10 gallon tank help? GHA or something else?

[Charlie G]

Hi all,

Hope you can help with my 10 g tank. I had it for about 2 years. It’s not my main tank but I was using it as an observational quarantine tank 2 years ago and then kept it going. I have had gha issues over that time as a CUC has not been effective.

I do keep my nutrients low (will post) and I try to keep up with weekly water changes or at least every 2 weeks. I’m use to the gha but I’m noticing more air bubbles develop on the gha.

I have a Molly miller blenny and a clown fish.

Bta
Octospawn
Hammer
Duncan
And a good size pulsing Xenia

My nutrients as of 2/19:
Salinity 1.026
Nitrates 0.0
Phos 0.04
Alk 6.3 which I corrected over two days.

Below are some pics.

Any advice/help greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

 

[Subsea]

@Charlie G
Looks more like bacterial slime mixed in with gha.

Undesirable nuisance algae’s are opportunistic with multiple feeding strategies. This means that when nutrients are limited, desirable competition suffers and the uglies flourish.

Cyanobacteria can fix their own nitrogen in a process called “nitrogen fixation”, so that when you limit nitrogen, cyno flourishes when competition decreases.

Dinoflagellets flourish when phosphate & nitrogen are both limited.

“I have had gha issues over that time as a CUC has not been effective.“

In 55 years of reefing, I have had gha in every system. I maintain it with cuc and sometime that means I am the biggest janitor. In my experiences, everybody eats gha including pods.

 

[Charlie G]

Looks more like bacterial slime mixed in with gha.

Undesirable nuisance algae’s are opportunistic with multiple feeding strategies. This means that when nutrients are limited, desirable competition suffers and the uglies flourish.

Cyanobacteria can fix their own nitrigin in a process called “nitrogen fixation”, so that when you limit nitrogen, cyno flourishes when competition decreases.

Dinoflagellets flourish when phosphate & nitrogen are limited.

“I have had gha issues over that time as a CUC has not been effective.“

In 55 years of reefing, I have had gha in every system. I maintain it with cuc and sometime that means I am the biggest janitor. In my experiences, everybody eats gha including pods.

Thank you for getting back to me.
Would increasing my nitrates alone help?
Should I or could I do anything else to help or would that alone help with time ?

 

[Subsea]

With a small tank, I would RIP clean substrate and rocks. Then,
I would get more clean up crew and I would feed more.

Depending on your test kit, I consider that phosphate number of 0.04ppm to be low as well.

When you say you keep your nutrients low, ZERO nitrate is not low; it’s zero.
However, know this, you are measuring inorganic nitrate and there are other forms of nitrate.

@Charlie G
Look at this thread and see if there is common ground

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/low-po4-and-nitrate-bust-still-gha.1149373/