Bryopsis Cure: My Battle With Bryopsis Using Fluconazole

[ReefManKen]

i’ve been reading this tread, and honestly still trying to read it all, only half way done but i already ordered mine and expecting to get it on thursday...my question is, what it is i’m battling, its mostly brownish green in color, is it bryopsis or some type of hair algae!

If it’s browish green and green and fan looking on some stalks it’s Bryopsis. It pulls off in little bunches like a weed does if you grab it firm it will come off in a bunch like a bush. Starts out slow usually on on rock but over time it overtakes everything even the glass. The glass and overflow in your tank and outflow will get covered in more brown than green hair algae. It’s a major nucience to deal with absent the medication. If you believe it to be Bryopsis and your herbivore don’t touch it then it more than likely is. So you dose 20mg fluncomide per gallon and it won’t harm coral or fish. Believe me I was very, very skeptical that it would wipe out my reef but it was a gift from the reef gods and the great people who confirmed it here.

My tank has gone from me wanting to drain my tank and give up, to reviving my love again and me wanting to go shopping again soon when the treatment is completed. 15 days I’ll do a water change and then I’ll add my first coral in months! Can’t wait! Keep us posted!

 

[ReefManKen]

If I have a 20 gallon tank and 20 gallon sump Should I dose 1 pill or 2?

The sump has a lot of rock. Probably only has 10 gallons in it. Any harm in dosing more than 200mg?

2-4 pills will be safe for your tank. DEPENDING on if your Sump has 20g of water if not adjust back for the volume of water in it. Rule of thumb is 20mg per gallon.

Fill a cup halfway with the powder with RODI WATER add the contents of 4 flounco capsules and mix a bit and add it to your tanks in front of a power head or your outflow I’d strong enough to disperse the cloud through the tank to adhere to all the algae for best results. My fish actually ate some of the small particles as you won’t be able to fully disolve it all and it didn’t hurt anything in my tank. After an hour my tank cleared and the next day the water actually looked clearer than it has in a while. Good luck and keep us posted on your progress!

 

[ReefManKen]

Anyone interested in seeing what Bryopsis looks like it will look a lot like this in your tank. This is what I had to deal with from the start of treatment.

 

[Fudsey]

This is exactly what I was looking at albeit no where near as big. I has took almost 2 weeks for my patch to start looking as if it is dying. I posted at 8 days that it didn't seem as if it was working but then Tuesday, it did look a lot smaller in size. Today it is even smaller and looking a lot better.

 

[dromonk]

Im on day 4 of treatment and have a dino out brake now any tips

 

[CoralWealth]

Im on day 4 of treatment and have a dino out brake now any tips

use UV.

All depends how bad it is and if you want to buy a UV. I had bad dinos and I saw one person say use UV, I tried everything else they didnt work. The UV worked in like a day in a half.

 

[ReefManKen]

That’s my next purchase is a U/V as the one I have is 20 years old and needs a total rebuild. Would rather play it safe mixing water and electricity.

The amount of algae my tank has now after treatment is about 80% gone at this point at day 9 and it started on one rock and stayed on one rock for a long time. Then it spread to a 2nd rock very slowly. Then out of nowhere it exploded in my tank and I blame it on the vines with algae spore grapes that start to spawn and they start the same way one with 1 or 2 grapes to eventually 40 to 80 in the matter of a month or so. It’s horrible but I keep tweezing the vines from the roots to get rid of them and it’s working now since I’ve dosed to rid my tank of them.

Watch for these especially in Zoa’s since that’s the only place I’ve found them growing so far on 2 separate colonies I have.

 

[Redseamax650led]

If it’s browish green and green and fan looking on some stalks it’s Bryopsis. It pulls off in little bunches like a weed does if you grab it firm it will come off in a bunch like a bush. Starts out slow usually on on rock but over time it overtakes everything even the glass. The glass and overflow in your tank and outflow will get covered in more brown than green hair algae. It’s a major nucience to deal with absent the medication. If you believe it to be Bryopsis and your herbivore don’t touch it then it more than likely is. So you dose 20mg fluncomide per gallon and it won’t harm coral or fish. Believe me I was very, very skeptical that it would wipe out my reef but it was a gift from the reef gods and the great people who confirmed it here.

My tank has gone from me wanting to drain my tank and give up, to reviving my love again and me wanting to go shopping again soon when the treatment is completed. 15 days I’ll do a water change and then I’ll add my first coral in months! Can’t wait! Keep us posted!

i’m planning to dose my tank this weekend... when the whole back of my tank was covered with it, brownish like hair algae or bryopsis, i started using dr tims waste away and i noticed that little by little and every time i clean my filter socks, i got a lot of those “loose” algae and my CUC started to eat them that they ignore before. i have the same algae in my sump but now my sump is very clean and no traces of algae, even the hose or tubing from my reactors and chiller clear up as if i clean it... hopefully the fluconazole will help clear those remaining nuisance algae specially on the rocks

 

[ReefManKen]

i’m planning to dose my tank this weekend... when the whole back of my tank was covered with it, brownish like hair

Yes that is exactly like what I had and the funnies part of it was the hair was so thick at times my black ice Clown would lay in it and act as though it was an anemone! Yet she never would touch any anemones I’ve bought.

When you dose your tank use the parameters of your tank as I did. Dose with 20mg of Flucon per gallon size of your tank and Sump. It didn’t take exact volume per gallon with subtraction of displacement of rock, sand and water. If you have a 90g tank and a 10 gallon Sump than dose with 10 -200mg of the medication.

My biggest fear was hurting my tank and killing my long growing coral and healthy fish but it actually made my hammers and other corals look much better and seem healthier now. Bryopsis attacks corals as I’ve found it at all my Stoney corals growth points it seems also my fish picked at the powder when i added it and they didn’t get botthered at all by it.

Just make sure you don’t run carbon, any reactors or your skimmer when dosing and don’t turn them back on until the treatment is complete at 15 days. Then you do a water change and make sure your gear is clean and restart it all and reassess then what needs to be done. You may need a second treatment but from what I’ve seen so far that stuff is a miracle in a capsule and everyday my tank looks more and more like new.

 

[Jose Mayo]

When I started my studies on the content of ergosterol in green algae, after observing the effect of fluconazole on the algae in my aquarium (2013/2014), I found that some algae have more than one route of synthesis in their metabolism for the production of ergosterol. .. this has made me think that an underdosing of fluconazole may allow algae to activate an alternative pathway, and allow it to survive. With this in mind, and after making sure there would be no damage to the aquarium animals, I opted for the single dose treatment, in a dosage sufficient to block the preferred route of synthesis, "without there being time for the alga to using alternative ways ". The first dose I worked on was 150 mg / 30 liters and, finding some resistance in the alga Derbésia sp., I increased the dosage to 9 mg / liter, with success.

Evolutionarily conserved Δ25(27)-olefin ergosterol biosynthesis pathway in the alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii

There is a close relationship between ergosterol synthesis pathways and allelochemical diterpenoids that inhibit herbivory, so Bryopsis sp. and Derbésia sp., which are generally not attacked by herbivores, are then attacked by herbivores under the effect of fluconazole.

Best regards

 

[Dipan Desai]

Just dosed my tank today. Fingers crossed.
Day 1

 

[Dipan Desai]

Day 2 no change yet patiently waiting.

 

[ReefManKen]

Good luck! From what I see you don’t have much issue with the Bryopsis and a good dosing should cure your problem quite quickly. Before I dosed I was pruning about 2 full cups of algae out of my tank weekly.

One dose and it’s almost gone at day 10 now. So that little bit you have will make quick work with it. Just make sure you turn your skimmer, reactors and no carbon at all in the system when you do this as it will remove it. Feed lightly so your phos, nitrate don’t go through the roof and you’ll be fine.

 

[Savas]

Started my treatment last night in my 2.5 gallon Pico. I only have a few tiny spots that came in on a few frags but I want to get ahead of it now. Thanks for all the information provided throughout this thread.

 

[holdyourlight]

The first dose I worked on was 150 mg / 30 liters and, finding some resistance in the alga Derbésia sp., I increased the dosage to 9 mg / liter, with success.

So it seems that those of us battling gha and not bryopsis should be dosing at the 340mg / 10 gallons dose as opposed to 200mg / 10 gallons for best results?

 

[Dipan Desai]

Day 3 algae looks to be Browning with a little bit of white tipping. Nothing major yet

 

[Jose Mayo]

So it seems that those of us battling gha and not bryopsis should be dosing at the 340mg / 10 gallons dose as opposed to 200mg / 10 gallons for best results?

Yes, but there are many factors to consider, including the "modus faciendi" of the pharmaceutical form we are using and the origin and quality of the drug. When I used Zitromax (fluconazole lab Pfizer there Diflucan), the results were better than with other brands, but this was much more expensive.

Only time and experimentation will point the way; better brand, better dose, better protocol ... we're just in the beginning.

Best Regards

 

[Dipan Desai]

Day 4 hair algae turning brown white a little white and bryopsis getting really white. Still long way to go.

 

[sil40sx]

My poor zoas are desperately need some saving, LOL

My first dose tonight, I'll be back for updates in a week or two. Wish me luck!

 

[Dipan Desai]

Day 5
No photo update today got busy with work but bryopsis is turning whiter. Hair Algae which is my bigger issue is Browning in color and also slowly getting white. It's still has a long way to go and excited to see what day 14 looks like. Will update with photos tommorow.