FollyFish Posted June 10, 2018 Author Share Posted June 10, 2018 13 hours ago, MSunkin23 said: Folly, I heard the GHA takes a bit longer 15-20 days to die off. One thing I know is that the material is very poorly soluble in water. You want to make sure it is solubilized before you add it to the display tank. Maybe premix it in some tank water in a cup and stir well. Figure if the stuff sinks to the bottom of your tank in solid form its not going to ever reach the algae. Did you do anything to solubilize, or just drop in? I have heard that as well. When I added it I mixed it as best I could with tank water, turned off all the flow, spot treated the thickest areas using a turkey baster trying to avoid the corals. I waited 5min then fed everyone, waited 5 more minutes then turned everything back on. I had hoped that by doing it that way the thickest algae would get a big dose and my fish would be less likely to try and eat the stuff I couldnt get to dissolve. Quote Link to comment
A Little Blue Posted June 10, 2018 Share Posted June 10, 2018 5 hours ago, FollyFish said: I have heard that as well. When I added it I mixed it as best I could with tank water, turned off all the flow, spot treated the thickest areas using a turkey baster trying to avoid the corals. I waited 5min then fed everyone, waited 5 more minutes then turned everything back on. I had hoped that by doing it that way the thickest algae would get a big dose and my fish would be less likely to try and eat the stuff I couldnt get to dissolve. Any visible progress? How are corals/fish doing during treatment? Quote Link to comment
FollyFish Posted June 11, 2018 Author Share Posted June 11, 2018 Day 9 Water test come back as Cal - 500ppm KH - 125.3ppm PH - 8 Ammo - 0 Nitrite - 0 Nitrate - 5ppm Phos - 0 - I am running Phosband in the filter salt - 1.025 temp - 78 I added another 150mg of Fluconazole on day 8 as well as added some top up RODI water. Things that I have noticed Fish are doing well, eating like starving pigs. Simi my possum wrasse still has missing scales on his side, but I have seen Hi-jinks my neon goby cleaning him and he is swimming and eating as normal. My shrimps and snail and emerald crab are doing well, active and eating well. Annie my Randal's pistol shrimp has rearranged the sand at the front of the tank several times since treatment started. Corals for the most part are doing well, getting bigger with full extensions. I have noted that my orange ricordea yuma mushroom is gone, melted away. It had not been doing well before treatment and then it got smothered in algae. It think that was what did it in not the treatment. My other two mushrooms are doing very well. I can see my Clove coral again, before the algae was so thick and tall that I could not see the clove. Now I can see most of the clove that is left. I lost some of the Clove when I tried to pull the algae out. Rocks that were completely cover, have less algae and some of the rocks have turned white were the algae has gone. I have noticed that in the areas where Annie doesn't move the sand, the sand is turning brownish-red. The aiptasia that I have in the tank is also doing really well and has gotten significantly bigger. 2 Quote Link to comment
jdmcbuilt Posted June 12, 2018 Share Posted June 12, 2018 2 hours ago, FollyFish said: Day 9 Water test come back as Cal - 500ppm KH - 125.3ppm PH - 8 Ammo - 0 Nitrite - 0 Nitrate - 5ppm Phos - 0 - I am running Phosband in the filter salt - 1.025 temp - 78 I added another 150mg of Fluconazole on day 8 as well as added some top up RODI water. Things that I have noticed Fish are doing well, eating like starving pigs. Simi my possum wrasse still has missing scales on his side, but I have seen Hi-jinks my neon goby cleaning him and he is swimming and eating as normal. My shrimps and snail and emerald crab are doing well, active and eating well. Annie my Randal's pistol shrimp has rearranged the sand at the front of the tank several times since treatment started. Corals for the most part are doing well, getting bigger with full extensions. I have noted that my orange ricordea yuma mushroom is gone, melted away. It had not been doing well before treatment and then it got smothered in algae. It think that was what did it in not the treatment. My other two mushrooms are doing very well. I can see my Clove coral again, before the algae was so thick and tall that I could not see the clove. Now I can see most of the clove that is left. I lost some of the Clove when I tried to pull the algae out. Rocks that were completely cover, have less algae and some of the rocks have turned white were the algae has gone. I have noticed that in the areas where Annie doesn't move the sand, the sand is turning brownish-red. The aiptasia that I have in the tank is also doing really well and has gotten significantly bigger. I would go the full 20 days with GHa. Possibly check levels around that time and maybe go to 25 days as long as your levels are safe. Again you dont have an abundance of corals to lose that much in CA Mg alk and trace elements. Eveb people with tank fulls domt need to replenish levels as often believ it or not. We forget our systems are their own ECOSYSTEMS and we are just there to maintain correct parameters. But your tank is looking great! Quote Link to comment
FollyFish Posted June 15, 2018 Author Share Posted June 15, 2018 Day 13 I am very happy with how things are progressing. Most of the algae is gone and what is left is short and grey hair algae. My plans for Sunday (Day 15) will be a full clean, vac sand, clean powerhead, filter, and refug, (I won't pull any algae) and do a 5G water change I am then going to re-dose 300mg of Fluconazole and wait another week. So far I have had only two losses not including the corals that I believe I lost before the start of treatment. Both of the losses during treatment were snails. One snail was killed by Annie (Randal's Pistol Shrimp) before I could save it. She has kill snails in the past and is a serial snail killer. The other was a Trochus snail that I have had for almost 2 years. It had gotten stuck under a rock in one of Annie's dugouts. When I noticed I pulled it out and placed it on the sand but it hasn't moved in 24hours so I think that it is dead. I don't know why it died but I will give it another day just in case it recovering. If it sill hasn't moved than I will google "signs that a snail is dead", as so far all my snail deaths have come by way of Annie. I know this as once she kills a snail she uses the shell to decorate her doorways. Again can you say serial snail killer. 1 Quote Link to comment
MSunkin23 Posted June 15, 2018 Share Posted June 15, 2018 Nice! - Yes I am a believer too. I am on day 10 on the fluconazole treatment and have similar water change re-treatment plan in the works. I have a lot of loose hair algae floating around the tank (stuck in powerhead) that I have to cleanup. Also my glass has been crystal clear, have not had to use my algae scraper in the last 10 days. I just hope my snails still had food to find... Miracle product.. glad it worked for you too. 1 Quote Link to comment
A Little Blue Posted June 15, 2018 Share Posted June 15, 2018 Looking goooood. 👍 Quote Link to comment
FollyFish Posted June 19, 2018 Author Share Posted June 19, 2018 Ok so the pics are from day 15 which is not today. On day 15 I removed the dead Trochus snail. I will get another one after the treatment is done. I cleaned the filter, and replaced the purigen and floss inside. I also cleaned the powerheads, refug, sand and rocks. I used Aiptasia X to kill some of the larger invaders. Then I did a 7G waterchange and redosed 300mg of Fluconazole. I am still happy with how things are going and hope the GHA will be gone by the end of this week. Right now a lot of the long GHA that is left is in the area's that get less light such as between rocks. The algea thats is on the top of the rocks looks almost like turf algea. 1 Quote Link to comment
Smackers4 Posted June 19, 2018 Share Posted June 19, 2018 On 6/3/2018 at 5:42 PM, FollyFish said: Today was my first day dosing 300mg of Fluconazole with the hope that it lives up to its hype as I am out of ideas and my next choice will be a tank tare-down and a complete reset. I see you said you’re going to add more, I I’m just about done treating my tank with Reef Flux which is also a fluconazole treatment. The directions say 20mg per gallon and NOT to take out for displacement of rock. So you should be using 500mg to treat IMO. Also you should be dissolving into a cup of tank water then pouring into a high flow area of the tank. 1 Quote Link to comment
jdmcbuilt Posted June 19, 2018 Share Posted June 19, 2018 1 hour ago, Smackers4 said: I see you said you’re going to add more, I I’m just about done treating my tank with Reef Flux which is also a fluconazole treatment. The directions say 20mg per gallon and NOT to take out for displacement of rock. So you should be using 500mg to treat IMO. Also you should be dissolving into a cup of tank water then pouring into a high flow area of the tank. When I dosed, I did 8 capsules of reef flux for 85 gallon. If he stops messing with it. I think it would work. Sometimes patience is the best medicine. Which all reefers struggle with. But if he doesnt change the water or do anything else and cuasing more nutrients to be agitated. He should be standing tall soon. GHA takes alot longer than bryopsis to kill. 1 Quote Link to comment
FollyFish Posted June 19, 2018 Author Share Posted June 19, 2018 1 hour ago, Smackers4 said: I see you said you’re going to add more, I I’m just about done treating my tank with Reef Flux which is also a fluconazole treatment. The directions say 20mg per gallon and NOT to take out for displacement of rock. So you should be using 500mg to treat IMO. Also you should be dissolving into a cup of tank water then pouring into a high flow area of the tank. Hello. Im not sure if it makes a difference but I am using human grade Fluconazole, it might or might not be the same strength as Reef Flux. In my research it was suggested that the dose is 20mg per gallon of actual tank water. I dosed 300mg because I had previously had 400mg in the water and I didnt do a complete water change therefore there would be some Fluconazole in the water from the previous dosing. I don't like the idea of overdosing, that has bitten me in the past. For adding the meds to the tank I actively mix in tank water about 5min. Turn off powerheads and filtration then apply directly to infected areas. I then feed my fish/inverts so they will stop chasing the meds that didnt dissolve. (They are very food aggressive/motivated) Wait 5 more mins then turn everything back on. Quote Link to comment
FollyFish Posted June 19, 2018 Author Share Posted June 19, 2018 😄 ok, so I will admit that I tend to use up all my patience at work and by the time get home and say hi to my pets, stare at the algae, im done. Plus this has been on going for about 9 months. I dont think I have been messing with the tank too much. The water change at day 15 has been suggested and my tank is overstocked for its size and footprint. I know that by doing the water change and redose, the treatment might take longer but think its a fair trade. Quote Link to comment
MSunkin23 Posted June 19, 2018 Share Posted June 19, 2018 Hi Folly, I diddnt know you left your purigen in, did you mean phosguard? - I ask becuase purigen is going to pick up organics such as fluconazole. You could be reducing your concentration with the presence of purigen in the tank. I think Phosguard is exclusive to phosphates. There are no phosphate or phosphorous molecules on the fluconazole molecule. I took out my chemipure blue for my fluconazole treatment and just put it back in this weekend. But looks like its working, so not a huge point- Quote Link to comment
FollyFish Posted June 19, 2018 Author Share Posted June 19, 2018 7 hours ago, MSunkin23 said: Hi Folly, I diddnt know you left your purigen in, did you mean phosguard? - I ask becuase purigen is going to pick up organics such as fluconazole. You could be reducing your concentration with the presence of purigen in the tank. I think Phosguard is exclusive to phosphates. There are no phosphate or phosphorous molecules on the fluconazole molecule. I took out my chemipure blue for my fluconazole treatment and just put it back in this weekend. But looks like its working, so not a huge point- Oops my bad, its phosguard I have in the filter. I have it in the filter because I was worry about the decay of algae bumping up the phosphates which would feed the algae that I am trying so very hard to kill. Especially since I am not doing my weekly cleaning and water changes...which btw I have never skipped up until now, kinda wigging me out. Quote Link to comment
MSunkin23 Posted June 19, 2018 Share Posted June 19, 2018 Right on, thats what I did. I did do a 30% water change this weekend (5gal), but I added ~100mg of fluconazole to that saltwater to keep the treatment going for a little while longer. I have had zero consequences or casualties in my tank. I think the dense hair algae was the most difficult to eradicate. Only now is it turning to a hard consistency which comes up with flow. awesome- Quote Link to comment
metrokat Posted June 20, 2018 Share Posted June 20, 2018 following. How is Simi? Quote Link to comment
jdmcbuilt Posted June 20, 2018 Share Posted June 20, 2018 3 hours ago, FollyFish said: Oops my bad, its phosguard I have in the filter. I have it in the filter because I was worry about the decay of algae bumping up the phosphates which would feed the algae that I am trying so very hard to kill. Especially since I am not doing my weekly cleaning and water changes...which btw I have never skipped up until now, kinda wigging me out. Take all filter media out. Your just fighting the battle with your self. Start over if its not what you expected. This stuff works but you have to follow it to a tee. Remove all media. Dont over think your nutrients. Our systems are technically their own ecosystems . Buy reef flux. Add the correct dosage. Follow thru till day 15 for water change. Stir in tank water and keep powerheads on while dosing. Its known not to do anything if your spot dosing. Dont feed fish like you normally would do, skip a day or two. To help control the nutrients your worried about. Once under control. Continue to your regular feeding schedule and add all media back. I suggest using GFO instead of Phosguard it contains aluminium oxide. Chemipure elite or chemipure blue works great. Otherwise GFO and carbon in bulk and it should last you awhile. Quote Link to comment
FollyFish Posted June 23, 2018 Author Share Posted June 23, 2018 On 6/19/2018 at 8:50 PM, metrokat said: following. How is Simi? Day 18 Simi is doing ok, you can still see the areas where s/he has missing scales on the side and head. As seen in the following pics. I have been dosing the food with garlic and vita-chem, to help with healing. I haven't seen any change in the behaviour of the fish or their willingness to try to eat anything that is in the water. Simi still has a major grudge against all snails, I just watched him knock another snail off a rock. Quote Link to comment
FollyFish Posted June 23, 2018 Author Share Posted June 23, 2018 Day 21 There is still just a little bit of algae left. Tiny clumps mostly on the undersides of some of the rocks, so I am going to leave the treatment for another few days, it see if it will go away completely. So far I would say about 97% of the algae is gone. (little happy dance) I am not sure if it will 100% go away but I am willing to wait and see. 2 Quote Link to comment
jdmcbuilt Posted June 23, 2018 Share Posted June 23, 2018 34 minutes ago, FollyFish said: Day 21 There is still just a little bit of algae left. Tiny clumps mostly on the undersides of some of the rocks, so I am going to leave the treatment for another few days, it see if it will go away completely. So far I would say about 97% of the algae is gone. (little happy dance) I am not sure if it will 100% go away but I am willing to wait and see. It looks 10x better. Stay patient. If your levels are acceptable dont do a water change keep at it. Quote Link to comment
FISHnChix Posted June 24, 2018 Share Posted June 24, 2018 Congrats on kicking this algae.. maybe I missed it.. but how may mg per gallon did you use. Or how much did you dose us what I'm getting at..🤔🤔 Quote Link to comment
FollyFish Posted June 24, 2018 Author Share Posted June 24, 2018 20 hours ago, jdmcbuilt said: It looks 10x better. Stay patient. If your levels are acceptable dont do a water change keep at it. 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. Quote Link to comment
FollyFish Posted June 24, 2018 Author Share Posted June 24, 2018 13 hours ago, Weikel said: Congrats on kicking this algae.. maybe I missed it.. but how may mg per gallon did you use. Or how much did you dose us what I'm getting at..🤔🤔 I started with approximately 15mg for the first few days then I bump it up to approximately 22mg until the end of the 2nd week (15 days). At that time I did a full clean on everything that had to be plugged in as well as changed 7G of water. I then dosed another 300mg due to the water change. On a side note it has been suggested that the dose be 20mg per gallon of actual tank water. I ended up higher due to the fact that the Fluconazole pills I found where in 150mg only and I don't know how to remesure/break up the pills. Quote Link to comment
FollyFish Posted June 24, 2018 Author Share Posted June 24, 2018 On 6/19/2018 at 10:47 PM, jdmcbuilt said: Take all filter media out. Your just fighting the battle with your self. Start over if its not what you expected. This stuff works but you have to follow it to a tee. Remove all media. Dont over think your nutrients. Our systems are technically their own ecosystems . Buy reef flux. Add the correct dosage. Follow thru till day 15 for water change. Stir in tank water and keep powerheads on while dosing. Its known not to do anything if your spot dosing. Dont feed fish like you normally would do, skip a day or two. To help control the nutrients your worried about. Once under control. Continue to your regular feeding schedule and add all media back. I suggest using GFO instead of Phosguard it contains aluminium oxide. Chemipure elite or chemipure blue works great. Otherwise GFO and carbon in bulk and it should last you awhile. 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. Quote Link to comment
jdmcbuilt Posted June 24, 2018 Share Posted June 24, 2018 14 minutes ago, 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. Its aluminum oxide. Dont you want to keep metals from leaching into your watrr column? Quote Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.