Bryopsis Cure: My Battle With Bryopsis Using Fluconazole

[prsnlty]

I made a discovery... or I confirmed my suspicion! Don't pull the algae after you begin treatment! If you want to help it out you can pull all the thickest, longest locations before treatment then leave it alone.

It seems that the algae soaks up the meds from the tips and slowly sends it to the roots. If you pull it during treatment before it has a chance to reach the roots it will take much longer to die and you may even have to retreat to kill it off completely. I did this in a few areas and those are the areas taking longer to disappear than a nice thickly matted area that I didn't pull. Has anyone else noticed what I have?

 

[Up2no6ood]

24 hours in and death is already visible

 

[Jorge Linares]

Here's 12 days of treatment. I'm pretty happy with the results. I may do a water change at 14 and retreat.

 

[prsnlty]

Forgot to post parameters so I ran the tests again today. I have the skimmer and gfo back online as of Friday night to try to knock po4 down.

Past and current parameters for comparison. 2/12 is day 9.

D & T: 2/4 @ 12:30am, 2/8 @ 6:30pm, 2/12 @ 3:30pm:

Temp: 77.1 / 77.9 / 78.3
Ph: 8.25 / 8.28 / 8.23
Po4: 0 / 0.15 ^ / 0.03
No3: 20ppm/ 20ppm / 20ppm
Alk: 8.9 / 8.3 (dose due)/ 8.5
CA: 440 / 450 (just dosed)/ 450
MG: 1320 / 1320 / 1320
Sg: 1.027 / 1.o27 / 1.027

Po4 down. Hannah low range phosphate checker says 0.03 but the range is +/- .04 so it still needs to hit 0 for me to be satisfied lol.

 

[Rick.45cal]

Forgot to post parameters so I ran the tests again today. I have the skimmer and gfo back online as of Friday night to try to knock po4 down.

Past and current parameters for comparison. 2/12 is day 9.

D & T: 2/4 @ 12:30am, 2/8 @ 6:30pm, 2/12 @ 3:30pm:

Temp: 77.1 / 77.9 / 78.3
Ph: 8.25 / 8.28 / 8.23
Po4: 0 / 0.15 ^ / 0.03
No3: 20ppm/ 20ppm / 20ppm
Alk: 8.9 / 8.3 (dose due)/ 8.5
CA: 440 / 450 (just dosed)/ 450
MG: 1320 / 1320 / 1320
Sg: 1.027 / 1.o27 / 1.027

Po4 down. Hannah low range phosphate checker says 0.03 but the range is +/- .04 so it still needs to hit 0 for me to be satisfied lol.

With your Nitrates at 20ppm you probably don't really want your phosphate to drop to 0 . I would personally feel comforatable where you are at as far as PO4 is concerned and gradually bring your nitrates down. That way you don't end up in an imbalanced nutrient situation with 0 PO4 and 20ppm NO3​

 

[Michael43]

I just wanted to post an update. So using only about 12-15mg a gallon as opposed to 20 and leaving all equipment running, Skimmer, gfo/gac, uv etc, my tank after 5 days has been cured I'd say 90%. I do have a another algae, not hair algae, that it did nothing to but this was to fend off the byropsis and it worked. No corals or fish seem harmed. Another success story here. Hopefully it doesn't come back!!

 

[prsnlty]

With your Nitrates at 20ppm you probably don't really want your phosphate to drop to 0 . I would personally feel comforatable where you are at as far as PO4 is concerned and gradually bring your nitrates down. That way you don't end up in an imbalanced nutrient situation with 0 PO4 and 20ppm NO3​

Yes I agree. I have turned gfo off again. Just needed to get it down. At the end of the week I'll do a wc and go from there. I do have to get that no.3 down to 5 or below as it is just too high for the sps corals. I'm going to order the Hannah phosphorus checker so that I have a more accurate reading in the meantime

 

[Michael43]

Yes I agree. I have turned gfo off again. Just needed to get it down. At the end of the week I'll do a wc and go from there. I do have to get that no.3 down to 5 or below as it is just too high for the sps corals. I'm going to order the Hannah phosphorus checker so that I have a more accurate reading in the meantime

Everyone prefers different parameters and such for their tanks. My tank is primarily sps and I don't think my nitrates are ever below 5. Probably not even below 10. Sps love it for me

 

[prsnlty]

Everyone prefers different parameters and such for their tanks. My tank is primarily sps and I don't think my nitrates are ever below 5. Probably not even below 10. Sps love it for me

Very true. My system was used to 3-5 on average. It looked great. Then I overdose the stump remover by accident because vibrant brought it to zero. I just need to get it down to a reasonable range slowly

 

[dbassan09]

I know this has been said before and since not every one will read the whole thread I will say it again....

If you have cyano treat it 1st with chemiclean (red slime remover doesn't work as well especially if it was created by vibrant) and do a waterchange before you treat with fluconazole. You will be much happier for it. The fluconazole does not have any effect on it however because you will be turning off some of your mechanical filtration the cyanobacteria is likely to get worse during treatment. Better to do it in the beginning then suffer through it for two weeks.

I have this exact problem # dosed twice red slime remover while fluconazole was still in and nothing was affected so both can be used at same time but the bad thing was the cyano was not affected either...

I've been vacuuming directly to the sump through a sock and it's helped a lot...

I don't know if the cyano slows down treatment or if I had some horrible strain but I'm already on day 16 although I am happy it is dying and clearing up some places...

Plz take care of cyano before starting treatment or it will get nasty, I've lost a good bunch of frags bc of it...

 

[tonymacc]

Message to those in the UK looking to use Fluconazole, I ordered mine from https://www.payless-petproducts.com/fluconazole200.html on 2nd Feb, used standard shipping...

and it was delivered today 9th Feb. No issues with customs and it was delivered by Royal Mail Special delivery this end...

I pulled all my bryopsis out by hand 3 weeks ago (big mistake!!!) so i'm now just waiting for it to grow back fully so I can dose the Fluconazole and kill it once and for all!

why am I waiting?.... well, for me its common sense, I look at bryopsis as a weed like you get in the garden and fluconazole as the weed killer.... The algae needs to uptake the fluco into its system to destroy it from within, and to do that it needs its ferns intake, and what normally makes it grow, ie nitrates and phosphates and light to work as normal to do so. I don't think treating bryopsis that's had its ferns/leafs removed before treatment would work very well, and I won't pull and bryopsis even if it looks dead after dosing, just incase it still needs to uptake the fluco (if it still can )

I was also previously running a high salinity and Mg to rid it too, so I have slowly brought these down to "normal" levels too. I can't wait for this weekend..... when I'll dose fluco at 20mg per gallon

Mine departed London today(12th) so will be with me shortly, I haven't got a massive amount of Bryopsis but its taking hold again, I'm not going to pull it out either, I'm going to watch it have a slow death.
I'll put some pre-treatment pics up too.

 

[DracoKat]

it's been several days since I've dosed 2000mg with 90 gals of water (75 gal display with 30 gal sump, figure for rock displacement).
I do see improvement, it's working on the bryoposis. I will post progress photos when the treatment ends.

The only negative things I am seeing are:

My firefish disappeared- I am not sure what happened. other fish is doing really well. Not sure if its related to treatment or not, I can't find any other sources of its death.
My rock flower nem has been unhappy- closed and grumpy. I am hoping he perks up.

otherwise everything else looks great, I am glad flucanazole is working so far!

 

[Ocho Cinco]

Posting more of a "what would you do" question. I dosed Flucanazole on Saturday. A local coral swap is coming up this coming Sunday the 19th. Its the biggest of the year. I'm afraid to add new coral during this process. Seems like very few people have had an issue with their coral during this process. So my questions is, do I go or not? Obviously the safe and probably smart answer is no. I'm trying to gage some other opinions. I really don't want to miss it but I also don't want to buy stuff just for it do die.

 

[Reefinny Verified Sponsor]

Has anyone kept the uv running and still had success?

 

[Rob Lion]

Dosing started today yay!!!

Starting parameters taken @ 3pm;
Temp 27.4 oC
Salinity 1.026
pH 8.35 seneye
dkH 9.3 salifert
Ca 430 salifert
Mg 1350 salifert
NH3 0.2 salifert
PO4 0.018 hanna phosphorous ULN
Si 0.015 salifert
I2 0.06 redsea
K 400 salifert

Dosage 1400mg Fluconazole = 7 x 200mg capsules

Before FTS ( note much of right side rock is missing as I've been H2O2 soaking rocks to rid bryopsis!)

mixing with RODI and leaving overnight made no difference whatsoever, it doesn't dissolve!!!

I turned all pumps off and used a turkey baster to target specific areas, that worked very well!

and 1 hour afterwards, no effects on and corals / fish / inverts

GFO / GAC is OFFLINE
Skimmer is OFFLINE

Let the Bryopsicide begin !

 

[Reefinny Verified Sponsor]

if it makes you feel better I added a few pieces a few days ago after 3 days in - no issues

 

[Sabellafella]

if it makes you feel better I added a few pieces a few days ago after 3 days in - no issues

Your trying this treatment also? Hows it going

 

[Reefinny Verified Sponsor]

Great!

Cyano was a result of the vibrant. I am 5 days in. Seeing good results

 

[Sabellafella]

Great!

Cyano was a result of the vibrant. I am 5 days in. Seeing good results

Awesome, glad to hear. Cyano will go away, just give it a bit

 

[seaplane]

This is day 9 of tx, my "not Bryos " what ever it is is 95 percent gone, however, cyanobacteria is appearing for the first time. PO4 undetectable , No3 15 up from 10. Funny my Lawnmower Blenny and CUC would never touch the stuff until it started fading out.