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Fluconazole - The Sequel

redfishbluefish

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
With @art13 being the first NJRC member to use Fluconazole to treat Bryopsis, I just bit the bullet and placed my order for 20 pills. I thought I had hair algae, but some have said, because the hair appears to be on branches, that it's a variety of bryopsis. We'll find out!
 

art13

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Just turn it off and clean it while the skimmer is off, I left my skimmer and and let it overflow for air circulation, I put the cup back on on day 4 and had gfo and everything back up on day 5
 
I also dosed my system with 40 pills last Wednesday. Had a tiny amount of bryopsis that survived on a hammer in my frag tank after I did my tank reset. Wasn't going to mess around with it again but also treated to try to knock back some GHA that I've been battling.

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Wow they jacked up the price. I paid 79 for 60 tablets a week ago. It was $10 more at the time than payless but payless limitted your order to 20 pills.

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I also dosed my system with 40 pills last Wednesday. Had a tiny amount of bryopsis that survived on a hammer in my frag tank after I did my tank reset. Wasn't going to mess around with it again but also treated to try to knock back some GHA that I've been battling.

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Not to highjack, but did it work for your GHA? I am having a huge GHA problem right now.
 
It reportedly does work on GHA but takes a little longer. I've been using vibrant for about a month and although it's kept it in check a bit I didn't seem to be completely taking it out. I'm on day 5 with fluco and vibrant and the GHA seems a little more stressed.

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redfishbluefish

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Simply supply and demand....first rule of basic economics.

A whole lot of folks have ordered this over on R2R and it was mentioned the price was going up. These folks are just taking advantage.
 
Hi, Everyone
So i just got my 10 Pills .. For 19.99 gonna test it on my 120. So how many should i open and stir into a RO/Di cup??
Just want to make sure I'm doing this right. I shut off the skimmer, UV, for 5 days and then do a water change ..
How much volume should i do on the water change and what about the lights ??

 

redfishbluefish

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
The original recommended dose was 150 mg / 30 liters. This calculates out to 18.9 mg / gallon. Most posts I've seen, folks have simply rounded this out to 20 mg / gallon. If that 120 is the estimation of your total volume, your dose is a little light. If that 120 is the size of the tank (with no sump) than you're OK.

As far as procedure, begin by doing your standard water change....or a bit more. You don't want to do another water changes for at least 14 days after you dosed the tank. Simply sit back and watch the bryopsis die. Now turn off your skimmer (or remove the cup to continue running with all returned to your tank.) After 3 - 5 days, return the skimmer to normal operation. As far as UV, I haven't heard anything about there use during treatment, but if it was me, I'd turn it off. Run your lights as usual.
 
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redfishbluefish

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
I guess I've forgot to update...sorry.

I though I had a hair algae problem, but some told me because what I had was brached, it's actually a type of bryopsis. I'm still not convinced, but ordered up the fluconazole to give it a shot. Here's some of the stuff I had in a dish with some water.




My first issue was that I could not get this stuff to go into solution. I used a two pint apothecary measuring beaker filled with RO/DI. I estimated my volume at 110 gallons and therefore used 11 pills.




No matter how long I stirred, it wouldn't go into solution. So after about an hour of stirring, I let it settle for about an hour and decanted off all but the precipitate in the bottom of the jar.




This was repeated two more times and finally the precipate was mixed into suspension and dumped into the tank.




Oh, I didn't mention, but the skimmer was left off for four days, carbon was removed and the biopellet reactor was removed as well. Otherwise, the tank ran as normal.

I think this stuff has an effect on other algaes as well, because the first thing I noticed was the brown algae I get on my glass at about day five didn't show up until about day seven. And actually it took about a week at which point I though I was seeing some of my algae turning gray, with maybe less there. Most was still green, but portions of it were a gray color. About a week and a half it was now obvious the fluconazole was impacting my algae. I also noticed that green clumps were now found in the sawteeth of the overflow and in the filter sock. At this point I pulled some of the clumps off the rocks and noticed they came right off....no resistance. Prior attempts to remove this, I had to rip it off the rocks.

When I turned the skimmer on at day four, I also started manually dosing DIY NOPOX (I believe Art's formula of 375 mls Vodka, 125 mls RO/DI and 500 mls of Vinegar). I started with 10 - 11 mls of this solution.

On day 14 none of the hair algae looking stuff was around BUT, it was now replaced with a slight amount of cyano and an algae I've never seen.....a light yellow/green algae now covering some rock and found big time in my sump on the egg crate and bare bottom sump bottom (and walls). So on day 14 I did my normal 25 gallon water change.

This was this last Saturday, and I haven't returned the biopellet reactor, but I'm now sticking with the DIY NOPOX to see if that will clear up the other algae issues. I will say the tank looks good without the hair like algae, whatever it might be. (I still think it was a hair algae).
 
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