Micro dose of flucozanole

[REEFRIED!]

I am going to do a 1/10 dose this weekend. I have about 110 gallon water volume. I am goi g to do 1 pill. I have what I am 90% sure is GHA and not bryopsis so it make take awhile and a few more micro doses. I will update this thread with pictures as I go

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Thanks. I'll let you know how it goes. From what I'm reading the bottle directions say 1 capsule for 10 gallons which translates to 22 capsules for 225 gallons. A 1/4 microdose would then be 5-6 capsules. So 2 capsules is really 1/10 dose. Just want to confirm that's the way to go. I know it takes time I'd just hate to wait 3 weeks and then find out it did nothing because I used too little.

2-4 I bet will fine. The reeflux pills recommended dosage on the bottle is for fish fungal infections. In fact using the pills for algae and bryopsis is an “off label” application.

 

[Mickey]

Got the Reef Flux from Amazon yesterday and added 3 capsules to my tank last night. The anemones immediately totally pulled in and balled up. Obviously they didn't like it. They have really been stressed with all this algae and I hope they'll be okay and I didn't just push them over the edge.

Now I'll continue to pull out what I can and wait.

Here's a few pictures of where I'm starting from. Yuck!

 

[Dburr1014]

Keep us posted!

 

[REEFRIED!]

I got mine yesterday also. I did 3/4 pill for 110 total water volume last night. I will take pics today

 

[Mickey]

Almost at the end of day two and anemones still are very stressed. Several have totally detached from rock and just laying on sand all balled up. Two green polyp toadstools also look stressed, cap seems very soft and floppy. Very worried but nothing to do now but wait.

Way too early to see any impact on algae. Still trying to siphon out what I can without letting sending it into the water column.

 

[Dburr1014]

Almost at the end of day two and anemones still are very stressed. Several have totally detached from rock and just laying on sand all balled up. Two green polyp toadstools also look stressed, cap seems very soft and floppy. Very worried but nothing to do now but wait.

Way too early to see any impact on algae. Still trying to siphon out what I can without letting sending it into the water column.

Do you have a qt for the anemone?

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Almost at the end of day two and anemones still are very stressed. Several have totally detached from rock and just laying on sand all balled up. Two green polyp toadstools also look stressed, cap seems very soft and floppy. Very worried but nothing to do now but wait.

Way too early to see any impact on algae. Still trying to siphon out what I can without letting sending it into the water column.S

I’m a little surprised to hear this but you could run some carbon and turn your skimmer back on.

 

[Mickey]

I don't have one set up but I may have to. I have multiple anemones (started with one and over the years has split many times). They weren't looking too good with all the algae even before the fluconazole dose, but definitely worse now.

I don't want to stop the treatment because I'm then back to square one with the algae. I'll see how things are in the morning and if no improvement I may set up a QT.

 

[REEFRIED!]

So I put 3/4 of a pill in my 110 on Thursday night. So last night was day 3. Today after work I will turn on UV and put skimmer cup back on. Yesterday afternoon I thought that some of my GHA was turning white on the tips, but tough to tell. I ended up doing my usual weekly brushing and removal of some. I’m not sure if I should have done that but I couldn’t stand looking at it.

I took a few pics on the first day. It was late so sorry for the blue. Obviously the GHA is the purple looking crap everywhere! I will take pics tonight when I get home. I know that with GHA it takes awhile, and I probably could have done a stronger dose but I wanted to take it easy.

 

[Jimbo327]

Guys, the idea of using antibiotics is to kill the target quickly and get it out of your system. The last thing we want to do is letting it gain resistance to the antibiotics by giving them a weak dose or keep it in the tank for too long. The reason why most antibiotics require a prescription so that they can warn you about this.

 

[Mickey]

This is a fungicide not an antibiotic.

What do you suggest for GHA?

 

[slingfox]

I did two 1/4 doses 3 weeks apart. This got rid of a massive GHA outbreak I was dealing with when my tank was 4 months old. It has been 4 months post-treatment and no issues with GHA.

 

[Jimbo327]

This is a fungicide not an antibiotic.

What do you suggest for GHA?

Yes, you are right, It is an anti fungal. And it's still stands, we don't want anything to develop resistance to antifungal drugs.

 

[Dburr1014]

Yes, you are right, It is an anti fungal. And it's still stands, we don't want anything to develop resistance to antifungal drugs.

Thanks for your opinion.

 

[Garf]

What do you suggest for GHA?

Snails, urchins, manual removal, coral growth, CCA growth, pods, DIY F-aiptasia in nooks and crannies.

 

[Mickey]

Yes, you are right, It is an anti fungal. And it's still stands, we don't want anything to develop resistance to antifungal drugs.

Appreciate your opinion and while I agree with you in general I don't think it applies in this case. Fluconazole is an antifungal and the dosage indicated is for treating a tank where the fish living in that tank have a fungal infection.

The microdosing is being used "off label" for something totally different, treating massive outbreaks of GHA. I would not suggest using it for small outbreaks where it is feasible to manually remove most of it, or in small tanks where a total rip clean would take care of it. This is no different than many other drugs that are used off label for other things in other doses. Minoxidil for example is a hypertension drug and now used in microdoses to combat hair loss. Or Ozempic which treats diabetes and is now available in larger doses for weight loss.

 

[Mickey]

Snails, urchins, manual removal, coral growth, CCA growth, pods, DIY F-aiptasia in nooks and crannies.

Garf - Agree with you if the outbreak is manageable. Once it has gotten to massive plague proportions snails and urchins won't touch it. Coral growth isn't working because it is actually killing corals at this point. For large tanks (mine is over 200 gallons) with large rock structure even manual removal is difficult. Scrubbing the rocks in the tank is close to counterproductive as it's impossible to siphon it all out.

 

[Dburr1014]

Garf - Agree with you if the outbreak is manageable. Once it has gotten to massive plague proportions snails and urchins won't touch it. Coral growth isn't working because it is actually killing corals at this point. For large tanks (mine is over 200 gallons) with large rock structure even manual removal is difficult. Scrubbing the rocks in the tank is close to counterproductive as it's impossible to siphon it all out.

I have to agree with this.
I battled for a year.
Manual removal, snails, urchins, hermits, phyto, sea hare, lights out, dim light, ect. Probably missing more I've done before I did the fluconazole.
I don't know what CCA growth is and f-aptaisia for GHA I never heard that one either.

But when coral start dying and you have exhausted every other avenue to get rid of it, to me, it's the only option.

If it was a fish fungus and the fish started to die and you had to choose between a medication to save them or do nothing and watch them die, I think *most* people would choose the med.

The argument that "they will become resistant" is null.
I would always choose life over death even if it meant I would be resistant to that med in the future.

 

[Jimbo327]

I'm a big fan of fluconazole for GHA/Bryopsis or fish disease, so I'm not against it at all. I used it to treat my own tank. I'm just saying this antifungal should be used at a dosage that works quickly, and then removed from the system via carbon, etc. We don't want any organisms to gain resistance to fluconazole because it is not killed by the medication (due to low dose or keeping in the system long term), and anything (i.e. mold) allowed to evolve to resist. Mold that can resist will be very bad for your health and home if you can't kill it.