Bryopsis Cure: My Battle With Bryopsis Using Fluconazole

prsnlty · Feb 9, 2017

I have a suggestion for those who have not dosed fluconazole yet that have cyanobacteria due to vibrant or just simply have it from another source. Mind you I am no expert but this is the way I see it that makes sense to me.

If you have cyano, test 0 po4 and 0 no3:
Treat cyano
wc
Bring up no3 VERY little
Treat with fluconazole

*I messed up, imo, by bringing up my no3 waaaaaaaaaay to high accidentally with stump remover. So be careful! I think if my no3 was around .5 initially instead of 168.xx (gave algae a feast) and had to do massive wc's to get down to 20ppm (still feasting...) that mine would be going away faster. Not complaining though cuz it is still doing GREAT. I think if you wait until after fluconazole treatment to treat cyano the po4 and no3 rising can just fuel it more. So I would say treat for cyano first then treat the bryopsis.

prsnlty · Feb 9, 2017

Reefinny said:
I am with you on that one. At this point $40 worth of flucon. Im gonna do some waterless changes (syphon through a filter sock into the sump) to try to get some of it at bay.

I think this is a good idea since you have to treat it during flucon treatment

dbassan09 · Feb 9, 2017

Reefinny said:
I am with you on that one. At this point $40 worth of flucon. Im gonna do some waterless changes (syphon through a filter sock into the sump) to try to get some of it at bay.

As I said before I'm having a terrible cyano outbreak and I'm already at two weeks of fluconazole... My bryopsis is definitely dying do I'm happy about that but it's getting out of hand already lost a couple of frags...

I went ahead and dosed red slime remover a couple of days ago and not even a little change, may have to go the chemiclean route...

KenO · Feb 9, 2017

Ocho Cinco said:
Are people getting Cyano Fluconazole?

My cyano started because of Vibrant.
Today is day 13 of my Fluconazole treatment. My cyano and what's left of my bryopsis are matted together. I decided to dose the chemiclean without doing a water change first. I will wait the 48 hours and do a large water change on Saturday.

KenO · Feb 9, 2017

Reefinny said:
okay so ride it out? I am concerned it will cover the bryopsis to the point the flucon wont work!!

My bropsis and cyano became matted together, but it looks like most of the bryopsis is gone.

ENARP · Feb 9, 2017

Ok...Removed Carbon...Turned off Skimmer...water change and dropped the Fluconazole bomb.......now I have to wait and see...nervous.....may need a drink! Forgot to take before pictures, but took some with water still cloudy. Sorry for the quality, but I think it shows enough to see where I am starting from.

The drink statement was just to justify the ones I had to have before I did this......

andrewey · Feb 9, 2017

Just a quick reminder for everyone dealing with cyano because of vibrant or other reasons during their fluconazole treatment (beyond what's already been mentioned about dealing with cyano first):
1) you can still run 3 days of darkness with fluconazole to keep your cyano at bay if it's overtaking your corals or out of controll
2) blowing cyano off your corals only delays the issue- it's better to set up a siphon through a filter sock and suck the cyano away to remove it from the system. The filter sock shouldn't interfere with the treatment and you haven't removed any water by simply passing it through a sock (remove after use).

prsnlty · Feb 9, 2017

andrewey said:
Just a quick reminder for everyone dealing with cyano because of vibrant or other reasons during their fluconazole treatment (beyond what's already been mentioned about dealing with cyano first):
1) you can still run 3 days of darkness with fluconazole to keep your cyano at bay if it's overtaking your corals or out of controll
2) blowing cyano off your corals only delays the issue- it's better to set up a siphon through a filter sock and suck the cyano away to remove it from the system. The filter sock shouldn't interfere with the treatment and you haven't removed any water by simply passing it through a sock (remove after use).

Agreed!

You can also microbubble after removing as above to slow its return.

MaccaPopEye · Feb 10, 2017

After 3 days of trying different options I FINALLY got my hands on some Fluconazole. Not an easy task in Australia (at least not affordably).

For anyone else in Aus you can buy single 150mg capsules over the counter, but they are about $15 each. So it would have been almost $400 for the amount I need.

If you can get a script from a doctor you can get a pack of 20x200mg capsules for $30. But they wouldn't do that unless you can show that you need it for its designed use.

In the end I was able to convince a Vet to give me what I needed. I had to book and pay for a consult and show him this thread to convince them though haha. The Fluconazole was also more than twice it costs with a script. But if it gets rid of my problem it's well worth it.

I don't have any Bryopsis but my tank is exploding with Derbesia so fingers crossed this works. I'll be doing a large water change today or tomorrow and will dose 20mg/gal straight afterwards.

I plan to take progress shots of these 3 rocks as they are the easiest to get pics of but the whole tank is covered the same. (the pic on the right is missing some algae as I scrubbed some off the other day to test with peroxide)

prsnlty · Feb 10, 2017

MaccaPopEye said:
After 3 days of trying different options I FINALLY got my hands on some Fluconazole. Not an easy task in Australia (at least not affordably).

For anyone else in Aus you can buy single 150mg capsules over the counter, but they are about $15 each. So it would have been almost $400 for the amount I need.

If you can get a script from a doctor you can get a pack of 20x200mg capsules for $30. But they wouldn't do that unless you can show that you need it for its designed use.

In the end I was able to convince a Vet to give me what I needed. I had to book and pay for a consult and show him this thread to convince them though haha. The Fluconazole was also more than twice it costs with a script. But if it gets rid of my problem it's well worth it.

I don't have any Bryopsis but my tank is exploding with Derbesia so fingers crossed this works. I'll be doing a large water change today or tomorrow and will dose 20mg/gal straight afterwards.

I plan to take progress shots of these 3 rocks as they are the easiest to get pics of but the whole tank is covered the same. (the pic on the right is missing some algae as I scrubbed some off the other day to test with peroxide)

Glad to hear you got your meds! Hey, your fish and coral are pets

I am pretty sure it'll kill it. I had some also and it's gone today. I didn't realize that's actually what it was until I looked it up [emoji14]

Does anyone else have derbesia algae and did it kill yours?

Rick.45cal · Feb 10, 2017

MaccaPopEye said:
After 3 days of trying different options I FINALLY got my hands on some Fluconazole. Not an easy task in Australia (at least not affordably).

For anyone else in Aus you can buy single 150mg capsules over the counter, but they are about $15 each. So it would have been almost $400 for the amount I need.

If you can get a script from a doctor you can get a pack of 20x200mg capsules for $30. But they wouldn't do that unless you can show that you need it for its designed use.

In the end I was able to convince a Vet to give me what I needed. I had to book and pay for a consult and show him this thread to convince them though haha. The Fluconazole was also more than twice it costs with a script. But if it gets rid of my problem it's well worth it.

I don't have any Bryopsis but my tank is exploding with Derbesia so fingers crossed this works. I'll be doing a large water change today or tomorrow and will dose 20mg/gal straight afterwards.

I plan to take progress shots of these 3 rocks as they are the easiest to get pics of but the whole tank is covered the same. (the pic on the right is missing some algae as I scrubbed some off the other day to test with peroxide)

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you. You likely won't see results as rapidly as with bryopsis. Don't get discouraged, it's likely to work.

Wrangy · Feb 10, 2017

Another Aussie here lol it's pain that it's a prescription drug here

I've placed an order with payless just to try my luck and see what happens lol if it doesn't work I'll be trying other sources haha

Wrangy · Feb 10, 2017

Has anyone dosed a little extra than required? I need 1500mg but ordered 2000mg and was wondering if effects were seen quicker at a higher dose or if there were ill effects or nothing at all lol

MaccaPopEye · Feb 10, 2017

When adding it to the tank did anyone else have clumps of it fall to the bottom? Will they eventually dissolve?

It seems there were some clumps I didn't see at the bottom of the jug when mixing it up and now they are just sitting there.

I tried breaking them up as bit but I didn't want to bury it in the sand.

MaccaPopEye · Feb 10, 2017

Wrangy said:
Another Aussie here lol it's pain that it's a prescription drug here I've placed an order with payless just to try my luck and see what happens lol if it doesn't work I'll be trying other sources haha

Good luck! I tried looking online but didn't find Payless, all I could find was getting the pills from Russia on ebay and I didn't really want to wait a month for them to just get taken by customs haha

But if Payless fails for you apparently this thread is enough evidence for a vet to let you buy some

(It cost me $80 for 4000mg though compared the the $30 it would have if I had a script)

NCreefguy · Feb 10, 2017

Wrangy said:
Has anyone dosed a little extra than required? I need 1500mg but ordered 2000mg and was wondering if effects were seen quicker at a higher dose or if there were ill effects or nothing at all lol

There were reports of some people over seas using a higher mg/gal but it wasn't needed to kill the bryopsis so that's why I chose the lower dosage for this treatment. The amount that we're adding could be added every day for ten days if we were using fluconazole to treat our fish for an infection and still be considered "safe", so I don't think a little higher mg/gal is going to hurt anything. I just think that when using any kind of meds in our tanks,we should use the least amount as possible to lessen the chance of negative effects.

NCreefguy · Feb 10, 2017

MaccaPopEye said:
When adding it to the tank did anyone else have clumps of it fall to the bottom? Will they eventually dissolve?

It seems there were some clumps I didn't see at the bottom of the jug when mixing it up and now they are just sitting there.

I tried breaking them up as bit but I didn't want to bury it in the sand.

I had a little bit of the meds that didn't completely dissolve in mine too. It didn't quite look like that much but I still noticed it as I poured it in. You can try taking a powerhead and letting it blow that around a little if you want. If not I wouldn't worry about it. Just think of them as your slow release bryopsis killing pellets.