#1 Cause of GHA is (you fill in the blank)

Eackone

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Lawnmower blenny, most tangs, rabbitfish, mexican turbo snails, most urchins, sea hares, lettuce nudibranchs, emerald crabs, hermit crabs (though they don't eat much)

I have experienced all of these eating large quantities of hair algae.

I guess I'm just unlucky... My snails, tang, blenny and emerald crabs don't seem to touch it really. Only the tuxedo Urchins, I'm considering getting another kind of urchin to try it out.
 

Cthulukelele

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I guess I'm just unlucky... My snails, tang, blenny and emerald crabs don't seem to touch it really. Only the tuxedo Urchins, I'm considering getting another kind of urchin to try it out.
Those ora pink urchins eat it like crazy, but they get pretty huge and can be serious bulldozers
 

TMB

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Yep, it's all about the herbivores. Get enough hungry animals in there competing for food (algae), and you'll never have a problem.
I believe the tanks that have herbivores, and say they don't touch it, just don't have enough competition. As soon as they fear another animal beating them to it, they'll go after it like crazy in order to "steal it" from the others.
 

ca1ore

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Honest question:
To those referencing the lack of adequate CUC, what do you consider to be effective for GHA? I haven't had success with many critters taking on GHA and I'm trying to go Hermit-less as I recently noticed some picking at the tissue of some euphillias. Trying out only snails and other CUC members, however I'm concerned for GHA.

Honest answer LOL ….. I gave up on snails years ago. I do still like to have some hermits. though my dusky wrasse mostly just eats them. For me it's a gang of fish. Not all will eat GHA, some need 'training', but my group of tangs will eat any of it they can reach.
 

vetteguy53081

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Overfeeding, high nutrients and inadequate water movement
 

JasPR

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Fun answers! ALL algae needs very little encouragement- some very basic things- Light, nutrient, luxury nutrient storage. And they are gifted at getting that stuff from several sources- that is why EVERYONE contributes the growth to their observations ( in isolation as antidotal evidence). I'll let others go on and on about chemicals, compound chemicals, elements and byproducts. I'll just add this to the conversation--- start with a clean system of RO/DI water. Make sure you have cultivated a good crop of heterotrophic and autotrophic bacteria. Watch your importation of nutrients vis feeding, amounts of food and types of food. DO your weekly or 'twice a month' water changes and include vacuuming of sand in your maintenance. IF you use a canister filter for chemical media-- maintain it! Use a protein skimmer that works. Battery test your source water for any unusual characteristics contained in your tap or well water-- know its parameters as some things will get thru your RO/DI if they are in unusually large concentrations. If you do these things, algae outbreaks will be something you only read about.
 

EmptyWallet

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It's a mystery to me. I lost the war on GHA (8x2x2 tank full of rock, covered in GHA) in a tank with 'near zero' nutrients. Then I moved house. Scrubbed all the GHA off each rock when I took it out of old tank, setup the rock in the new tank (filled with new saltwater) and months later haven't seen a spec of GHA since.

Everything from CUC, fish, corals, feeding quantities types and brands, additives/dosing, every variable you can think of is identical between the old and new tank with 2 exceptions - 1. replaced year old water with fresh water (ICP on old water only showed elevated zinc and tin as 'abnormal')- 2. Removed the sand bed and went bare bottom. My best guess is the GHA was being fuelled by detritus in sand bed, coupled by it being allowed to take hold despite having good Coralline coverage on the rocks
 

Wild-n-wonderful1

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I'm relatively new to reefing, but I'm jw, is it REALLY such a bad thing to have a little GHA growing? I used to have hundreds upon hundreds of gallons of freshwater for years so im not completely oblivious as to how a lot of it works. My params test fine..(from what tests I actually do have) and my fish and corals are healthy. I have a few spots here and there of GHA growing. It has stayed the same size and locations for the most part for a few months. So is it unhealthy? Or is it just an "eyesore"? If you are trying to mimic the ocean in your tank, then your params should allow it to grow. I think it looks more natural and diverse. I wouldn't want just one big purple spot to stare at. Not trying to argue any point, just wondering ‍♂️
 

sghera64

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Honest question:
To those referencing the lack of adequate CUC, what do you consider to be effective for GHA? I haven't had success with many critters taking on GHA and I'm trying to go Hermit-less as I recently noticed some picking at the tissue of some euphillias. Trying out only snails and other CUC members, however I'm concerned for GHA.

I agree with the inverts others mentioned above. In the early years, these really made a difference. I think I ordered a GARF 150 pack.

However, I don't have any of those left in my tank any longer. I did years ago but have not replaced them. Yet, I have almost no GHA in my 135 Gal DT which only has SPS, LPS, mushrooms, zoas, 3 tangs, 2 clowns, a small lawnmower blenny and a bi-color blenny. I'm thinking the 2 yellow and Kole tangs really pull their weight (out in GHA).
 

Biokabe

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I'm relatively new to reefing, but I'm jw, is it REALLY such a bad thing to have a little GHA growing? I used to have hundreds upon hundreds of gallons of freshwater for years so im not completely oblivious as to how a lot of it works. My params test fine..(from what tests I actually do have) and my fish and corals are healthy. I have a few spots here and there of GHA growing. It has stayed the same size and locations for the most part for a few months. So is it unhealthy? Or is it just an "eyesore"? If you are trying to mimic the ocean in your tank, then your params should allow it to grow. I think it looks more natural and diverse. I wouldn't want just one big purple spot to stare at. Not trying to argue any point, just wondering ‍♂️

The problem with GHA in an enclosed space is that, if given the chance, it will outcompete everything else and eventually smother any other photosynthetic organisms.

We may be trying to mimic the ocean in our tanks, but there are some aspects of the natural ocean environment that we just can't mimic. Continuous 100% water changes every few minutes, for example. Flocks of herbivores scouring every square inch of real estate for algal growth. Ultra-stable water chemistry, and a light source powerful enough to light the tank down to a depth of 300 feet while resting 93 million miles above the water's surface. GHA evolved to compete successfully in those conditions. Put into an enclosed glass box where everything that it needs is provided in abundance while protected from its most voracious predators, it can and will grow to prodigious lengths. If you don't keep it in check, pretty soon you'll go from keeping a reef tank to keeping an algae tank.

Truth is, we're not trying to mimic the ocean. Frankly, we can't. We're all of us trying to present our own idealized versions of a fantasy reef, but very few of our tanks would or could ever occur in nature. So it's okay to have this idealized vision of mimicking the ocean, but don't let that vision get in the way of keeping a healthy reef tank.
 

stacksoner

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I'm relatively new to reefing, but I'm jw, is it REALLY such a bad thing to have a little GHA growing? I used to have hundreds upon hundreds of gallons of freshwater for years so im not completely oblivious as to how a lot of it works. My params test fine..(from what tests I actually do have) and my fish and corals are healthy. I have a few spots here and there of GHA growing. It has stayed the same size and locations for the most part for a few months. So is it unhealthy? Or is it just an "eyesore"? If you are trying to mimic the ocean in your tank, then your params should allow it to grow. I think it looks more natural and diverse. I wouldn't want just one big purple spot to stare at. Not trying to argue any point, just wondering ‍♂️

All problems in this hobby from GHA and cyano to parasites and other reef pests first present themselves in a nonthreatening, easily dismissable--"just a little" form.
 

Daniel@R2R

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I guess I'm just unlucky... My snails, tang, blenny and emerald crabs don't seem to touch it really. Only the tuxedo Urchins, I'm considering getting another kind of urchin to try it out.
This makes me wonder if what you have is GHA. If all of those animals are avoiding it, it makes me think you may actually have bryopsis rather than GHA.
 

brandon429

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It's my estimate that a massive portion of reef invasions/ GHA result from applying incorrect microbiology to reefing, i.e. I can't access my tank using X because the bacteria will die. I can't rinse my sand, bacteria will die. I can't change all the water / bacteria

I can't use peroxide / says anti bacterial on the label

I can't expose my rocks to air to access them/ bacteria will die

If I change my scape around/ bacteria will die

If I withhold feed for a while/ bacteria

And ten more. All of the hesitation and misinfo amounts to a small something choosing when where and how it takes over your whole aquarium.

If there was a small patch of gha in my tank left there, in a no coralline spot, it wouldn't harm anything since I have the will to keep it small or gone.

Having gha in the tank is not harmful when the boundaries of play and options are accurate

nobody's doctor, resident microbiologist or lab tech told all aquarists they had such master control over hydrated bac to ascribe such weakness to the strongest communities we keep, much stronger than corals. Aquarists typed it, assumed it, and said it was so.

Today's reefing is influenced heavily by bro microbiology and due to that the need for work threads to fix invasions are endless.

*what is not bro microbiology is the great work they're doing in the invasion forums regarding dinos and balancing out the nutrients that allow competing microbes to thrive, I think it may be the first statistically significant technique shown for dinos control
 
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Sallstrom

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This makes me wonder if what you have is GHA. If all of those animals are avoiding it, it makes me think you may actually have bryopsis rather than GHA.

Green hair algae itself is a very vide term. I guess it means algae that is hairlike and green. I think there are a lot of species that can fit that description:)

I agree on Bryopsis being more bush-like, or feather like, and doesn't seem to be as tasty as other green also for some herbivores.
 

TVV

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Too long of a lighting period and nutrient heavy water.

Limit lighting period and keep down nutrients. Macro algae used to consume nutrients limit those available for GHA. Invertebrates that consume algae do help reduce GHA, but then you are obliged to keep growing it to keep them alive. When there is no food for them, they die. Regimented, frequent water changes with a trusted, proven salt mixture.
 

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