Bryopsis Cure: My Battle With Bryopsis Using Fluconazole

Did Fluconazole Kill all of your Bryopsis?

  • Yes

  • No

  • I'm treating my tank with it now.

  • I love Bryopsis and I'm mad that everyone is killing it.


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I dosed 400 mg into my 20 gallon a week ago and haven’t seen anything happen. No carbon, skimmer off. Just flow.
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Yes, something happened, no doubt, but considering hundreds of cases of Fluconazole use without reporting similar side effects, attributing the same damage to Fluconazole that everyone used is difficult. On the other hand, coral bleaching also occurs due to other causes, especially oxidative stress, and there is no evidence that Fluconazole causes oxidative stress due to its mechanism of action.

Best regards

well, Most reefers don't keep a dominant SPS tank... I would say most keep softies and LPS tanks. most of those corals don't have the sensitivity that SPS exhibit. I have to disagree with the premise that if hundreds used it and reporting no side effects. the reason that I posted is to hear is others with SPS dominant tanks had similar results.

The most probable cause of the bleaching effect was in fact this medication since pretty much my system is 100% automated... I have had positive results for years befor the med addition and the same after once I started water changes/GFO/GAC?and protein skimmer back. I have never experienced bleaching like this EVER. I have had RTN and STN but this is niether of those. although I have lost one of my colonies and a frag so far as a result of the bleaching.

I would have to disagree and say that it appears like the bleaching is in fact a direct result of the medication addition in my tank.

I would like to hear others with predominantly SPS tanks with results.
 
I am using reef flux brand right now in my Red Sea 650 I used 14 capsules . I had o few areas of alge that where becoming a problem to me tried a sea hare would not eat it so I gave in and tried it. It has been 8 days and could not be happier with results. The alge starts to turn white and then it fades away one other thing I noticed is that my hippo tang would not eat it before treatment but now seems it can’t get enough
 
I would like to add that for unknown reasons my very large clam died after starting treatment but can not say if it was due to treatment
 
all my SPS doing great did see a bit of faded colors for the first few days but all look good now

hmnnn so it seems that you saw the same/similar issue as i did. perhaps not to the degree that I did though. I sure hope i don't loose any more of these corals that i grew from frags.

Overall i would have to say if i had to do this treatment over i would not knowing what happened to alot (but not all) of my sps corals. only reason I did go through with it in the first place is the overwhelming positive results displayed here in this thread. I just wasnt paying attention that most of these people were not growing SPS corals. aggrrrr.
 
I will add some photos this week . One more thing noticed was that algae that was in direct light died off first stuff that shaded is taking a bit longer. Here is a pic day treatment was started

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hmnnn so it seems that you saw the same/similar issue as i did. perhaps not to the degree that I did though. I sure hope i don't loose any more of these corals that i grew from frags.

Overall i would have to say if i had to do this treatment over i would not knowing what happened to alot (but not all) of my sps corals. only reason I did go through with it in the first place is the overwhelming positive results displayed here in this thread. I just wasnt paying attention that most of these people were not growing SPS corals. aggrrrr.

My main tank is mostly SPS and hasn't had a water change in months after the flucon treatment. We've got 7 different systems set up in our shop with everything from frag systems to SPS/LPS systems and we are not having any issues with using Fluconazole in any of them. Some of our systems are getting a constant replacement of low dosage Flucon and some are close to a year with no water changes. I've got to agree with @Jose Mayo on this one and say that you may have had some kind of contaminate in your capsules or something else went wrong for that much loss in your system.
 
I had a few sps frags that rtn'd and the only thing I did differently was treat with flucanzole. I cannot say for sure that's what caused it but it's what i suspect. I'm not sure if a phosphate/nitrate increase from die off could be the cause or the flucanzole itself. It did get rid of most gha but I've since had some return. I have flucanzole left over but I'm hesitant to try it again and risk killing more of my sps
 
I had a few sps frags that rtn'd and the only thing I did differently was treat with flucanzole. I cannot say for sure that's what caused it but it's what i suspect. I'm not sure if a phosphate/nitrate increase from die off could be the cause or the flucanzole itself. It did get rid of most gha but I've since had some return. I have flucanzole left over but I'm hesitant to try it again and risk killing more of my sps

Yeah I think the increase in nutrients may be the problem for some tanks.
 
To be honest I didn't think to test nitrate/phosphates and with my skimmer off during the treatment when I finally got to test toward the end of the treatment the levels were definitely elevated. I've been running rowa phos and will definitely keep it in my sump if I decide to treat again.
 
Nobody has made a study regarding the effect of Fluconazole in zooxanthellae algae.
Probably SPS corals don't protect zooxanthellae algae as good as LPS and Soft corals do and that is why there is more risk of using Fluconazole on SPS dominant systems.
Lets hope that someday a company like Brightwell Aquatics, Red Sea or even Ultra Life do the research study and come up with a reef safe treatment for Bryopsis using Fluconazole as the main ingredient.
 
My main tank is mostly SPS and hasn't had a water change in months after the flucon treatment. We've got 7 different systems set up in our shop with everything from frag systems to SPS/LPS systems and we are not having any issues with using Fluconazole in any of them. Some of our systems are getting a constant replacement of low dosage Flucon and some are close to a year with no water changes. I've got to agree with @Jose Mayo on this one and say that you may have had some kind of contaminate in your capsules or something else went wrong for that much loss in your system.

Let me understand correctly... you mean to tell me you have done no water changes for months to a year in predominantly SPS systems? may I ask what method of bio-load export you are using on these tanks?

also, how can anyone agree with such a definitive statement that there is a contaminant in the medication??? No one knows if there is a contaminant or not and no definitive study has been made to say that flucon medication is 100% safe in reef. This is why in my first post here I stated that i can not be sure if it was the medication myself... but you can?
 
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