Bryopsis in SPS tank...

[Wunderpus]

So, unfortunately I somehow introduced some bryopsis into my mostly SPS tank. I started vibrant on Saturday, however I'm wondering if Vibrant is the appropriate remedy for the issue...? It seems as though many people use fluconazole to treat bryopsis, however I am worried it will harm my SPS... Are there other remedies that are equally as effective? Should I just keep using the Vibrant and hope it does in fact work? Or, is fluconazole safe with SPS?

PO4 reads 0.00 on Hanna
Nitrates are essentially zero
CA is 560
DKH is 9
Mag is 1260

Thanks guys! This stuff is a bummer, I've never dealt with it before.

 

[andrewey]

I've used fluconazole on all my sps tanks since the end of 2016 with no ill effect. Works really well on bryopsis and it's hit or miss on GHA. When I first tested it, I had a frag of frogskin and red dragon that I tested at 10x the dosage before treating my entire tank and they had no ill effects. I haven't used vibrant much, so I can't comment on its efficacy, nor whether there is a better solution on the market.

 

[Wunderpus]

I've used fluconazole on all my sps tanks since the end of 2016 with no ill effect. Works really well on bryopsis and it's hit or miss on GHA. When I first tested it, I had a frag of frogskin and red dragon that I tested at 10x the dosage before treating my entire tank and they had no ill effects. I haven't used vibrant much, so I can't comment on its efficacy, nor whether there is a better solution on the market.

Wow, this is great to hear! Do you recall the brand of fluco you used? BRS carries Reef HD "Reeflux", not sure if that one is "safe" or "effective" or not... Im very cautious here as I have a tremendous amount of pricey pieces that I'd be devastate to lose, both from a financial perspective and just the overall loss of life... Thank you again for your time!

 

[andrewey]

Unfortunately I had some on hand from my travel medicine kit. If I remember correctly, there should be a giant thread about using fluconazole with bryopsis started by NCreefer? a few years ago. It wasn't that far into the thread, but at the time (2017?) there was someone selling 10 packs of fluconazole online. I did end up buying from that retailer a few times just to have extra on hand and it worked well. Let me check and see if there's a good source of fluconazole right now- if not, I might have some extra I can ship you.

 

[Wunderpus]

Unfortunately I had some on hand from my travel medicine kit. If I remember correctly, there should be a giant thread about using fluconazole with bryopsis started by NCreefer? a few years ago. It wasn't that far into the thread, but at the time (2017?) there was someone selling 10 packs of fluconazole online. I did end up buying from that retailer a few times just to have extra on hand and it worked well. Let me check and see if there's a good source of fluconazole right now- if not, I might have some extra I can ship you.

Thank you, truly! If not, it looks like I can buy it on Amazon, I'm just iffy about the quality (i.e. contaminants)

 

[andrewey]

I doubt you'll find any for sale that you have to worry about contaminants, however, if you want to be 100% certain, if you can find any from Thomas Labs, you'll be golden (that goes for any of the "fish antibiotics".

 

[Wunderpus]

I doubt you'll find any for sale that you have to worry about contaminants, however, if you want to be 100% certain, if you can find any from Thomas Labs, you'll be golden (that goes for any of the "fish antibiotics".

Looks a bit shady, haha, but is this the one you've used https://www.countrysidepet.com/products/fish-flucon-fluconazole-100mg-10-tablets-thomas-labs ?

 

[andrewey]

Yup! That's the ticket. Same stuff you would get prescribed if you had a script for fluconazole.

 

[Bryknicks]

Wow, this is great to hear! Do you recall the brand of fluco you used? BRS carries Reef HD "Reeflux", not sure if that one is "safe" or "effective" or not... Im very cautious here as I have a tremendous amount of pricey pieces that I'd be devastate to lose, both from a financial perspective and just the overall loss of life... Thank you again for your time!

I've used reefflux in my mixed reef (heavy sps) with no ill effect on any corals. It also did not kill my chaeto but did stunt it's growth.

 

[NASOTANG87]

Be very careful with vibrant. It knocked out my tank.

 

[Deitz]

I would use fluconazole for bryopsis. Vibrant is good for bubble algae, but something is happening on a bacteria level that could mess up your system. I’ve treated 3 different systems with Vibrant, and each one has shown a level of change that negatively impacts the system.

 

[lazlodawg]

+1 on the negative experience with vibrant. Led to an eventual tear down.

 

[radiata]

I wiped out with fluconazole. It took about a week of treatment to make it happen. Before that I tried the high-Magnesium cure, but got no where with it.

 

[Skynyrd Fish]

The old Kent marine magnesium worked well. Bright well now makes the old recipe called hydrat-MG. It is an old school method that works. You will need to raise MG to 1500 ppm with this product. There is something in it that makes it melt away, while other products don’t touch it.

 

[CJBuckeyes]

I tried hydrat-mg first due to some of the horror stories I heard with fluconazole, but didn't have any luck with the mag. I then tried reef flux with much better results. I'm about 10 days in now and bryopsis is 90% gone. Alk consumption dropped significantly and a few sps are pale, but otherwise doing well.

 

[Tim Olson]

I also have trouble with Bryopsis and GHA & Caulerpa. I've used only one dose of Vibrant, which helped reduce Bryopsis quite a bit. Although, I stopped it, since it negatively impacted the system and corals. I noticed it through a significant increase in alkalinity. It took about 2 weeks to recover. I believe if continued to added the recommended follow up doses it would have been much worse.

I haven't tried Reef Flux yet. I have some in my cabinet, but I haven't had the nerve to use it, since I have a big Chaeto fuge and run Core7.

 

[Steve Fast]

I used fluconazole for 3 weeks. I was gone in less than two. Now it's back.... seems to survive in places that do not get a lot of light, for example deep inside an SPS. So go extra long just to be certain. You shouldn't have to pay much for than $15 per 100 gal or 10 200 mg capsules.

 

[LC8Sumi]

+1 Fluconazole (Reeflux) also "wiped" it out for me, but it is slowly comming back after half a year. It didn't hurt anything else (fish, sps, cuc), so it's not a big issue if I have to do the treatment every half a year.

 

[Javiv3]

I have used reef flux a few times on my mixed reef, no issues just do not overdose it! I have heard it can crash your tank. Also my hair algae would always come back, so I got a couple of sea urchins they help a lot but knock down everything in its path! And they eat the purple algae also.

 

[Roger D]

Add another bad experience with vibrant. One week and two days into it the system went cloudy so bad I had a terrible time seeing the fish to get them out. Had to go two weeks with lights off.