Best way to rid GHA

[jsauger]

I had a bloom of GHA which got out of control, to put it mildly.

From those who have gone through this, is it worth the time and effort scrubbing the rocks or should I take them out to cycle them and basically reboot the system?

 

[rapid]

From some one who is battling it now

if u can take the rocks out and scrub them in ro water to rid gha that would be a good start but it won’t stop it from spreading again

u need to find the issue why are you growing gha !? Nutrients to high? Too much feeding? Feed poor quality foods? Not enough water changes ?
Is it actually gha ? Pictures would help
How old is the system ? Is it still cycling ?

 

[rapid]

My plan of action to kill my gha has been workin perfect.... I’m pretty much gha clear and that coming from a tank over ran with it

I started by figuring out my issue which was too much nutrients I feed a lot .... I started to reduce this by more excessive water changes about 20% every 4 days

during this water change I would allow the gha to grow for at least about a month while still doing water changes..... don’t touch it use it as a nutrient eater as it consumes the nutrients in the water and while u do water changes eventually in about a month ur gha will have eating all there is to eat and it’s growth will be stunted at this point itwill no longer look like healthy gha (green) it’ll look gray and like its dieing This is good for it is starving ! Now u can get ur rock outa there and scrub it away or keep it in system and pull out big strains of it by hand as much as u can puling it out and disposing of it outa the tank

keep doing water changes 20% every 4 day or weekly

During the water change keep pulling out gha eventually u will have very little left and almost no nutrients for the gha to eat there fore it’ll die off and the cuc will finish the job

 

[rapid]

When the gha dies it’s supper easy to pull off rocks manually

 

[jsauger]

From some one who is battling it now

if u can take the rocks out and scrub them in ro water to rid gha that would be a good start but it won’t stop it from spreading again

u need to find the issue why are you growing gha !? Nutrients to high? Too much feeding? Feed poor quality foods? Not enough water changes ?
Is it actually gha ? Pictures would help
How old is the system ? Is it still cycling ?

I'm tempted to toss them in the fire pit for an hour and literally cook the rocks

Re: the root cause, it was very frustrating trying to figure out the cause, I gave up. I haven't fed the tank in a year. There's more than enough algae for the tang to stay fat and happy. When I was feeding, it was Hikari, Reef Roids, and other top brands I trusted to be of higher quality. The system was three-years-old when the problem started. Pics to follow.

 

[jsauger]

during this water change I would allow the gha to grow for at least about a month while still doing water changes..... don’t touch it use it as a nutrient eater as it consumes the nutrients in the water and while u do water changes eventually in about a month ur gha will have eating all there is to eat and it’s growth will be stunted at this point itwill no longer look like healthy gha (green) it’ll look gray and like its dieing This is good for it is starving ! Now u can get ur rock outa there and scrub it away or keep it in system and pull out big strains of it by hand as much as u can puling it out and disposing of it outa the tank

keep doing water changes 20% every 4 day or weekly

Sounds like cap and trade for gha. I love this idea. I def should have done more frequent smaller water changes—I did a few larger changes but they didn't seem to change things for the better or worse.

 

[jsauger]

It's not nearly as bad as it was. At one point it was a thick mat in spots. I was cleaning it every other day at one point and it was just growing faster than I could take it out.

 

[jsauger]

Thanks for the help everyone.

The most frustrating part was all tests showed every parameter was spot on where it should be. So there was nothing clueing me into what was causing this.

So either the tests were faulty (which I highly doubt) or there was something else not tested for (I tested all the basics plus trace elements using all Red Reef tests) which triggered it.

 

[Skynyrd Fish]

I would scrub the rocks In A bucket of tank water. Get a stiff bristled brush. You may need to scrub some of the rocks every week or two for a few times. Clean your sand. It will go away. Look up rip clean thread that Brandon has. I did this and it saved my tank and corals.