Alright need some help with GHA and diatoms

[webbl19]

I've got to be doing something wrong, or maybe this is normal at this stage.

I've been trying to control a GHA outbreak, been going on for awhile so I think it's well established. I also keep having diatom blooms in my sand.

Info on the tank-
5 months old
20 gallon display and 10 gallon sump/refugium
Cheap eBay skimmer rated for 60gallons I think
eBay 165w led light
Lighting, I have the blues at 50% and whites at 25%. Blues run from 8am-10pm normally manually lower them to 25% at about 8pm. Whites are on from 8am-6pm
1 main circulating pump
1 tiny 10gph that I have pointed at the second pic below
Return pipe with holes drilled that flow across the top, creates the ripples and more flow from top to bottom
Reactor with gfo in it, I was mixing carbon and gfo
Ammonia/Nitrates/Nitrites all show 0 on the API test kits
Ph -7.8-8 depending on when I check it
I do 20% weekly water changes
I feed once a day, I flip flop pellets and brine shrimp

1 tomato clown
1 oscellaris clown
1 valentini puffer
1 engineer goby
1 long tentacle anemone
4 astrea snails
I think 5 nasurrius snails, they are under the sand bed because of the puffer, they come out at night so I never see them
About 5 hermits

About 8 different corals. I can list them if needed, not sure if they contribute to algae growth.

Anyway, the GHA started probably about 3 months ago? Feels like forever so I don't know for sure. I was using tap water at the time, but have switched to lfs ro/di for the last month. I had a cyano outbreak about 2 weeks ago, got pretty nasty so I got some chemiclean which took care of that after 2 doses.

I manually remove the gha as much as possible at every water change. I have chaeto in my refugium as well as a small amount of gha, trying to leave it there to try and out grow what's in the display.

I don't know how to get rid of this without harming fish or corals. I hear about peroxide, but I have corals glued to the rocks, so I don't know if that's a good idea to take them out.

This is a big bush, of I think byrosis, (spelling is wrong, but I saw something like it in the stickie) that I came home to find today. This was not there yesterday!

Here you can see the patches of the gha
All over the right and back of this rock.

All over the top.

Full tank pic

Phone pics, so they aren't the best. it might not look bad, but it is. I've seen worse examples posted on here though. I can take more under more white light if needed.

Can you help me destroy this yuck? Is the only way to get in and scrub the crap out of it? Will it harm any of the good bacteria living on the rocks? How do you control the mess it will make? Do I need chemical warfare?

Thanks for the help and advice

 

[Reefing Madness]

I don't see any phosphate numbers. ?? Carbon and GFO won't cut out all the phosphates, its gotta be GFO, or Lanthanum or a combo of both, if your phsophates are high.
You should also test your incoming waters TDS and phosphates to see whats going on.

 

[Sabellafella]

dang you got the std of saltwater fishtanks, bryopsis

 

[webbl19]

I don't see any phosphate numbers. ?? Carbon and GFO won't cut out all the phosphates, its gotta be GFO, or Lanthanum or a combo of both, if your phsophates are high.
You should also test your incoming waters TDS and phosphates to see whats going on.

Thanks. I don't currently have a phosphate test kit. I will grab one tomorrow. I need some water anyway. I will test both the tank and the new water and post the levels.

I also don't have a TDS meter. Is that something you can have your fish store test? Not sure if they do that or not. I've seen some for sale, so if I find one cheap enough I'll grab one.

I've been looking at different RO/DI units, but that's not an option just yet. I am planning on upgrading to a 40g breeder this winter and will probably get it around that time. Still need to research plumbing and all that good stuff.

 

[Sabellafella]

What kind of sand is that also? How long has the tank ben running

 

[Sabellafella]

Ive ben battleing bryopsis on a frag rock of mine for like 4 months now it kinda looks like little ferns , but yea you have to get rodi water is a must and juss keep up woth waterchanges and youll b fine everything will go away on its own

 

[brandon429]

Your tanks is easy to fix w peroxide we can predict nearly the number of days it will take to die off pics. You don't dump peroxide in the tank...so no harm to corals. You may also choose to wait it out, farming prefs vary. I opt for no algae from day 1 to year ten.

After trying other methods if you want the rock free of algae in about 3 days post your full tank shot in the thread down below this one called pest algae challenge thread. That's a thread where we dare tanks to break prediction times. Simple emersed treatment repeated a couple times easy easy. The sandbed is handled by simple focused siphon removal as you step up water changes a bit and the rock algae is killed independently of all nutrients just as the threads show. I linked a 60 page example thread in there.

 

[webbl19]

What kind of sand is that also? How long has the tank ben running

It's play sand. I see mixed reviews on it. I know its probably not the best, but it doesn't seem to be an issue. Possibly is what is causing the diatom blooms from what I've read. My engineer goby and snails keeps it pretty well sifted.

When I get my 40 I will probably buy some new live sand.

Tanks been going about 5 months.

 

[D maul]

Good move on not using tap water. If your going to use rodi from lfs store you should check the tds to make sure it's 0.

 

[webbl19]

Here are my test readings just now. I did a 3 gallon water change yesterday. I couldn't stand it anymore, I got a toothbrush and scrubbed it down and then changed some water.

Ph -8.0
Ammonia/Nitrite/Nitrate -0ppm
Phosphate -0.25ppm
KH -10 drops, so 140-200ppm I guess
Calcium -520ppm

Those are all the test kits I have. I didn't have them check the TDS and I forgot to look for the reader.

After the scrub down it's looking better. Maybe it just needed that to knock it down a little bit. Maybe the chaeto will start taking over.

As of 30mins ago

Thanks