Another "Help Me Beat GHA" Thread

[JonoB]

My tank has been cycled since mid-May. It is a 30 gallon long tank with two clowns, a green clown goby, and a firefish. I have 2 hermits (one red one blue), two turbos, and a handful of other snails I don't remember all what they are.

I run 2 AI Primes and 1 Hydra26, I run the BRS settings starting to ramp at 7 and ending the ramp down at 6.

I do weekly water changes of 5 gallons and never skip. I am running two AC50s on the back, with filter floss and Chemipure elite. The other one has some Phosban in it right now.

For the past maybe two months, I've slowly acquired a growing amount of GHA. At first it wasn't a big deal, but its slowly becoming more of a problem. I pick out what I can every week and turkey baste off the rocks. I've looked at the normal "well, you gotta get to the root of the problem" threads, but I don't know what my problem is. I started cutting back on feedings a lot, but now I'm afraid I'm feeding to little. It doesn't seem to have made a difference in the past three-four weeks. I used to feed my corals reef-roids but have stopped that until I get this under control.

It started off only on the rocks but now I have little bits springing up on the sand bed. I'm not quite ready to take extreme measures, but I also want to get to the root of the problem and I'm stumped.

Any thoughts?

I also should add, I have to Koralia nano powerheads, and haven't been convinced they are quite enough flow for my rockwork/length of tank. I think if they were new they would be fine but they seem to have lost some juice (I bought all my equipment used). I have an IceCap 1k Gyre on the way so we will see if more flow helps some.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Double check that it is gha

Are you running sponges in the Aq’s? Those should be nasty and get cleaned montly so. IF you aren’t and the aren’t , al the food and poo is staying in the tank as fertilizer.

You need more CUC.

You may wind up cleaning there sand bed to get the poo out.

 

[JonoB]

No sponges. Just filter floss that I change every couple of days. No bioballs or anything like that.

What else should I add for a CUC? I forgot to add I have a Nassarius snail and a cleaner shrimp, but the shrimp doesn't really do anything as far as cleaning goin.

I vacuum the sand bed every week now.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Look for the stock sponge and kinda pack it like the instructions. Maybe add a lil floss.
You don’t need rings n balls , we use live rock sand etc.

The filter isn’t filtering with nothing in it really. Just a poor reactor.

You have two so you could also make one into a hob Refugium . But a aq 70 works better just because of the size.

Trochus , Astria, turbans and a small tuxedo urchin if you find one.

 

[JonoB]

Found another great way to beat GHA, have your tank spring a leak

 

[Dom]

My tank has been cycled since mid-May. It is a 30 gallon long tank with two clowns, a green clown goby, and a firefish. I have 2 hermits (one red one blue), two turbos, and a handful of other snails I don't remember all what they are.

I run 2 AI Primes and 1 Hydra26, I run the BRS settings starting to ramp at 7 and ending the ramp down at 6.

I do weekly water changes of 5 gallons and never skip. I am running two AC50s on the back, with filter floss and Chemipure elite. The other one has some Phosban in it right now.

For the past maybe two months, I've slowly acquired a growing amount of GHA. At first it wasn't a big deal, but its slowly becoming more of a problem. I pick out what I can every week and turkey baste off the rocks. I've looked at the normal "well, you gotta get to the root of the problem" threads, but I don't know what my problem is. I started cutting back on feedings a lot, but now I'm afraid I'm feeding to little. It doesn't seem to have made a difference in the past three-four weeks. I used to feed my corals reef-roids but have stopped that until I get this under control.

It started off only on the rocks but now I have little bits springing up on the sand bed. I'm not quite ready to take extreme measures, but I also want to get to the root of the problem and I'm stumped.

Any thoughts?

I also should add, I have to Koralia nano powerheads, and haven't been convinced they are quite enough flow for my rockwork/length of tank. I think if they were new they would be fine but they seem to have lost some juice (I bought all my equipment used). I have an IceCap 1k Gyre on the way so we will see if more flow helps some.

I run AquaClear 70s on my 33 long, which also includes a sump.

I added them to the tank to provide extra flow as I don't like the look of power heads. They also provide a place for me to keep Chemipure-Elite and run carbon if necessary.

I have the stock sponges that came with them installed which get loaded with junk. I always rinse them out in old water during a water change.

 

[Dom]

Found another great way to beat GHA, have your tank spring a leak

I'd rather have the algae.

 

[JonoB]

Trust me, me too. And yes I had the AC50s pretty much just to help with flow as well, as well as the Chemipure. Where did you get your tank? I'm looking for a new one.

 

[Denisk]

What’s your feeding schedule for the fish and what do you feed?

Do you have a picture you can post of the gha?

Gha can be hard to get rid of but honestly having it isn’t a bad thing until it gets out of hand. Keep scrubbing it and siphoning it out. Also your tank is fairly new so this isn’t to surprising and I always feel keeping nutrients in check is hard in a 30 gallon or smaller tank. If you do feed a lot, try to really let your fish just eat a little and don’t let food go to waste in the rest of the tank. Some other tips above were good suggestions as well!

 

[JMcNs]

I agree with more cuc. An urchin is incredibly efficient, but will grab anything and tote it around the tank. I found that trochus snails are also great a gha. Hermits i never really could see any benefits from even though they are working. My tank is also a 30 long and I dont feed heavy, but chemipure and vibrant seem to be too much removal for me and coral start to suffer. I do run carbon.

 

[brandon429]

any nano is not hard to make algae free

we can easily take it apart in a certain order, clean the sandbed out to cloudless level clean, rinsed heavily then reused, and then you kill the algae off the rocks while its taken apart and then put back as an uninvaded reef.

even if you have the best sps in the world, can still do a part clean. we have tanks in that qualification doing them, in part cleaning threads

these actions take care of the cause as well, everyone is always keen on taking care of causes/ then in the clean condition we input cuc to prevent growth, not remove, and re balance export and fish bioloading etc

working in the direction mentioned is always an uninvaded reef
working in the other direction/common path isn't

agreed not everyone wants to do the work, that's choosing to be invaded until no work options are found. options like param tinkering/starving algae while trying not to starve corals are legit, but they don't take command at all.

you have a way to be algae free by the end of the day, we've collected tons of examples and it looks great afterward.

having algae by itself produces more algae, independent of your tank parameters. algae uses its fronds to catch and hold detritus, which should be exported or eaten to be further reduced by detritivores, for on site degredation even if your overall tank nutrient params are already low. this makes people starve further, causing bleaching

in our algae work threads we never measure parameters, we only produce clean reefs. that's an option for nanos, but large tankers often have to work solely through the water as the job is just too big.

 

[Dom]

Trust me, me too. And yes I had the AC50s pretty much just to help with flow as well, as well as the Chemipure. Where did you get your tank? I'm looking for a new one.

I do business with a local pet shop. I have an excellent relationship with the manager. She appreciates that I spend money with them and because of this, she always tries to match prices. The two 70s I purchased were $12.00 more per than they were on Amazon. When I showed her the printout, she matched the price. I love the service I get from this place.

Getting back to your question, I purchase my tanks from this shop as well. And I've always owned Aqueon glass tanks. I love them. They are sturdy and well made. They are easy to repair in the event of a break... and I've replaced full panes on these tanks, and they are better than new.

Yes... new tanks are nice with their rimless tops and all, but when I build a system, my stand and crown is designed in a way that keeps the unattractive plastic bracing hidden.

Another thing about Aqueon tanks... you can buy them anywhere.