Success with Fluconazole - Nano Reef Edition

[nautical_nathaniel]

Hi everyone!

I just wanted to share my successes with treating my aquarium with fluconazole to absolutely get rid of bryopsis, hopefully to the point it never comes back in full force. I tried lawnmower blennies, emerald crabs, scarlet leg hermits, turbo snails, and lowering my feeding amounts to the point I'm pretty sure my fish hated me.

*** Disclaimer: I have a nano reef (IM Fusion 20) so running stuff like GFO or using Vibrant/Hydrogen Peroxide would too much of a risk rather than a benefit for me. You can check out my build thread here. ***

Now then, let's get to the good stuff. I ordered my fluconazole from payless pet products as "Fish Flucon".

I dosed my aquarium according to this dosage:
5mg/L x ~60 Liters = 300 mg or 1.5 pills at 200mg each
(I estimated my tank volume to around ~18 gallons and rounded down to 60 Liters from 68 Liters to be safe and also for easy math )

I added this amount to the aquarium during a water change where I used some of the RODI water I got from my LFS to dilute the fluconazole and add it to the new water.

Now the fun part.... PICTURES!!!!

Day 1, July 20:

Day 2, July 21 (Still no very visible effects, yet):

View attachment 557985

View attachment 557986

View attachment 557988

Day 7, July 26 (Things didn't seem like they were moving all that quick, so I waited a few days for the next set of photos):

Day 9, July 28:

On day 10 I did a water change. I normally do water changes weekly to keep my SPS corals happy. I didn't want to dilute the fluconazole any, so I added around 100mg to the new water going in. This may have upped the total dissolved content of fluconazole in my aquarium, but at this point I could tell that it wasn't affecting my corals any so I went ahead with adding more.

Day 15, August 3 (I'm estimating that this is around 95% complete removal of bryopsis, it takes me a while to find even a little piece of bryopsis and when I do, it's not attached or in a small rock crevice where my clean-up crew hasn't gotten to yet!):

So, I'm calling this a success!

Observations: There were no other effects that I could notice, and with my experience with Nano Reefs, that's a hugely significant statement to make. I did have some weird green slime algae come up in days 2 through 9, some of which you can see in the photos, but that is completely gone now.

What I learned: Flow is very important. Any bryopsis that was sheltered from my powerhead or return flow was the last to go. I ended up turning all my pumps to their highest setting and this helped out a great deal.

Moving forward: During my next water change I will not be adding more fluconazole, I feel as though I have done a good enough job at getting rid of most, if not all of the bryopsis in my aquarium. If it ever comes back, I'll be sure to use this method again!

Another point for fluconazole and another loss for bryopsis!

Feel free to ask me any questions about my procedure or results, I am happy to discuss it further!

 

[Aqua fire/medic]

Quick question as I haven't been able to find an answer. Were you running a skimmer during or after treatment? I have a skimmerless 25g lagoon I want to try this out on. Thanks for the info.

 

[nautical_nathaniel]

Quick question as I haven't been able to find an answer. Were you running a skimmer during or after treatment? I have a skimmerless 25g lagoon I want to try this out on. Thanks for the info.

I ran a skimmer without the skimmer cup on it. I've heard that the dying bryopsis could deplete oxygen levels but the skimmer could also deplete the amount of fluconazole in the water so I compromised and just removed the cup. I'm not sure if either claim is true but that's what I did and I had zero issues with it.

 

[Darren Cardy]

I recently treated my 400 litre mixed reef tank with Fluconazole. I was amazed at the results. It had no side effects on my fish or Corals. My large 12+ years brittle starfish took sick at the end of the treatment but I believe it to be unrelated to the Fluconazole treatment. Day 4 or 5 was the day I noticed the Bryopsis satrting to wither. By day 14 it was 95% gone. I stopped running my Skimmer my Carbon reactor and my Phosphate minus reactor. I kept my UV running and blew crap away with a turkey baster regularly. I changed sump sock every 3 days. Water change was done on day 14 and new Carbon and phosphate minus added to reactors. the last 5% disappeared over the next week or so.

 

[nautical_nathaniel]

I recently treated my 400 litre mixed reef tank with Fluconazole. I was amazed at the results. It had no side effects on my fish or Corals. My large 12+ years brittle starfish took sick at the end of the treatment but I believe it to be unrelated to the Fluconazole treatment. Day 4 or 5 was the day I noticed the Bryopsis satrting to wither. By day 14 it was 95% gone. I stopped running my Skimmer my Carbon reactor and my Phosphate minus reactor. I kept my UV running and blew crap away with a turkey baster regularly. I changed sump sock every 3 days. Water change was done on day 14 and new Carbon and phosphate minus added to reactors. the last 5% disappeared over the next week or so.

I'm glad you had good results as well!

 

[Honeycombz]

I have a Nuvo 20 as well and I am about to start the same treatment. Happy to see you got results. You dosed 150mg a day for 10 days ? Did you just eyeball half the pill? Just want to clarify before I start going.

 

[nautical_nathaniel]

I have a Nuvo 20 as well and I am about to start the same treatment. Happy to see you got results. You dosed 150mg a day for 10 days ? Did you just eyeball half the pill? Just want to clarify before I start going.

No I dosed 300 mg for the whole thing at once. When I did a water change, I replaced what I took out by adding some more fluconazole with the new water. You want to add your entire dose all at once if you want it to work well.

 

[nautical_nathaniel]

Took me a while, but I finally figured out what went wrong with the pictures. Here they are now:

Day 1:

Day 2:

Day 7:

Day 9:

Day 15:

 

[nautical_nathaniel]

Update for everyone: still no bryopsis in my tank, had a slight scare when a little piece of some came in on a frag plug and survived dipping, but it quickly died the next day so either the dip took a while to work or I still have some residual fluconazole hanging out in my aquarium.

 

[Ardeus]

A warning: it killed my caulerpa after 3 weeks.

 

[Florida Sunshine]

I have been considering use of this for colonial hydroids but have been told it will kill many inverts. Other than the starfish you mention, did you loose any? Do you have any anemones? How did they take the treatment?

 

[scurvy dawg]

I had a small amount of Bryopsis too and dosed fluconazole and was successful also. It also will take care of GHA at around 21 days.

 

[nautical_nathaniel]

I have been considering use of this for colonial hydroids but have been told it will kill many inverts. Other than the starfish you mention, did you loose any? Do you have any anemones? How did they take the treatment?

Lost one hermit crab during the whole ordeal (a halloween hermit) but I think that was due to natural causes and not the fluconazole. Anemones, flame shrimp, snails, tiger conch, corals, starfish, and regular hermits all did well throughout and I didn't notice any change in their behavior.

 

[nautical_nathaniel]

I had a small amount of Bryopsis too and dosed fluconazole and was successful also. It also will take care of GHA at around 21 days.

I think I had some hair algae as well that it also killed after some time, I thought it was just a patch of stubborn bryopsis but it too eventually went away.

 

[scurvy dawg]

I think I had some hair algae as well that it also killed after some time, I thought it was just a patch of stubborn bryopsis but it too eventually went away.

I have read so many posts about people that either did a complete tear down or got out of the hobby because of bryopsis. Hope word gets out about this stuff. From what I can tell, it has a very high success rate.

 

[nautical_nathaniel]

I have read so many posts about people that either did a complete tear down or got out of the hobby because of bryopsis. Hope word gets out about this stuff. From what I can tell, it has a very high success rate.

Mine was quickly becoming a huge nuisance, it was out competing zoas for space and covering them up as it grew between them. I was at the point I wanted to frag everything and start over until a member of my local reef club said something about fluconazole and it being the "cure" for bryopsis. I was pretty skeptical then since most "cures" in this hobby have to be taken with a grain of salt (looking at you ich medications) but I'm a believer now

 

[Daniel@R2R]

I used Fluconazole and it got rid of my bryopsis and GHA too! Great stuff.

 

[nautical_nathaniel]

I used Fluconazole and it got rid of my bryopsis and GHA too! Great stuff.

That's awesome! Another win for fluconazole, I think a lot of us have been enhancing the business of that payless petproducts site haha

 

[Epicreefster]

I'm looking into treating my tank for a small outbreak. Where did you get your Fluconasole and what brand is it?

 

[nautical_nathaniel]

I'm looking into treating my tank for a small outbreak. Where did you get your Fluconasole and what brand is it?

Payless Pet Products and it's called "fish flucon" or something to that extent on their website.