Fluconazole VS. Bryopsis Discussion Thread
 

Another member (Thanks Dearth) posted a link to another forum discussing the use use of an Anti-Fungal fish medication called Fluconazole to kill Bryopsis algae. It has been an ugly battle for many years in the hobby, not won by many. People used to raise their Magnesium levels with Kent Tech-M to 1600 and higher, but since they must've changed their recipe it no longer seems to have an effect. I've tried it 4 times without success

Fluconazole comes with several different trade names and packaging. The gel capsules are not used in the treatment, they are emptied into tank water and dissolved the best you can (it won't completely dissolve apparently)
Heres an example of the medication.
http://www.mims.com/resources/drugs/...co6002PPS0.JPG

And heres and example of what it can do to Bryopsis in 8 Days

Day 1.....Day 5....Day 8
http://i.imgur.com/d8WH11Q.jpg
The above tank was dosed with 20mg per 1 gallon of tank water (5mg/L). Only one time with no other changes to the tank. Theres a little bit more algae there in the last photo but this is a current treatment and should be completely gone in another day or 2. Another dosing rate has been mentioned @ 9mg/L with success as well but doesnt look like you need that much based on these photos ^^^

i don't know of any source in Canada that sells this product without a prescription, but hopefully one day and more time and tests are done that your local fish store may begin to carry it. It can be purchased currently online in the US and shipped here though. Personal experience anyways, no guarantees Canada Customs will continue to allow this...

Discuss if you must.
If you try it please share your results!
And please do your research first beyond this thread! This is a place to discuss, I'm not telling anyone they SHOULD try this. But if you have Bryopsis and would like to get rid of it, this looks very promising....amazing

Is that just one dose and wait 8 days?

Yes, one dose and no ill effects :surprise:

And for ease of reference. More info can be found here...
My battle with Bryopsis...


Example of successful treatment...
Day 1
http://www.reef2reef.com/attachments...50-jpg.460615/
Day 10
http://www.reef2reef.com/attachments...49-jpg.460616/

Simply astonishing. I'm definitely on board to try this on my own tank.

But I assume I have to rehome my chaeto first. I know there was some mention of maybe macros being safe in the linked-to threads but I don't recall seeing anything too definitive (I might have overlooked it and it's been a few days since I checked in on those threads, but honestly it stands to reason that if you're going after algae that "other algaes" might become collateral damage..).

I am now at day 4 after dosing fluconazole and it has not affected the caulerpa that I have in my sump. It also does not affect the green algae film that grows on the glass. (bummer)

I posted a couple of pictures in the 'Interesting Read' thread: http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/sho...0&postcount=12

The bryopsis was white yesterday and today it is literally disintegrating. Vibrant and now fluconazole seem to be two significant products for our reef systems. The only unknown, at this point, is the long term effects on corals, fish and inverts.

Awesome stuff guys. Thanks for sharing.

Next time I go to Thailand, I will buy a bunch.

^^why do you have to go to Thailand to buy when they have it here and can ship to your door.

Bryant those pics are super impressive. Damn now I got pills to last a lifetime of bryopsis outbreaks!

According to Wiki, Fluconazole is a Perscription drug in Canada and the US. However, if you continue reading it says this: Fluconazole is sold as a single 150 mg dose over the counter in Canada under the brand names Monicure / Monistat and Canesten.

Just because i go back home evey year

I dosed the fluconazole on January 21. Here is the progress up to today. A reminder that I had been aggressively dosing Vibrant in November and December, so the bryopsis was weakened by the Vibrant. As you can see in the third picture, the bryopsis is literally melting away.

January 23
http://i1230.photobucket.com/albums/...m.jpg~original

January 24
http://i1230.photobucket.com/albums/...x.jpg~original

January 26
http://i1230.photobucket.com/albums/...a.jpg~original

Lol @ $15-20 a pop!!

I dosed my 38 gallon tank last night that I have had bryopsis for over 10 years in that tank thanks to Bryant (Go Fish). 600mg. We will see how well it works. I have not dosed Vibrant in the tank like the others.

I have turned off the GFO, removed the skimmer cup and dimmed the lights.

No worries Glen. You could've used 380mg based on some other experiences but 600mg should definitely do the trick. Try to take a before and after pic if possible? You can email it to me to host if that's easier for you

That's awesome thanks for the update!

It is my pleasure to report the results. Now, if only we knew of any long term repercussions. My understanding is that an individual did the application in early November and has seen no negative consequences since then. This is promising because water changes and activated carbon should replace the fluconazole over time. This is a very promising discovery.

I do 5g daily water change, but turned it off from January 21 until today. I removed the activated carbon and turned my skimmer off for 3 days. I will put the activated carbon back in after I see the bryopsis gone.

I will admit, there is a sadistic pleasure in watching this stuff go bye bye. The tank is a 400g (8 ft long) and I have been focusing on 2 foot section to show what is happening. Thank you @GoFish for the translation and publishing. :)

FYI Fluconazole can be bought OTC as its used to treat yeast infections for women. Its only sold as Diflucan one here incanada.
Monistat is miconazole nitrate..

Started does this afternoon ... so far so good .. fish,coral,shrimp,starfish,nudis all okay. ..https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...638084f0c1.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...28e88a51e3.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...6a10ee30ba.jpg

Sent from my SM-N910W8 using Tapatalk

Not meaning to derail this thread, but has anyone with a bryopsis/valonia issue tried raising nitrates?
I found by doing so the 'whatever' bacteria started consuming 'whatever' and my phosphates dropped ... to the point where I had to start over-feeding my fish to keep levels up enough for my corals.
I've since taken both my carbon and gfo reactors offline and still have nearly no algae - to the point where it's not worth my time to scrape the glass anymore.

I started with 0 NO3 and 0.09 PO4.
I dosed 5mls Seachem Nitrogen liquid for 3 days. NO3 rose too fast to 10. Then PO4 dropped to 0.03. Corals started some STN. Stopped dosing and waited a few days. On and on it went.
Finally found a balance and now test PO4 and NO3 weekly to adjust Nitrogen dosing - which has lately been only once a week instead of daily.

Hmmm good to know that higher NO3 can have an effect on algae. I would think over the years that someone would've noticed a relation to higher NO3 = no Bryopsis in 10 days.
I asked someone last week what kind of algae they had. The answer was "the devil".... after googling "devil algae" came up with nothing, turns out he was referring to Bryopsis, this stuff is nasty nate

Ever had it?

Hi Rockworm, what's Vibrant?

I recently (5 months ago) used Kent M for a small outbreak but had to raise magnesium to 1800. Never lost anything and have not seen a return of bryopsys. Still firm believer in Kent M. I also used it in a previous tank 3 years ago. I found that I had to raise Mg to 1800 and maintain it there for 3-4 weeks. I believe it was introduced from a frag both times from same source. Now I dip everything!

Ya, I had it clogging up my overflow in my previous tank. Wish I'd known about the NO3/PO4 relationship back then!

There is a very lengthy thread at R2R, but the first post describes Vibrant.

http://www.reef2reef.com/threads/vib...thread.271428/

Day 2.5 since I dosed. The bryopsis is loosing colour fast and starting to release from the rocks. Although now it appears Cyno is starting to grow on the bryopsos. I haven't had Cyno in years.

I think it might be because I turned off the skimmer. So I have turned the skimmer back on.

day 2
 

all livestock doing fine,,
some of my weaker sps,, RTN'd

bryopsis are getting gray in the gills

fingers crossed !

Alright so if Vibrant doesn't work I guess I'm trying this next.
Where'd you get the stuff in vancouver?

Been just over 3 days since adding it and at least 90% of the Bryopsis ferns have perished, there are some roots left and as well as some little tube shaped capsules which some have disappeared and some are getting white tips.
Until yesterday I had never seen snails touch Bryopsis. Now it's a smorgasbord! They can't keep their faces out of it

2 Fish, chalices, Acans, mushrooms, zoas/palys, 1 SPS (FF Digitata) all haven't skipped a beat. It looks like the polyps on the digi are extra fluffy like it couldn't be happier.

The Bryopsis that doesn't get as much light tends to take longer to break down, I turned off the Violet and UV LEDs on the 2nd day but probably could've just let them be. Everything else is the same

Good news and not so good news, but probably nothing a little chemiclean can't take care of after treatment (if your skimmer doesn't help)

Hmmm, by weaker SPS do you mean they were in poor health to begin with? This would be the first I've heard of SPS having negative effects. It's kinda fun watching it die, the Bry, not your SPS :sad:

What does your tank look like now Keng? You quoted your original pics for some reason??

Some people got it from me cause I ordered too much (don't have any left)... I bought it from Payless-petproducts.com in the US and had it shipped to my door. I'm sure if you or someone else orders more, you could post a group buy "type thing" if that would be allowed? You cant sell it on here anyway. The more you buy the cheaper they get on that website. There's been several other people asking me for it so might be a good opportunity to save on shipping and in quantity.

Here's my progress so far
http://i.imgur.com/nzJIx7k.jpg

And this
http://i.imgur.com/QJenZmD.jpg

Fluconazole

Took me only about 45 minutes of searching but because a lot of people have questions and for whatever reason not searching I went through several dozen posts on Reef Central and about 25 or so posts on Reef to Reef this is what I found
*****this is not scientific but taken from other forums*****

Is Fluconazole harmful to my tank inhabitants?

In every post I read Fluconazole was not harmful to even the most sensitive fish and coral. Many people who reported coral, invert and fish death and injury during and after treatment traced the deaths or injuries to another algae or bacteria moving in, fighting over new food sources uncovered by the removal of bryopsis and existing illness were the most common factors

Side effects of Fluconazole and bryopsis removal?

Most commonly reported symptom of the treatment and removal was the appearance of Cyanobacteria which from what I could glean from the posts is around 35% of the time Cyanobacteria would appear. Less common was hair and bubble algae. In rare cases it seemed that flatworm populations exploded in some tanks.

Does bryopsis come back after treatment?

From what I found is many tanks were still bryopsis free after 6 months from the treatment date. In some cases where not enough treatment was used it came back or was reintroduced back into the tank via other means

How often can I use Fluconazole?

I found no clear detail on this but apparently it would seem treatment can be used again and again with no ill effect but then again it is user beware

Can I overdose my tank with Fluconazole?

Again I found no clear evidence of this as most people tended to err on the side of caution and under dose but again it is user beware

Hope this helps somewhat

Is every dosing at 20ml per gallon or more?

20mg* per gallon yes. I used slightly more as I didn't feel like splitting up 80% of a capsule. And did you mean to say everyone? Or every dose? Cause it only takes one dose

And thanks for doing that research Dearth ^^^ helpful info to add here.

Got it, just trying to gauge how many pills for my tank.does this powder mix with water well?

I couldn't get it mix completely without sediment, not sure if it's possible unless maybe alcohol is used? Don't use alcohol though just shake it the best you can with tank water and let er flow.

Cool bro, I just dosed 3 pills in my 110g system... for whatever reason the bryopsis is only in the sump, it may be due to lower flow and sediments settling feeding the weeds. Anyhow it didn't dissolve well so I poured it on the affected areas. Hoping the undisolved powder will be extra strength against the weeds lol.

I should've took some pics for document reasons but will let it brand update my progress.

So you dosed about 1/4 of what others have done. That should be a good test. I know people are wondering what the minimum amount would be to see results.
Let us know how that works.

Yah I guess roughly 5mg to a gallon, was just thinking should dose abit first to see if anything happens and if not do a second dose. I learned the hard way with vibrant lol.

If you could give it 48hrs since dosing to see if there's a difference that would be sweet, that's about the time it definitely shows an impact