Does fluconazole kill macro algae ?

[jmichaelh7]

I’m wondering if fluconazole kills macro algae ?

Chaeto and sea lettuce? I don’t want a phosphate spike when killing bryopsis

 

[G Santana]

I used in once to kill two stubborn patches of bryopsis with no effect on my ATS whereas when I used Vibrant it killed all macro and stopped the growth of algae on my scrubber for 7 weeks.

Use it, it works well on bryopsis.

 

[Auquanut]

Just my experience, but I've used Reef Flux three times now. Seems very effective against bryopsis, but it keeps coming back over time.

As far as macro algae is concerned, it does seem to affect the caulerpa. It hasn't wiped it out of the fuge completely, but definitely reduced the amount I have. Chaeto seems to fare pretty well. During the treatment, growth is definitely stunted (still grows, just not nearly as much), but it doesn't die or bleach. I don't have any experience with sea lettuce, but I'd expect it to be affected like, or worse than the caulerpa.

A couple of things I've noticed through my journey down the fluconazole rabbit hole. My nitrates tend to rise as I expect them to. Phosphates, on the other hand, seem to stay stable. I have no rationale to explain this. I do remove as much bryopsis manually as possible before and during treatment and change socks every couple of days as the bryopsis dies off.

The corals seem largely unaffected by the treatments. I haven't noticed an appreciable decrease in Alk/Cal demand during treatment, and everybody seems happy. Haven't lost a coral yet. Likewise, the inverts. Everyone seems happy and healthy. There may be a slight reduction of the pod population in the fuge during treatment, but that might be my imagination.

One thing that I have noticed that I didn't expect is that the tangs and urchins seem to pick at the dying bryopsis that they wouldn't touch before.

Just my experience. Your milage may vary.

Hope this helps.

 

[jmichaelh7]

Just my experience, but I've used Reef Flux three times now. Seems very effective against bryopsis, but it keeps coming back over time.

As far as macro algae is concerned, it does seem to affect the caulerpa. It hasn't wiped it out of the fuge completely, but definitely reduced the amount I have. Chaeto seems to fare pretty well. During the treatment, growth is definitely stunted (still grows, just not nearly as much), but it doesn't die or bleach. I don't have any experience with sea lettuce, but I'd expect it to be affected like, or worse than the caulerpa.

A couple of things I've noticed through my journey down the fluconazole rabbit hole. My nitrates tend to rise as I expect them to. Phosphates, on the other hand, seem to stay stable. I have no rationale to explain this. I do remove as much bryopsis manually as possible before and during treatment and change socks every couple of days as the bryopsis dies off.

The corals seem largely unaffected by the treatments. I haven't noticed an appreciable decrease in Alk/Cal demand during treatment, and everybody seems happy. Haven't lost a coral yet. Likewise, the inverts. Everyone seems happy and healthy. There may be a slight reduction of the pod population in the fuge during treatment, but that might be my imagination.

One thing that I have noticed that I didn't expect is that the tangs and urchins seem to pick at the dying bryopsis that they wouldn't touch before.

Just my experience. Your milage may vary.

Hope this helps.

Thanks a lot of the reply.

I am going to take into consideration the possibility sea lettuce may wreak havoc.

If manually scraping with a metal brush doesn’t erase the two 1” patches of bryopsis I have , then I’ll resort to chemicals … sigh