Bryopsis Cure: My Battle With Bryopsis Using Fluconazole

NCreefguy · Jul 29, 2017

Susan Edwards said:
I have total meltdown going on in my tanks. It is so hard not to start yanking it out but I know it's been said to let it die on its own. The tank looks like a ghostly scene with all the long stringy die-off waving about and some pieces floating around. No skimmer to get rid of yet. How long should I leave skimmer off? The entire 14 days?

Can't wait to take my day 6 pics later tonight! I'll share my day 5 progress

It's looking good to me! I'm glad the treatment is working for you.

djbetterly · Jul 29, 2017

What's the purpose of cutting the acticnic and UV lights?

NCreefguy · Jul 29, 2017

djbetterly said:
What's the purpose of cutting the acticnic and UV lights?

In the beginning UV was thought to degrade the meds but we don't really think that it has that much of an effect on it after all.

djbetterly · Jul 29, 2017

So can all the lights remain on as is or do the acticnics still need to be cut?

NCreefguy · Jul 29, 2017

djbetterly said:
So can all the lights remain on as is or do the acticnics still need to be cut?

All of the lights can remain on.

djbetterly · Jul 29, 2017

Awesome, so really the only thing to do is bring reactors offline and pull skimmer cup. Everything else in tank remains as is.

NCreefguy · Jul 29, 2017

djbetterly said:
Awesome, so really the only thing to do is bring reactors offline and pull skimmer cup. Everything else in tank remains as is.

Well you can actually keep running your GFO as it won't remove the meds and may help remove some of the excess po4 from the dying algae. I pulled the skimmer cup for the first 3-4 days.

larcat · Jul 29, 2017

Fwiw we have 3 kessil 360 over what's basically a 40b and Flucon is working fine in ours. Afaik kessil have the most uv of any current fixtures.

Update -- on day 7 and all of the high light bryopsis is GONE. Low light stuff is looking scraggly. GHA in the sump is starting to look weak. We didn't see obvious impact till day 5, so be patient

We used tablets fwiw. 1200 mg total for ~ 60-70 gal of water total.

Thank you so much to the pioneers in this thread.

Susan Edwards · Jul 30, 2017

I've had my skimmer off for now 7 days. Some of my corals are not looking so happy like my leathers and sun corals not opening. Should I put the skimmer back online

Susan Edwards · Jul 30, 2017

I've had my skimmer off for now 7 days. Some of my corals are not looking so happy like my leathers and sun corals not opening. Should I put the skimmer back online

Susan Edwards · Jul 31, 2017

As it is day 8 (at 6 pm today), I turned the skimmer on, very dry, as I used a turkey baster to blow off some of the dead stuff. Wow, some of the rocks are quite clear while others, the white stringy dying algae is still hanging on. But the progress is amazing. I can actually see my polyp frag now. I lost a lot of it to the algae.

Surprisingly, my po4 was 0 with the hanna . Removed all the phos guard. Nitrates went down to 5. First time in months. Of course there are no fish but I do feed the corals and the sun corals. Will have to watch to see if I need to add any po4 to the system. I'll give it a day or two. Will retest tomorrow.

Am noticing some cyano. Can chemi clean be used with the fluconazle in the water? If it gets bad, figured I might wait until a couple days at the end of the flucon cycle, hit with chemi clean, then do a large water change and add my media all back in.

Leather and sun coral not opening, haven't for days. One reason I put the skimmer back on line. Will post day 8 pics later.

NCreefguy · Jul 31, 2017

Susan Edwards said:
As it is day 8 (at 6 pm today), I turned the skimmer on, very dry, as I used a turkey baster to blow off some of the dead stuff. Wow, some of the rocks are quite clear while others, the white stringy dying algae is still hanging on. But the progress is amazing. I can actually see my polyp frag now. I lost a lot of it to the algae.

Surprisingly, my po4 was 0 with the hanna . Removed all the phos guard. Nitrates went down to 5. First time in months. Of course there are no fish but I do feed the corals and the sun corals. Will have to watch to see if I need to add any po4 to the system. I'll give it a day or two. Will retest tomorrow.

Am noticing some cyano. Can chemi clean be used with the fluconazle in the water? If it gets bad, figured I might wait until a couple days at the end of the flucon cycle, hit with chemi clean, then do a large water change and add my media all back in.

Leather and sun coral not opening, haven't for days. One reason I put the skimmer back on line. Will post day 8 pics later.

I waited until after the treatment was over to run chemi-clean. I didn't want to run 2 treatments at once as I figured one at a time was enough.

Susan Edwards · Jul 31, 2017

@NCreefguy did you do the water change or add the carbon or other media back in first? If I did that, I'd have to remove it all for the chemi clean. Will it work to do just a wc and then the chemi clean, followed by wc and then add all the carbon and purigen etc back in?

NCreefguy · Jul 31, 2017

Susan Edwards said:
@NCreefguy did you do the water change or add the carbon or other media back in first? If I did that, I'd have to remove it all for the chemi clean. Will it work to do just a wc and then the chemi clean, followed by wc and then add all the carbon and purigen etc back in?

I did a wc right after my Flucon treatment without running a carbon filter...Then ran the chemi-clean. After the chemi-clean I did two wcs back to back and put everything back to normal.

Susan Edwards · Aug 1, 2017

thank you, @NCreefguy

NCreefguy · Aug 1, 2017

Susan Edwards said:
thank you, @NCreefguy

You're welcome.

Susan Edwards · Aug 1, 2017

Okay, am so excited I have to share my post from my own documentation thread here.

Day 8. Had to take pics with dark tank as I forgot earlier. I put the skimmer back online very dry and I also used a turkey baster to blow off all the dead stuff and wow, there be rock beneath that evil bryopsis. I'm also seeing some cyano and a few dino's. Phos was at 0 today. Even tested it twice to be sure. Another first in a long time. Pulled all phosguard beads and dosed half a dose of flourish phosphorus. Will ck tomorrow to see what it is. Nitrates also went down to 5. Another first in a very long time. Skipped this weeks vibrant and going to every other week, half the nopox and stopped the biodigest. With no fish, there is no fish waste so will have to watch numbers. If needed will treat the cyano with chemiclean after the flucon and a water change before I add back in carbon and purigen.

Todays pic. Eleminated the 4th as that spot on back wall is gone. Will confirm in am when lights are on. Sand bed also looks clear now. Will stir it up some. Am seeing some cyano and a few dino's. This stuff is truly miraculous. I can see the light at the end of a very long, dark tunnel.