Reef flux and safety of use

[tribbitt]

Hey all! Wanted to ask if you guys had any experiences with this. I have some bryopsis and a little more GHA. I've been manually removing it, but that's getting pretty tiring and it seems to be getting worse. I'm looking into Reef Flux to take care of the bryopsis, and some people have said it helps with GHA as well. I also have seen reports of peoples' macros all dying, one guy whose SPS melted in a few days, and some other complaints.

My question is: will reef flux be safe for use against algae? I plan on grabbing some macros and I don't want either that or my coral to suffer. I'm talking specifically about Reef Flux brand if that makes any difference. I intend to keep a constant low dose running in the tank as recommended by some R2R thread (or let it eventually get water changed out: either way, it's going to be there for a while). I've just been spooked by some other peoples' experiences.

Thanks for any insights you guys may have!

 

[Song]

I used it with my chaeto in the sump. I don't remember if my chaeto was impacted but at least the chaeto did not die off.

 

[tribbitt]

I used it with my chaeto in the sump. I don't remember if my chaeto was impacted but at least the chaeto did not die off.

Good to hear your experience

 

[MichaelB]

I had some bryopsis a year back, nothing else worked for dealing with it. I've also read somewhere on this fourm other people had unexpected issues with it, so I would read up on it more so you know the risks. I had no ill effects personally.

 

[JVU]

Fluconazole works great against bryopsis, and good against green hair algae. The first time you use it, I’d recommend just the standard 14 day course because for many people that eliminates the bryopsis, and knocks back the GHA enough to keep it under control. I don’t think GHA is “curable” but bryopsis seems to be.

I’ve used it a few times over the years. I’ve never had anything else die from it at the standard 20 mg/gallon one-time dose. It doesn’t directly harm any animals (including coral) in the tank that I know of. It doesn’t kill chaeto in my experience, but does make it unhappy (not grow during treatment). People report it does kill Caulerpa, but that’s illegal anyway so hopefully you don’t have it. There are lots of other ornamental macroalgaes out there and I would not assume specific ones would be fine with it- some probably won’t be. What I’ve done is set up a temporary tank with a 5g gallon bucket, air stone, and heater with tank water and no fluconazole to run alongside the tank for the 2 weeks with the other macro I’m worried about. While leaving some of it in the tank so I’ll know for next time.

I think most of the people who have problems with fluconazole treatment are actually having problems with the die-off of algae that it causes. It’s not good to have large amounts of biomass in your tank die all at once. You have to be serious about getting out every little bit of algae you can manually before you start the treatment. And watch your pH for drops carefully during treatment.

I’ve kept the skimmer off for 3 days then turned back on. I don’t actually know if you have to turn it off at all, but I know that turning it back on after 3 days (which is when bryopsis starts dying anyway) is fine.

Running carbon in a reactor will remove the fluconazole. So if you want to remove the treatment after 2 weeks (or earlier if you see problems), that’s an easy option. It also means you can’t run a continuous low dose and continuous carbon.

Good luck

 

[richiev]

I had a similar experience as @JVU. I've used in my frag tank a couple times. Bryopsis nothing else except a sea hare seems touch. Reef Flux kills it.

I've run it with chaeto and seen a bit of whitening / die off, but didn't wipe it out or anything. Hasn't notably impacted anything else. I would think it's not the safest thing to use if you're focusing on ornamental macros. I'd personally pull at least part of each of those out and store them in some clean water for at least the start of the treatment.

Edit: lol, I only skimmed @JVU's final part of his response. His answer on macros is more complete and better than mine!

 

[RandyC]

I’ve used 4x the dosage to try to eradicate bubble algae. No ill effects to anything that I could see except the bubble algae. Even the chaeto survived.

 

[tribbitt]

I kind of want some Sprung’s Burning Bush that I saw on DBTC, so I’m worried id kill such a nice macro algae.

 

[MichaelB]

I kind of want some Sprung’s Burning Bush that I saw on DBTC, so I’m worried id kill such a nice macro algae.

Unless you have a outta control alage you may not need it, as in more clean up crew might be sufficent. Every situation is different. Yet I'd lean towards natural approach first.

 

[Darkxerox]

I kind of want some Sprung’s Burning Bush that I saw on DBTC, so I’m worried id kill such a nice macro algae.

There's so much spread out in the club I wouldn't worry about it, someone will have it.

 

[JVU]

Unless you have a outta control alage you may not need it, as in more clean up crew might be sufficent. Every situation is different. Yet I'd lean towards natural approach first.

Normally I’d agree, but bryopsis is a different beast. As far as I know nothing in the hobby really eats it and it’s difficult or impossible to remove/treat entirely manually.

 

[MichaelB]

Normally I’d agree, but bryopsis is a different beast. As far as I know nothing in the hobby really eats it and it’s difficult or impossible to remove/treat entirely manually.

Definitely not in disagreement I saw GHA and somehow glazed over and didn't see him saying he had bryopsis. I went and reread his post just now. Yes, nothing I tried on bryopsis when I had it worked except reef flux.

 

[tribbitt]

So it seems everyone's consensus is: use reef flux, it's the best way to kill bryopsis.

Does anyone have experience with having Sprung's burning bush and reef flux at the same time? I do want to leave it in for a while (at a lower dose) to kill off the GHA.

I am prepared for a mild nutrient spike, will remove all the algae I can by hand before I dose it on day 1

 

[tribbitt]

Oh, and I think my nitrates have been kept in check largely due to my algae: it hasn't exceeded 10ppm, even for the first 3 months in which I didn't do water changes very often. I'm kind of worried as to how much my nutrients will spike and stay high, especially if macro will stop growing during treatment.

 

[JVU]

So it seems everyone's consensus is: use reef flux, it's the best way to kill bryopsis.

Does anyone have experience with having Sprung's burning bush and reef flux at the same time? I do want to leave it in for a while (at a lower dose) to kill off the GHA.

I am prepared for a mild nutrient spike, will remove all the algae I can by hand before I dose it on day 1

This is my sprung’s burning bush on day 13 of fluconazole treatment (today). This is my first time treating with it in there. I took most of it out and put in a separate tank not getting treatment as I recommend above. It looks like it’s doing fine but maybe hasn’t grown as much as usual during the treatment time. The bryopsis and GHA I had is gone. Tentatively I’d say it’s fine to leave in but won’t be completely confident about that until I see it growing well again post-treatment.

 

[tribbitt]

This is my sprung’s burning bush on day 13 of fluconazole treatment (today). This is my first time treating with it in there. I took most of it out and put in a separate tank not getting treatment as I recommend above. It looks like it’s doing fine but maybe hasn’t grown as much as usual during the treatment time. The bryopsis and GHA I had is gone. Tentatively I’d say it’s fine to leave in but won’t be completely confident about that until I see it growing well again post-treatment.

View attachment 54319

whoa. That's a really nice macro.

Awesome to know that it's doing fine, really good info