After dinoflagelattes comes the green hair algae - how did you handle this?

Charley

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About 9 months ago, after getting phosphates and nitrates to zero ( I was so happy ), I brought on dinoflagelattes. Was fortunate enough to beat dinoflagelattes by out competing them after everything else I tried, 3 day blackouts, etc. I let GHA grow like crazy and dosed phytoplankton, copepods heavily and it worked. But was left with tons of beautiful flowing GHA.

So now to finally deal with getting rid of GHA I am running Rowaphos, dosing NoPox for about 3 weeks now to some effect, plus was pulling some out by hand until my thumb ran into a bristleworm and spent the next few hours picking bristles out of my thumb.

Just 3 days ago, I reduced the green and red spectrum of the leds significantly. Hope this will really help. Results not in yet.

But concerned if I beat the GHA, dinoflagelattes will make an ugly return.

Has anyone went from dinoflagelattes to GHA and if so, any thoughts how to handle.
 

EmdeReef

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About 9 months ago, after getting phosphates and nitrates to zero ( I was so happy ), I brought on dinoflagelattes. Was fortunate enough to beat dinoflagelattes by out competing them after everything else I tried, 3 day blackouts, etc. I let GHA grow like crazy and dosed phytoplankton, copepods heavily and it worked. But was left with tons of beautiful flowing GHA.

So now to finally deal with getting rid of GHA I am running Rowaphos, dosing NoPox for about 3 weeks now to some effect, plus was pulling some out by hand until my thumb ran into a bristleworm and spent the next few hours picking bristles out of my thumb.

Just 3 days ago, I reduced the green and red spectrum of the leds significantly. Hope this will really help. Results not in yet.

But concerned if I beat the GHA, dinoflagelattes will make an ugly return.

Has anyone went from dinoflagelattes to GHA and if so, any thoughts how to handle.

I let GHA feed my fish, snails, crabs, abalone...

Unless it’s reaching plague proportions your CUC + fish should be able to keep it in check.

If you dive the reefs you can witness there’s all sorts of algae everywhere. More often than not, trying to fight it can cause more issues than the algae itself.
 

brandon429

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multiple times in the thread we request algae challenges, if the keeper stays updated/actioned we get the after pics too.



that is pure gha fixing, and cannot cause Dinos in the process.

that thread alone is approaching 20 pages/no dinos.

in it is links to nano-reef.com and reefcentral.com gha fixes, 200 more pages of the exact same work, ranging 10 years all in one thread. no dinos.

the pattern is clean fixed tanks and the keeper steps up vs sits back. we list a few things to do to the tank first, before the algae kill, and that usually weeds out 99% of not ready to be fixed yet/ hold on to the invasion a little longer. ours is a no hesitation thread solely, so its rare to have any participation I have to outbound offer 200:1 to get some work lol.

but those test rocks, the after pics, the not subjecting your whole tank and corals to a months long experiment...has weight to consider for sure among legit cures.

anything you dose to the water: leaves detritus fuel for next succession.


post pics, you may not have a sandbed at the heart of the challenge, small details really stand out in analysis pics.

Removing detritus has never, never caused a dinos bloom it suppresses them.

the resolved reefers continue on with tank surgery/declouding and get us the after pics... and their tank has no massive detritus stores locked in the rocks and sand from having cleaned, before the algae kill. so the algae stays manageable longer, we like to address the cause along with the kill of the algae.
B
 
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Pennywise the Clown

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Whatever GHA I had after dinos my CuC wouldn't touch. I found it almost as frustrating as dinos to deal with.
Then I purchased and started dosing Vibrant and within 3 weeks every trace of GHA has disappeared. And it hasn't come back.
 

Hitman

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I completely agree with what @EmdeReef said. The more you tinker with rowaphos, nopox etc. the bigger chance you will just be going back and forth with the two issues. Snails, some crabs, Tangs, etc will take care of it naturally. FYI a large portion of people that used nopox while tinkering end up getting cyano by the time everything is done so you just go onto other issues.
 
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Charley

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Ok, here are pics right before my my mini crash about a ninth month ago. Left and right side of 450 reefer

20190720_180818.jpg 20190720_180812.jpg
 

motortrendz

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So I had issues with gha and briopsis. I dosed fluconazole. It wiped out the briopsis in about 2 weeks. I allowed the fluc to stay in the system for about 4 more weeks where slowly the GHA turned white at the tips and slowly regressed to the base and dissapeared. Took about 6 weeks total. But it worked.
 

motortrendz

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Jusy dont allow your nutrient levels to reach zero. I dosed phosphorus during the treatment to maintain po4 levels above zero. (0.08-0.12) and my nitrates never get below 5. So i didn't have a dino problem.

I would assume that the dinos could come bc your creating a void which allows them to grow. I just have not experienced that personally.
 
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Charley

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Jusy dont allow your nutrient levels to reach zero. I dosed phosphorus during the treatment to maintain po4 levels above zero. (0.08-0.12) and my nitrates never get below 5. So i didn't have a dino problem.

I would assume that the dinos could come bc your creating a void which allows them to grow. I just have not experienced that personally.
If I do not let the nutrients go to zero and stay just above as you suggest....is it enough to take down the GHA? I hope reducing red and green in lighting will help significantly
 

motortrendz

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I turn off my red and green completely on my lights. Every time I turn them up o wind up with some sort of algae I dont want. I've treated gha with fluc 2x now. Once in my tank and once in my dads tank(well he did it i just advised him) and both tanks were clear in about 6 weeks. With no adverse effects. You need to turn off carbon and do no water changes during this time. If you do need to do a water change you need to add back in the fluc for the replaced water volume.
 

REEFer86

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About 9 months ago, after getting phosphates and nitrates to zero ( I was so happy ), I brought on dinoflagelattes. Was fortunate enough to beat dinoflagelattes by out competing them after everything else I tried, 3 day blackouts, etc. I let GHA grow like crazy and dosed phytoplankton, copepods heavily and it worked. But was left with tons of beautiful flowing GHA.

So now to finally deal with getting rid of GHA I am running Rowaphos, dosing NoPox for about 3 weeks now to some effect, plus was pulling some out by hand until my thumb ran into a bristleworm and spent the next few hours picking bristles out of my thumb.

Just 3 days ago, I reduced the green and red spectrum of the leds significantly. Hope this will really help. Results not in yet.

But concerned if I beat the GHA, dinoflagelattes will make an ugly return.

Has anyone went from dinoflagelattes to GHA and if so, any thoughts how to handle.
image.jpg


Get a lawnmower Blenny. He does wonders! And so fun to watch.

I too went from Dino ( I think ) to GHA to Cyano. Cyano is slowly going away. I Picked it out here and there but it’s hard to. GHA is still around and don’t mind it it’s not as much as it use to be and CUC does a good job at making it look non existent.
 
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REEFer86

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If I do not let the nutrients go to zero and stay just above as you suggest....is it enough to take down the GHA? I hope reducing red and green in lighting will help significantly
About 9 months ago, after getting phosphates and nitrates to zero ( I was so happy ), I brought on dinoflagelattes. Was fortunate enough to beat dinoflagelattes by out competing them after everything else I tried, 3 day blackouts, etc. I let GHA grow like crazy and dosed phytoplankton, copepods heavily and it worked. But was left with tons of beautiful flowing GHA.

So now to finally deal with getting rid of GHA I am running Rowaphos, dosing NoPox for about 3 weeks now to some effect, plus was pulling some out by hand until my thumb ran into a bristleworm and spent the next few hours picking bristles out of my thumb.

Just 3 days ago, I reduced the green and red spectrum of the leds significantly. Hope this will really help. Results not in yet.

But concerned if I beat the GHA, dinoflagelattes will make an ugly return.

Has anyone went from dinoflagelattes to GHA and if so, any thoughts how to handle.
How long do you run your skimmer for?
 

Aquanautical

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I'm having the same problem right now, Dino's almost gone boom algae out of nowhere.

I'm doing manual removal now and dosing phyto before I do anything severe. I've been freaking tinkering for over a month now due to the Dino's I just wanna leave the tank be so corals can grow
 
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Charley

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image.jpg


Get a lawnmower Blenny. He does wonders! And so fun to watch.

I too went from Dino ( I think ) to GHA to Cyano. Cyano is slowly going away. Pick it out here and there but it’s hard too. GHA is still around and don’t mind it it’s not as much as it use to be and CUC does a good job at making it look non existent.
Thanks, have a fat and happy lawnmower blennie. Added 3 small turbo snails
 

REEFer86

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I'm having the same problem right now, Dino's almost gone boom algae out of nowhere.

I'm doing manual removal now and dosing phyto before I do anything severe. I've been freaking tinkering for over a month now due to the Dino's I just wanna leave the tank be so corals can grow
I’m hesitant on using all these quick fix solutions seems to cause more problems. I’ve just been letting nature run it’s course and of course I’ve helped by adding Macroalgae to the refugium, phytoplankton and a CUC as well as a fish that is dependent on the algae.
 

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