Fluconazole Day 1

[jdmcbuilt]

46 minutes ago, FollyFish said:

Thats the plan. I think I am going to give it another week. That will make the treatment 4 weeks total. Which is a drop in the bucket compared to the 9 months I have been fighting this. 

Seriously though your tank is looking very clean. I swear this hobby makes us older from stress it causes. But when you stand back and look at it. Its all worth it. 

[Lula_Mae]

On 6/24/2018 at 10:09 AM, FollyFish said:

What does thw aluminium oxide do?

 

I normally run carbon but took that out for treatment as I was told that it would remove the Fluconazole from the water. 

Carbon is always suggested to be removed during any kind of med treatment as it does remove it from the water. 

On 6/24/2018 at 10:25 AM, jdmcbuilt said:

Its aluminum oxide. Dont you want to keep metals from leaching into your watrr column? 

Aluminium is a valid spelling and used more commonly outside the U.S. than the way it's spelled here. Many people use Phosguard with great success and I'm not aware of evidence that it always or even often leaches aluminum/aluminium into tanks. It's also my understanding that GFO is most effective if it tumbles, such as in a reactor, which makes it not the right choice for every tank. 

[jdmcbuilt]

3 hours ago, Lula_Mae said:

Carbon is always suggested to be removed during any kind of med treatment as it does remove it from the water. 

Aluminium is a valid spelling and used more commonly outside the U.S. than the way it's spelled here. Many people use Phosguard with great success and I'm not aware of evidence that it always or even often leaches aluminum/aluminium into tanks. It's also my understanding that GFO is most effective if it tumbles, such as in a reactor, which makes it not the right choice for every tank. 

Randy has made a study of it. And seachem was looking into as well. Aluminum is a metal and it does leech into the system not proven to be a significant problem. But I would just avoid something that MAY cause an issue and then blame it on the norm. 

 

I would just use chemipure blue it has phosphate remover and carbon already premixed. The AIO tanks we havr the flow goes thru the bags. GFO doesn't do well tumbling it turns into dust. Thats why your not to have carbon and gfo together cause carbon is a harder material than gfo. As long as the water flows thru the GFO it does exactly the same. 

 

Many people have success with using these products. But arent we supposed to learn from mistakes to make sure our tanks are pure and free on poor elements? Thats why you arent suppsed to use metal temp probes because they leech metals into the water and rust.  So what do we do we buy temp montitors that dont have a metal probe or have some protective material. Same should go for any media you use. 

 

Successful tanks, sure. Long term successful tanks, im not so sure. 

 

[FollyFish]

Just a quick update since I'm at work. I haven't noticed any further reduction in the amount of algae that is left in the tank. But I have noticed a slight change in the behaviour of my Dendro colony. It has been staying closed longer then in the past and when it is closed the heads have a puffy look. I was only able to see this change because I was home during the day for 2 days in a row this week.

 

I think I will end the treatment on Sat even if all the algae is not gone. I will just try to pull what is left at that time. 

[FollyFish]

Day 30: The last day

I haven't had a lot of time to post updates lately. I have a family member in the hospital and I know that is more important.

 

So this is my last post as I have ended the treatment. I did a large water change (approx. 7G), cleaned the filter system and power-heads,(if it gets plugged in I cleaned it), I added carbon, phosband, matrix and new floss to the filter. I cleaned the sand and rocks and used Aptasis-X to start treatment on the next pest on my list. The only thing I didn't do and wanted to was clean some of the coralline algae off of the glass at the front and sides. I will have to do that next week. I also dosed Stability as a precaution.

 

As for algae that is left, I would say about 99.9% of it is  gone, I believe that my herbivores will gladly take care of what is left. I am also going to add one more Trochus snail as one died during treatment (could have been old age, I have had both of my Trochus snails for two years).

 

So that's it, I would say that the Fluconazole treatment is a resounding success and I would suggest it to anyone who is have trouble killing algae in there tank.

[MSunkin23]

Your water is so clear its making me thirsty.

[jdmcbuilt]

4 hours ago, FollyFish said:

Day 30: The last day

I haven't had a lot of time to post updates lately. I have a family member in the hospital and I know that is more important.

 

So this is my last post as I have ended the treatment. I did a large water change (approx. 7G), cleaned the filter system and power-heads,(if it gets plugged in I cleaned it), I added carbon, phosband, matrix and new floss to the filter. I cleaned the sand and rocks and used Aptasis-X to start treatment on the next pest on my list. The only thing I didn't do and wanted to was clean some of the coralline algae off of the glass at the front and sides. I will have to do that next week. I also dosed Stability as a precaution.

 

As for algae that is left, I would say about 99.9% of it is  gone, I believe that my herbivores will gladly take care of what is left. I am also going to add one more Trochus snail as one died during treatment (could have been old age, I have had both of my Trochus snails for two years).

 

So that's it, I would say that the Fluconazole treatment is a resounding success and I would suggest it to anyone who is have trouble killing algae in there tank.

For aptasia just use really hot salt water or rodi water and spray with syringe directly. It Will melt it away. Simple and no more chemicals. 

[FollyFish]

On 7/3/2018 at 6:05 PM, jdmcbuilt said:

For aptasia just use really hot salt water or rodi water and spray with syringe directly. It Will melt it away. Simple and no more chemicals. 

I would rather use Aptasia X and know it worked. Some of the aptasia is too close to corals to use hot water. 

[jdmcbuilt]

2 hours ago, FollyFish said:

I would rather use Aptasia X and know it worked. Some of the aptasia is too close to corals to use hot water. 

To eaches own. Just letting you know a simplier more effective way of killing those suckers. If you use a syringe from your test kits and penetrate the aptasia. You wont bother the coral. You dont need to smother it in hot water. Less chemicals to use. You already just recently dose flux. Just helping the cause bud. 

[FollyFish]

26 minutes ago, jdmcbuilt said:

To eaches own. Just letting you know a simplier more effective way of killing those suckers. If you use a syringe from your test kits and penetrate the aptasia. You wont bother the coral. You dont need to smother it in hot water. Less chemicals to use. You already just recently dose flux. Just helping the cause bud. 

No worries. I had tried the hot water and the hot water/vinegar methods in the past. Didnt work and the aptasia spred like mad. Also tried peppermint shrimps and filefish with a no go. The peps worked well but only as a large group and the filefish ate my corals.

 

So now I am happy to use chemicals. 

[banasophia]

@FollyFish, looking good! I was wondering what coral that is at the top? Is that a pagoda cup? What ever it is, it’s beautiful!

[FollyFish]

On 7/5/2018 at 11:19 AM, banasophia said:

@FollyFish, looking good! I was wondering what coral that is at the top? Is that a pagoda cup? What ever it is, it’s beautiful!

Yes its a pagoda cup. My clownfish thinks its another duncan colony so she has been hosting it as well as the two duncan colonys I have. 

[banasophia]

4 hours ago, FollyFish said:

Yes its a pagoda cup. My clownfish thinks its another duncan colony so she has been hosting it as well as the two duncan colonys I have. 

Wow! It’s gorgeous. I wish I could find something that would host my clowns... besides the corner of my tank haha.

[FISHnChix]

When you dosed your tank did you just do the one time 20mg per gallon?  That's what I did on my cube and I am like 18 days in and still have a good amount of gha. Thinking of doing a watwr change and redosing but I wanted to talk to someone with experience first. 

[jdmcbuilt]

4 minutes ago, Weikel said:

When you dosed your tank did you just do the one time 20mg per gallon?  That's what I did on my cube and I am like 18 days in and still have a good amount of gha. Thinking of doing a watwr change and redosing but I wanted to talk to someone with experience first. 

If the GHA was bad you should have manually removed as much as possible before dosing. Not sure if you did or not. But you started the process already, Leave it in there GHA takes longer witb the recommeneded dose. Be patient.. Check levels to make sure nothing is out of whack. If they are you will have to do a water change and dose again. Remove Carbon and GFO. 

[FISHnChix]

19 minutes ago, jdmcbuilt said:

If the GHA was bad you should have manually removed as much as possible before dosing. Not sure if you did or not. But you started the process already, Leave it in there GHA takes longer witb the recommeneded dose. Be patient.. Check levels to make sure nothing is out of whack. If they are you will have to do a water change and dose again. Remove Carbon and GFO. 

Yea I was tring to experiment and see what would happen if I didn't remove any by hand. I mean I removed the gha once a week before I started treatment. About a week in I decided to remove some by hand and it seems not to be coming back as bad as normal. I dose and have no problems keeping nitrates down.  Actually I might start dosing nitrates at some point. I guess what I am saying is I don't have to do a wc. And yea I removed my carbon before I started. I was just thinking maybe it work better if I did a wc then dosed again but I dunno.. thoughts?

[jdmcbuilt]

1 minute ago, Weikel said:

Yea I was tring to experiment and see what would happen if I didn't remove any by hand. I mean I removed the gha once a week before I started treatment. About a week in I decided to remove some by hand and it seems not to be coming back as bad as normal. I dose and have no problems keeping nitrates down.  Actually I might start dosing nitrates at some point. I guess what I am saying is I don't have to do a wc. And yea I removed my carbon before I started. I was just thinking maybe it work better if I did a wc then dosed again but I dunno.. thoughts?

I wouldnt honestly. You take a chance over dosing. But thats just me. 

[FISHnChix]

2 minutes ago, jdmcbuilt said:

I wouldnt honestly. You take a chance over dosing. But thats just me. 

Yea I was thinking the same thing. Sucks bc you can't test for it. I will just wait and see.  If it's not gone prob do a large water change and run a bunch of carbon for a week then redose ..

[jdmcbuilt]

15 minutes ago, Weikel said:

Yea I was thinking the same thing. Sucks bc you can't test for it. I will just wait and see.  If it's not gone prob do a large water change and run a bunch of carbon for a week then redose ..

That sounds like a smart plan. If you do dose again remove as much as you can. 

[FollyFish]

6 hours ago, jdmcbuilt said:

If the GHA was bad you should have manually removed as much as possible before dosing. Not sure if you did or not. But you started the process already, Leave it in there GHA takes longer witb the recommeneded dose. Be patient.. Check levels to make sure nothing is out of whack. If they are you will have to do a water change and dose again. Remove Carbon and GFO. 

 

6 hours ago, Weikel said:

When you dosed your tank did you just do the one time 20mg per gallon?  That's what I did on my cube and I am like 18 days in and still have a good amount of gha. Thinking of doing a watwr change and redosing but I wanted to talk to someone with experience first. 

Before I started my treatment I removed as much GHA as I could without damaging anything. Once treatment started I didn't touch it. One theory is that the Fluconazole starts at the tip of the GHA and works its way down to the root killing as it goes. By pulling out the GHA once treatment starts you extend the time needed for the treatment to be effective. That was just something I read, so I decided to follow that idea. From what I witnessed the greying of the GHA stated at the tip and slowly worked its way down at which point it died. I had a very heavy infestation of GHA and I didn't see much improvement until after day 20, by then I had re-dosed at day 15. So over the course of 4 weeks I had dosed 2 times, first at week 1 and then at week 3. 

 

At day 15 I did a water change and cleaning, I also re-dosed at a slightly less level (15mg per gallon) to off set the water change. I removed approx. 7G of my 20G total water volume. My tank is over stocked and I have a heavy bioload with 5 fish, 2 shrimps, 1 crab, 10 snails and a 15 head NPS Dendro that I feed frozen to daily. So to be safe I did the water change and cleaning, I also didn't think re-dosing/re-freshing the meds would hurt the process.

 

If your levels are good then it was suggest to me not to do the water change, but you know your tank best and what it and you can handle.

[FISHnChix]

14 minutes ago, FollyFish said:

 

Before I started my treatment I removed as much GHA as I could without damaging anything. Once treatment started I didn't touch it. One theory is that the Fluconazole starts at the tip of the GHA and works its way down to the root killing as it goes. By pulling out the GHA once treatment starts you extend the time needed for the treatment to be effective. That was just something I read, so I decided to follow that idea. From what I witnessed the greying of the GHA stated at the tip and slowly worked its way down at which point it died. I had a very heavy infestation of GHA and I didn't see much improvement until after day 20, by then I had re-dosed at day 15. So over the course of 4 weeks I had dosed 2 times, first at week 1 and then at week 3. 

 

At day 15 I did a water change and cleaning, I also re-dosed at a slightly less level (15mg per gallon) to off set the water change. I removed approx. 7G of my 20G total water volume. My tank is over stocked and I have a heavy bioload with 5 fish, 2 shrimps, 1 crab, 10 snails and a 15 head NPS Dendro that I feed frozen to daily. So to be safe I did the water change and cleaning, I also didn't think re-dosing/re-freshing the meds would hurt the process.

 

If your levels are good then it was suggest to me not to do the water change, but you know your tank best and what it and you can handle.

Thanks for the detailed response!

[jdmcbuilt]

25 minutes ago, FollyFish said:

 

Before I started my treatment I removed as much GHA as I could without damaging anything. Once treatment started I didn't touch it. One theory is that the Fluconazole starts at the tip of the GHA and works its way down to the root killing as it goes. By pulling out the GHA once treatment starts you extend the time needed for the treatment to be effective. That was just something I read, so I decided to follow that idea. From what I witnessed the greying of the GHA stated at the tip and slowly worked its way down at which point it died. I had a very heavy infestation of GHA and I didn't see much improvement until after day 20, by then I had re-dosed at day 15. So over the course of 4 weeks I had dosed 2 times, first at week 1 and then at week 3. 

 

At day 15 I did a water change and cleaning, I also re-dosed at a slightly less level (15mg per gallon) to off set the water change. I removed approx. 7G of my 20G total water volume. My tank is over stocked and I have a heavy bioload with 5 fish, 2 shrimps, 1 crab, 10 snails and a 15 head NPS Dendro that I feed frozen to daily. So to be safe I did the water change and cleaning, I also didn't think re-dosing/re-freshing the meds would hurt the process.

 

If your levels are good then it was suggest to me not to do the water change, but you know your tank best and what it and you can handle.

You sound like an expert now. Lol 😎

[banasophia]

Have you guys ever tried getting a wedge sea hare for GHA control? I recently got one to eat up my hydroids and I loved him, but I had to rehome him after he polished off most of the hydroids because I was worried I didn’t have enough algae to nourish him (and he didn’t like nori sheets or the dragons breath I added to my DT for him). I think they also eat GHA... 

 

[FollyFish]

1 hour ago, banasophia said:

Have you guys ever tried getting a wedge sea hare for GHA control? I recently got one to eat up my hydroids and I loved him, but I had to rehome him after he polished off most of the hydroids because I was worried I didn’t have enough algae to nourish him (and he didn’t like nori sheets or the dragons breath I added to my DT for him). I think they also eat GHA... 

 

I did look into but in my research I found out they dont eat all types of algae. In addition my tank is not big enough to keep one in a healthy environment. I was also worried that I would not have someone to rehome it to. So I decided against it even though my LFS had some. 

[FollyFish]

2 hours ago, jdmcbuilt said:

You sound like an expert now. Lol 😎

Lol. My job is 80% ablility to BS. So I have had lots of practice.