dandelion Posted March 4, 2017 Share Posted March 4, 2017 I tried using fluconazole to battle GHA. So far I have seen no effect. I dosed 20mg/gallon. Just wondering if anyone tried a higher dose and what are the results? I was looking up some studies and found this paper on fluconazole and terbinafine (both antifungals) against a freshwater monocellular algae Pseudokirchneriella subcapitata. They found terbinafine to be highly toxic to the algae. The concentration to inhibit growth by 50% was 90nM, or ~0.1mg/gallon. Fluconazole turned out to be much less toxic. The concentration to inhibit growth by 12% (max concentration tested in the study) was 100uM, or ~116mg/gallon. This is almost 6x the dose I put in, and it's only 12% effective (against this supposedly very sensitive freshwater algae.) So maybe the dose ceiling for fluconazole can be far higher than what we have tried? Quote Link to comment
natalia_la_loca Posted March 4, 2017 Share Posted March 4, 2017 Earlier in the R2R flucon thread, the dosage people were using was 9 mg per liter. That works out to about 34 mg per gallon, and that's what I dosed in my reefbowl. It eliminated what I believe to be two varieties of hair algae or bryopsis, but has not eliminated a third variety. I'm on day 21 at that dosage. I may try a higher dose next week. 1 Quote Link to comment
dandelion Posted March 4, 2017 Author Share Posted March 4, 2017 I'm doing a water change tomorrow. I will probably double or triple my current dose and see if anything changes. 1 Quote Link to comment
natalia_la_loca Posted March 4, 2017 Share Posted March 4, 2017 I hope it works for you. Do you have pics of your GHA? Mine looks just like what Teenyreef has been documenting in his thread. 2 Quote Link to comment
vegasgundog Posted March 4, 2017 Share Posted March 4, 2017 Im 12 days in with lots of change, but the gha still is holding on in places more than I like. One thing I did was apply half the dose directly to the bio masses of algae with a syringe and then broadcast the rest directly to the water column. I originally did the 200mg per 10g for rounding the 69g rsm and sump up to 80g for 1600mg. Sunday im going to do 20g wc and may dose the 1600mg again for another 14 days. 1 Quote Link to comment
dandelion Posted March 4, 2017 Author Share Posted March 4, 2017 I'm kind of interested in testing terbinafine. The study showed that it's highly effective against algae just not sure if it harms anything else. I may set up a bucket and put a piece of algae infested rock with a birdnest frag in there to see if they'll survive. 46 minutes ago, natalia_la_loca said: I hope it works for you. Do you have pics of your GHA? Mine looks just like what Teenyreef has been documenting in his thread. I have pictures in my tank thread. To lazy to repost haha. It's in my signature. 24 minutes ago, vegasgundog said: Im 12 days in with lots of change, but the gha still is holding on in places more than I like. One thing I did was apply half the dose directly to the bio masses of algae with a syringe and then broadcast the rest directly to the water column. I originally did the 200mg per 10g for rounding the 69g rsm and sump up to 80g for 1600mg. Sunday im going to do 20g wc and may dose the 1600mg again for another 14 days. Lots of change as in GHA receded a lot but still holding ground at one spot? 1 Quote Link to comment
teenyreef Posted March 4, 2017 Share Posted March 4, 2017 In my first round, I dosed 800 mg in my tank, which is a 30g plus sump. I rounded up to 40 gallons, which gave me 200mg. I saw significant effects on my gha after about 12 days, but I didn't continue the treatment for more than another day or two, and about 25% of the gha survived and promptly started growing back overnight. For the second round, started last night, I increased the dose slightly to 1000mg, just because I had five pills left on the card That works out to about 25mg per gallon. After reading @natalia_la_loca's post above, I may throw in a couple more pills so I can get it up around 34mg/gal. 1 Quote Link to comment
dandelion Posted March 4, 2017 Author Share Posted March 4, 2017 10 hours ago, teenyreef said: In my first round, I dosed 800 mg in my tank, which is a 30g plus sump. I rounded up to 40 gallons, which gave me 200mg. I saw significant effects on my gha after about 12 days, but I didn't continue the treatment for more than another day or two, and about 25% of the gha survived and promptly started growing back overnight. For the second round, started last night, I increased the dose slightly to 1000mg, just because I had five pills left on the card That works out to about 25mg per gallon. After reading @natalia_la_loca's post above, I may throw in a couple more pills so I can get it up around 34mg/gal. I tossed my carbon/phosguard/purigen back in to the tank last night. Today I will do a 50% water change and probably dose 200mg into my 5G water volume tank. 1 Quote Link to comment
dandelion Posted March 7, 2017 Author Share Posted March 7, 2017 I took out the purigen and carbon but left phosguard in. Yesterday I dosed 200mg into my 5G water volume tank. Will see if that does anything to this stupid algae. 1 Quote Link to comment
Clown79 Posted April 4, 2017 Share Posted April 4, 2017 How do you guys get the meds? Here we can only 100mg tablet over the counter. Quote Link to comment
Tstew32 Posted April 4, 2017 Share Posted April 4, 2017 Takes a minimum of 21 days to treat GHA and a second dose is reccomemended if not gone by first dose. Quote Link to comment
natalia_la_loca Posted April 4, 2017 Share Posted April 4, 2017 It appears that Fluconazole does not kill all types of GHA. I discontinued dosing on day 52. Fortunately I never stopped doing peroxide spot treatments while dosing. 1 Quote Link to comment
Clown79 Posted April 5, 2017 Share Posted April 5, 2017 Do you spot treat with peroxide in the tank? I have a rock that can't be moved with gha on it and pulling the gha out is not only a pain but its very hard to get to. Quote Link to comment
natalia_la_loca Posted April 5, 2017 Share Posted April 5, 2017 Yes, I spot treat in the tank, but I drain the water first. in my bigger tank, I used to do underwater peroxide spot treatments by dispensing 35% peroxide with a pipette, directly onto the GHA. This works but is less efficient (you need to use more) and it stays in the tank afterward. Quote Link to comment
dandelion Posted April 6, 2017 Author Share Posted April 6, 2017 13 hours ago, natalia_la_loca said: Yes, I spot treat in the tank, but I drain the water first. in my bigger tank, I used to do underwater peroxide spot treatments by dispensing 35% peroxide with a pipette, directly onto the GHA. This works but is less efficient (you need to use more) and it stays in the tank afterward. 18 hours ago, Clown79 said: Do you spot treat with peroxide in the tank? I have a rock that can't be moved with gha on it and pulling the gha out is not only a pain but its very hard to get to. I turn off all pumps, fill an insulin syringe with peroxide and the squirt directly on to problematic area. Nothing except GHA ever get pissed. 2 Quote Link to comment
Clown79 Posted April 6, 2017 Share Posted April 6, 2017 Do you use standard 3% hydrogen peroxide? I have needleless syringes. I can't drain the tank, it would be almost empty. Quote Link to comment
dandelion Posted April 7, 2017 Author Share Posted April 7, 2017 23 hours ago, Clown79 said: Do you use standard 3% hydrogen peroxide? I have needleless syringes. I can't drain the tank, it would be almost empty. Yes I just use standard ones. I wouldn't use Beedle less syringes though because it doesn't give you the precision and the extra length that you need. Try buying a bag of the longest insulin syringes from your pharmacist? Quote Link to comment
Clown79 Posted April 7, 2017 Share Posted April 7, 2017 Not sure if i can get the needles without a script but i used the syringe from my aiptasia x which has the long extension for precision. Thanks for all the help! Quote Link to comment
Tstew32 Posted April 7, 2017 Share Posted April 7, 2017 5 hours ago, Clown79 said: Not sure if i can get the needles without a script but i used the syringe from my aiptasia x which has the long extension for precision. Thanks for all the help! Tractor supply store has those needles lol Quote Link to comment
Clown79 Posted April 10, 2017 Share Posted April 10, 2017 I'm in cda, things aren't as readily available. Quote Link to comment
jbb Posted May 3, 2017 Share Posted May 3, 2017 Here are some before / after of my tank. I did a single one time dose at 20mg/gallon. 1400mg / 70 gallon system. All chemical filtration and skimmer were taken off-line. Nothing was added to tank except fish food twice per week, and prime added to top off water. It took about a month to really see results, and no maintenance other than cleaning the glass was performed. Quote Link to comment
pappadumplingz Posted May 3, 2017 Share Posted May 3, 2017 1 hour ago, jbb_00 said: Pics from today That's an insane improvement! I was thinking of starting a treatment, but I want to try peroxide first. 1 Quote Link to comment
jbb Posted May 3, 2017 Share Posted May 3, 2017 9 hours ago, pappadumplingz said: That's an insane improvement! I was thinking of starting a treatment, but I want to try peroxide first. It took a little more than a month to really see results, but the stuff really worked. Im glad it did because i was ready to quit the hobby completely because of what was happening with my tank. Quote Link to comment
dandelion Posted May 5, 2017 Author Share Posted May 5, 2017 On 5/3/2017 at 8:48 AM, jbb_00 said: It took a little more than a month to really see results, but the stuff really worked. Im glad it did because i was ready to quit the hobby completely because of what was happening with my tank. Are you going to keep fluconazole in your system? Once you remove it the algae may come back. Quote Link to comment
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