My results of using fluconazole to treat Derbesia (not GHA or Bryopsis)
It has now been 32 days since I first dosed 4000mg of fluconazole into my 180gal (approx. 200gal total water volume) and 18 days since the second dose (also 4000mg). While not the same results as people with bryopsis or GHA seem to be getting, overall I am quite happy with the decrease in algae.
Going from almost 100% of every rock surface covered in algae to approximately 20-30%? Algae remaining is not white or looks like it is dying however it does appear to still be slowly receding (don’t know how long this will continue). It could also be coincidence but coralline algae growth has exploded, previously I had lots growing on the glass and wave makers, since the derbesia started dying coralline seems to be taking its place on the rocks (but is still light enough to not be that noticeable in pics).
Another thing I noticed is the derbesia appeared to start getting grey tips around day 3 however the grey tips started to go away around day 14 and did not return during the second dose. And at no time did the tangs or snails appear to be able to eat it (and still don’t) which is the opposite of what people are reporting with bryopsis and GHA.
- No water changes since the first dose (will likely still wait a bit longer before doing a WC incase the last bits do keep dying).
- Skimmer on with no cup and overflowing for the first dose, completely turned off for the second dose (skimmer has now been on and skimming properly for 3 days).
- Reactor with carbon & po4 remover turned off (turned back on with fresh Seachem Seagel today).
- ATS taken offline and screen left to die off to avoid re-introducing any derbesia (it will be left offline at least until I do the next WC).
Water parameters (Salifert test kits):
Nitrate:
Before – 0ppm
After first dose – 1ppm
After second dose – 1ppm
Phosphate:
Before – 0ppm
After first dose – 0.05ppm
After second dose – 0.05ppm
Alkalinity throughout – 8dHK
Calcium throughout – 450ppm
Magnesium throughout – 300ppm
Livestock:
Lots of trochus snails (they are breeding so I have way more than I can count of varying sizes)
A few of trubo snails
Abalone
Long spine urchin
2x coral banded shrimp
2x maxima clams
Blue tang
Bristle tooth tang
Darwin fairy wrasse
Yellow tailed damsel
2x clown fish
Coral is a mix of soft coral (mushrooms, zoas and leathers) and LPS (favites, trachy, hammer, torch, acan and lobo).
Deaths:
During the treatment I have not seen the long spine urchin once. I would usually see it once every couple of days and it appears to have disappeared a day or two after dosing and has not been seen since. This is possibly due to the fluconazole.
I also lost 1 small hammer colony (approx. 5 heads) and 1 small lobo during treatment. However I had been having issues with my coral and before dosing I lost multiple colonies as well as almost killing many others for still unknown reasons so I do not attribute this to the fluconazole.
Pics!
Cheers,
Macca
