills, but directly into the sump, after fully dissolving them in R/O. This was approximately 1/2 the dose for my 80 gallon tank. Couldn’t fall asleep kept on checking on the tank. Around 2 am checked my tank corals had amazing P/E. I still keep dosing NO3. Alk ~6.8 ( at night)
Day 2: No issues added 2 more pills. No adverse effect on any of the corals at this point. Alk 7.2
Corals are looking better since my NO3 is finally available to them. Anemones came back to their former glory, inflate your a massive size, they were also shrunken when I had bryopsis. Alk ~7.6
Day 3: No issues so I added 2 more pills for total of 8 pills. The only thing I saw after addition of pills alk going up slightly. Alk ~8.2 however, my ato was not working the first few days, and I dose Kalkwasser so that might have contributed to my alkalinity drop to 6.6 dkh originally.
Day 4: corals look great. No issues, Corals are looking good, bryopsis fading, some hair algae is fading also but not too much.
Day 5-6: Bryopsis in shaded areas isn’t dying out quite quick enough rest of the bryopsis was gone pretty quickly in open areas. Added about 30 minutes to my light cycle to increase photosynthesis. Probably not necessary.
Hope this helps a few people. I would definitely approach dosing flucanizole in small quantities over a few days so that it’s easy to spot any issues.

 

[Atrumblood]

Nice to see so much success with fluconazole. This thread gave me the courage to try it. I am on week 2 of the treatment and I'd say about 95% of bryopsis in my tank is now dead. Most of the GHA in my tank is dying as well with only a hand full of stubborn spots. I plan to let the treatment go as long as 4 weeks to see if I can completely rid my tank of algae.

 

[extremetang]

I’m on day 15 of fluconazole treatment but now have cyano everywhere and even a few Dinos. Should I start Chemiclean now? Do I need to do water change first before I start chemiclean?

 

[ScottB]

Did my treatment, was extremely paranoid but also very impatient. Read through the entire thread read horror crash stories. Here is what I did, followed what Todd did, thought it was a great idea. My tank has large Derasa clam, two inferno anemones, Grandys palys (I was worried about these releasing toxins per previous poster), and top to bottom acros. I dose nitrates because my no3 is always 0 due to bryopsis, acros were not in their best shape due to constant bottoming out of nitrates. This was another thing that worried me.
0. prepared 25 gallons of water in case of an adverse reaction. Alk ~7.2
1. Day 1: I did not turn off the skimmer, just took off the cup and had it running for aeration purposes. Alk 7.2
2. Day 1: mixed only one(1) tablet in R/O water fully, about 500ml and a lot of shaking. It was a bottle for the hair dye so I inverted the bottle and squirted it directly into some patches of bryopsis. (Probably not necessary, but I did it for fun) Alk 7.2
3. Day 1: Did not notice any adverse effects after 1 pill, so I added another 3 pills, but directly into the sump, after fully dissolving them in R/O. This was approximately 1/2 the dose for my 80 gallon tank. Couldn’t fall asleep kept on checking on the tank. Around 2 am checked my tank corals had amazing P/E. I still keep dosing NO3. Alk ~6.8 ( at night)
Day 2: No issues added 2 more pills. No adverse effect on any of the corals at this point. Alk 7.2
Corals are looking better since my NO3 is finally available to them. Anemones came back to their former glory, inflate your a massive size, they were also shrunken when I had bryopsis. Alk ~7.6
Day 3: No issues so I added 2 more pills for total of 8 pills. The only thing I saw after addition of pills alk going up slightly. Alk ~8.2 however, my ato was not working the first few days, and I dose Kalkwasser so that might have contributed to my alkalinity drop to 6.6 dkh originally.
Day 4: corals look great. No issues, Corals are looking good, bryopsis fading, some hair algae is fading also but not too much.
Day 5-6: Bryopsis in shaded areas isn’t dying out quite quick enough rest of the bryopsis was gone pretty quickly in open areas. Added about 30 minutes to my light cycle to increase photosynthesis. Probably not necessary.
Hope this helps a few people. I would definitely approach dosing flucanizole in small quantities over a few days so that it’s easy to spot any issues.

Nice looking tank! I can understand your nervousness for sure.

Any bryopsis that is in the "shade" will likely survive. Do your best to get some light exposure to it best you can. The plant cell damage process is photosynthetically driven.

 

[SuthernReefer]

In using this for GHA and currently about 10 days in. I'm getting a build up of detritus. Should I try using a siphon and filter sock to remove the detritus? Order more reef flux and do a water change and replace meds or will detritus be ok for another possible 2-3 weeks?

 

[ScottB]

In using this for GHA and currently about 10 days in. I'm getting a build up of detritus. Should I try using a siphon and filter sock to remove the detritus? Order more reef flux and do a water change and replace meds or will detritus be ok for another possible 2-3 weeks?

I would remove as much detritus and bryopsis as you can.

I don't know for sure if it is a myth or a fact, but many folks believe that algae can bind up contaminants in their tissues. Those could be released quickly -- in higher concentrations -- as the plant tissue dissolves.

 

[Brice Wagner]

Bryopsis was spreading quickly. I also have a dino outbreak. Is it still an outbreak if I've lived with it for 7 months? I believe endemic may be more correct. Anyhow, I have some larger sps, an old flower nem etc.

I just completed a 3 week treatment. I did a lot of research and this is what I found to be the pitfalls to avoid. Test a lot so you can make adjustments. I started dosing with an auto doser instead of soda ash in the ato. If the sps stopped alk uptake, something I heard could happen, I needed to be able to adjust to stop from spiking. I ended up not seeing this. The other pitfall I have heard of was nutrient spike from die off. First off there is no reason why you shouldn't take as much bryopsis out before you dose. Secondly if you tank isnt mature or you don't have a refugium dialed in you may want to be careful. Honestly I think it'd be pretty hard to get my tank to recycle and if I saw nitrate jump I just planned on running the refugium another hour or 2 a day. If you don't have these benefits in place try to test more and find another way to tackle the possible nutrient spike. Carbon dosing would work great but I would want to get that process started and stable a few weeks before you try fluc.

I used the reccomended dose of reeflux.
Coraline algea is fine
Sps seem better than before. Good growth
Polyp extension ++
Cheato is fine.
Lps seem fine, heathly.
Coral that was struggling before have continued.
NO3, PO4, and alk. Don't read too much into the alk. I was still trying to dial in the doser (ramping) and I don't trust the 5.4 data point. The sps look too good.

So with further adue the pics.

Day 1

4 days

1 week

2 week ( it happens very quickly)

I haven't completed a wc. I might just run carbon for a while. Here are more pictures from today. I want you to see that nothing was harmed as that was what I was looking for during my research.

 

[Atrumblood]

Well, all the bryopsis is gone from my tank now. The GHA made it out alive though. I'm going to hit my tank again with a full dose to try and kill off the gha. Or at least knock it back to a level my cuc can take care of.

Don't worry, I made sure that I've done at least three 30% water changes before starting another round.

Last time I left my UV on and turned off my skimmer for 4 days. This time I am going to leave my skimmer cup off and just let it over flow to keep the O2 levels and CO2 levels stable.

Edit: added more details.

 

[Smite]

1- Does it matter if the dose is added during the day or night?
2- I fully dissolved my full dose in RODI, in a clean water bottle. If I wanted to dose 1/2, watch then dose the remainder: Does anyone know how long it would be good for?

I've most got sps and with a few anemones, BTA and GIGs and a handful of lps. I'll update as I go. I plan to leave the skimmer running with the cup off. I'll be removing GAC and UV during treatment.

 

[Macdaddynick1]

1- Does it matter if the dose is added during the day or night?
2- I fully dissolved my full dose in RODI, in a clean water bottle. If I wanted to dose 1/2, watch then dose the remainder: Does anyone know how long it would be good for?

I've most got sps and with a few anemones, BTA and GIGs and a handful of lps. I'll update as I go. I plan to leave the skimmer running with the cup off. I'll be removing GAC and UV during treatment.

I turned off my UV, ran the skimmer without the cup since day 1, I broke it down into very small doses, dissolving the pills in RODI as I needed them (8 pills total). I did one pill on day one nothing skipped a beat. then I did 2-3 pills for the next 3-4 days. I feel like it will let you know if anything has a reaction to it to allow you to address any issues. IT wiped out bryopsis and all hair algae. I still haven't done the water change since the treatment. I have a huge derasa in the tank, urchins, hermits, mostly acros, Rockflower anemone, a ton of Grandy's Palys, Two infernos, zoas. Alk consumption went down a bit by the third week then stabilized. Hope this gives you some guidance.

 

[Smite]

I turned off my UV, ran the skimmer without the cup since day 1, I broke it down into very small doses, dissolving the pills in RODI as I needed them (8 pills total). I did one pill on day one nothing skipped a beat. then I did 2-3 pills for the next 3-4 days. I feel like it will let you know if anything has a reaction to it to allow you to address any issues. IT wiped out bryopsis and all hair algae. I still haven't done the water change since the treatment. I have a huge derasa in the tank, urchins, hermits, mostly acros, Rockflower anemone, a ton of Grandy's Palys, Two infernos, zoas. Alk consumption went down a bit by the third week then stabilized. Hope this gives you some guidance.

Great info, thank you.

I removed as much as I could with a water change yesterday. I had Flux RX on hand that I mixed up last night. I ended up going almost full dose last night, looks like I have decent polyp extension on acros this a.m.

I've killed my UV and have my skimmer turned up higher, with cup off. I plan to keep my skimmer cup off until I start to see some no3 and po4 show up. That's been a problem for me with this outbreak so far. That and flow, it's constantly choking out my tunze pumps.

I'll keep my eye on alk consumption, thanks for the tips.

I'll try and get a shot of the tank up later today for a before and after.

 

[Atrumblood]

Would anyone be interested in following along as I try to use reef flux to take care of a GHA outbreak? I tried reef flux about a month ago and it did kill off all the bryopsis, though I found a couple of new sticks growing on closer inspection, but the GHA survived.

I noticed that the GHA did die back, but it left about half of it in the tank.

I want to try leaving my skimmer cup off longer this time as I noticed the GHA stopped turning white and dying back when I turned my skimmer back on. So I think this stuff is very easily removed by skimming and maybe not skimming for a longer period would result in a more effective kill?

Also, for those that observed how poorly fluconazole dissolves in water, I use my magic bullet to mix it with some tank water. No chunks.

 

[Smite]

Would anyone be interested in following along as I try to use reef flux to take care of a GHA outbreak? I tried reef flux about a month ago and it did kill off all the bryopsis, though I found a couple of new sticks growing on closer inspection, but the GHA survived.

I noticed that the GHA did die back, but it left about half of it in the tank.

I want to try leaving my skimmer cup off longer this time as I noticed the GHA stopped turning white and dying back when I turned my skimmer back on. So I think this stuff is very easily removed by skimming and maybe not skimming for a longer period would result in a more effective kill?

Also, for those that observed how poorly fluconazole dissolves in water, I use my magic bullet to mix it with some tank water. No chunks.

I'd be down to see how it goes. I have GHA as well and also in the past when dosing flux I've never noticed my GHA really die off.

Cool tip on the dissolving. What worked for me was a clean coffee cup, filled with RODI and then microwaved for 1 minute. Poured that into an empty and clean water bottle and added my flux RX. It took about 1-2 minutes of shaking and it was completely dissolved.