Flux RX not Touching Hair Algae

TinkL · Aug 5, 2024

I decided to go against my opinions on chemical treatment and try out flux rx to treat GHA I've been battling for a while now to reset it. Its on the 14th day and I haven't seen ANY results. I went the chemical route to see if it would act as a quick fix to reset the long bushes that my herbivores cant quite get to and I can't pull easily, there's a ton of bald spots on my rocks from urchins slowly eating through and nothing grows back so I assume the system balanced itself out enough, hence why I wanted to do the reset with flux rx because those bushes would not go away even after pulling MANY times. Should I wait another week? I've read that it can take longer, but I also noticed my magician zoas aren't too happy (everything else is fine) since dosing so I don't want to push it too far. On top of that my phos went up to 0.21 since I've been running no GFO while treating as directions say so I need to keep an eye on that as well. All opinions are welcome!

Formulator · Aug 5, 2024

TinkL said:
there's a ton of bald spots on my rocks from urchins slowly eating through and nothing grows back so I assume the system balanced itself out enough

By using flux, you might have messed all this progress up!!! BE PATIENT! Flux is hit or miss depending on the species of GHA. If it isn’t dying now, its not going to. Don’t dose more. Your urchin will clean things up, just give it time and don’t put any more bottled products in your tank. Sorry, it is just so frustrating to see people throwing chemicals into their tank especially when they are already making progress and just get impatient. Nothing good in reefing ever happens fast.

slingfox · Aug 5, 2024

FluxRX can take over a month to show results. The first time I used it it took three doses over a course of 6 weeks (ie, one dose every two weeks). I dosed at 20%-25% of the recommended amount each time. Make sure you also do not run UV during the treatment. The regimen worked great for me.

TinkL · Aug 5, 2024

Formulator said:
By using flux, you might have messed all this progress up!!! BE PATIENT! Flux is hit or miss depending on the species of GHA. If it isn’t dying now, its not going to. Don’t dose more. Your urchin will clean things up, just give it time and don’t put any more bottled products in your tank. Sorry, it is just so frustrating to see people throwing chemicals into their tank especially when they are already making progress and just get impatient. Nothing good in reefing ever happens fast.

I'm in the same boat as you which is why I said I went against my opinion, but I like to try products out sometimes and I've heard a lot of GOOD about this one + no ill effects on anything so I tried it out. The 2 urchins have been in the tank for over a year at this point but the giant bushes don't get touched by them. I HATE putting my hands in the tank to manually remove and cause stress to my fish so I've been looking for alternatives so I don't have to keep chipping away little by little at it. My plan was to try and find a sea hare if this didn't work out so I'll probably throw the carbon back in and go that way. Flux RX is just fluconazole which is used in A LOT of applications, it just happens to be an algaecide by blocking enzymes in them and sure it likely does more but its not bleach. I think its okay to try new things sometimes, that's how great things are discovered

TinkL · Aug 5, 2024

slingfox said:
FluxRX can take over a month to show results. The first time I used it it took three doses over a course of 6 weeks (ie, one dose every two weeks). I dosed at 20%-25% of the recommended amount each time. Make sure you also do not run UV during the treatment. The regimen worked great for me.

dang I was running UV the entire time, think that messed it up?