Continual battle with GHA

[jakeb]

I've been having issues dealing with GHA growing on my rockwork for a while now. The tank is 60 gallons and is just over a year old. I'll post the details, and then my questions after.

A brief timeline is:

October 2021 - GHA growing long on the back glass (based on old photos)
December 2021 - Growing out of control on rocks and glass. Increased my CUC, started siphoning, and a larger skimmer to reduce nutrients.
February 2022 - Started scrubbing algae off rocks with a toothbrush. Cleaning smaller rocks outside the tank, and larger rocks inside (siphoning the water in to a filter sock.
May 2022 - Continuing with cleaning every few weeks. It looks great for a week, but then goes downhill.

I have 1 Banana Wrasse, 3 Royal Damsel, 1 Orchid Dottyback, 2 Clowns, 1 Bangaii Cardinal, 1 Molly Miller Blenny, 1 Yellow Watchman Goby and 1 Diamond Goby. These have been added slowly over the past year.

Corals are actually growing pretty well despite the algae issues. I have LPS, Zoas and a couple of SPS. They all seem to be growing well with decent colour.

My CUC is currently, 2 tuxedo urchins, 2 trochus, 2 turban, and 2 ceriths. Other than my tuxedo urchins, my CUC seems to slowly stop moving over a few weeks/months, and then die. I don't want to add anything else until I can prevent this.

My nutrient levels seem to be OK, but clearly the GHA giving me false readings. (I wrote my most recent readings down on a piece of paper and then lost it... They were similar to the previous week)

Date	Nitrate	Phosphate	Calcium	Alkalinity	Magnesium	pH
29/09/2021​	2.5​	0.04​	410​	7.4​	1260​	8.2​
06/10/2021​	2.5​	0.16​	415​	7.6​	1245​	8.2​
13/10/2021​	2.5​	0.1​	400​	7.2​	1245​	8.2​
17/10/2021​	2.5​	0.08​	385​	7.4​	1230​
20/10/2021​	2.5​	0.13​	385​	7.2​	1215​	8.2​
28/10/2021​	3​	0.1​	380​	7.3​	1215​	8.2​
04/11/2021​	5​	0.25​	400​	7.3​	1260​	8.1​
18/11/2021​	5​	0.26​	400​	8.2​	1335​	8.2​
01/12/2021​	2.5​	0.18​	390​	8.3​	1260​
15/12/2021​	4​	0.23​	405​	8​	1335​	8.2​
22/12/2021​	2.5​	0.24​	390​	8.3​	1245​	8.2​
28/12/2021​	8.4​	0.21​	410​	8.1​	1200​	8.4​
03/01/2022​	6.9​	0.1​	430​	8.3​	1290​	8.3​
05/01/2022​		0.09​	410​		1230​
10/01/2022​	1.6​	0.18​	420​	8.7​	1320​	8.2​
17/01/2022​	2.4​	0.07​
23/01/2022​	2​	0.13​	420​	8.2​	1275​
02/02/2022​	0​	0.05​		8​
10/02/2022​	0​	0.16​		8.7​	1320​
16/02/2022​	1.8​	0.05​		8.3​	1290​
23/02/2022​	1​	0.07​		8.4​	1380​
08/03/2022​	1.6​	0.04​	500​	7.4​	1450​
15/03/2022​	3.8​	0.07​	500​	7.4​	1440​
23/03/2022​	3.5​	0.07​		7.5​
30/03/2022​		0.15​	470​	7​	1335​
06/04/2022​	6.1​	0.09​	470​	8​	1380​
13/04/2022​	5.5​	0.08​	470​	8​	1350​	8.4​

My most recent ICP by Reef Zlements is here, they test RO water as well and mine seems, the link is here.

When I started cleaning the rockwork in February, I was hoping I would have seen an improvement by now, but it just feels like I am going round in circles. My CUC clearly can't keep up and I don't want to keep putting snails in if they aren't surviving.

I've tried FluxRX (after getting rid of as much algae as possible), and it made no impact. A sea hare died after a week.

I have to keep telling myself that all corals and fish seem healthy, but it can be pretty depressing to see it looking so messy.

I feel like I am just repeating something that is not working. I seem to be spending most of my spare time going round in circles researching this. Do I need to keep up with what I am doing, or is there something I am missing?

 

[jakeb]

 

[SPS2020]

Manual removal, Manual removal, Manual removal! It gets old, but get in there every day and pull by hand and\or with long forceps. Get more Tuxedo Urchins, Cerith Snails, Turbo Snails, Bristletooth Tang (may be too big for that tank).

Are you using RODI water? How are the TDS values? Frequent water changes?

Clean filter socks and protein skimmer daily.

Pull rocks and use Hydrogen Peroxide with a syringe on the GHA avoiding any corals. Do some searches on here as I have replied to a few lately regarding my bout with GHA. Some will avoid it, but I used food grade 12% (CAREFULLY) inside the tank at a rate of 1ml per gallon (daily) applied directly via syringe to the GHA. Works like a champ. However, your parameters have to be in check or it will come right back.

If you have a refugium, get some chaeto. Also, a good algae turf scrubber will help (Turbo Aquatics L2...not sure if you have availability in the UK). UV may help some. All of the above has helped me almost eradicate the plague of GHA. Good luck!

R2R GHA Search Results

 

[Glenner’sreef]

Agreed with much of SPS2020. Are those Kessil 180s? How many hours per day are they on? Consider cutting them back a couple of hours a day. Yes, where are you getting your water? That could be everything! I would stop feeding my fish pellets ((higher phosphates)if that’s what you are feeding them. Frozen is better. How much sunlight? Direct or diffused is adding to the problem? Looking forward to hearing back. Good luck.

 

[G Santana]

I know lately Vibrant has gotten a bad rap for potentially having algaecide in it but for me it worked, twice!

I dosed as recommended and dosed hydrogen peroxide with it, and within a few weeks it was coming off in huge chunks. My GHA was like a Forrest compared to yours.

But it comes back to whatever the underlying problem was has to be fixed in order to avoid a repeat.

GL with your tank

 

[SPS2020]

R2R GHA Search Results

 

[Lavey29]

Raise magnesium to 1500. It really weakens GHA and makes it easy to pull off and your cleaner crew to mow it down. Does not affect corals or fish. Little hard on shrimp molting but my tank looked worse then yours and everything gone in 3 weeks.

 

[ReefGeezer]

Do you know why your Sea Hare died? Was it a Dolabella Sea Hare... big ugly thing. That's the one you want. BUT... if you are using algaefix or vibrant, it will kill it. I'm not sure about the Flux Rx.

 

[Hallowhead]

I am following as I'm fighting GHA as well. I've added a bristletooth tang, emerald crab and several turbo snails just last week. Along with that I did a large manual scrub down. I too added vibrant as an effort to remove it t against my will. My tank seems to be receding and not growing back but over the last 10 months this seems to be common.

I'm debating adding chaeto to out compete it but fear I'll introduce other stuff to my tank.

I'm trying to find an urchin to add as well.

What are your light colors ? Maybe reduce whites ? Mine don't go passed 15%

 

[jakeb]

Thank you all for your comments. I will look at the searches you posted - I have done a fair amount of reading on this already but it sounds like I have missed something.

Manual removal, Manual removal, Manual removal! It gets old, but get in there every day and pull by hand and\or with long forceps. Get more Tuxedo Urchins, Cerith Snails, Turbo Snails, Bristletooth Tang (may be too big for that tank).

Are you using RODI water? How are the TDS values? Frequent water changes?

Clean filter socks and protein skimmer daily.

Pull rocks and use Hydrogen Peroxide with a syringe on the GHA avoiding any corals. Do some searches on here as I have replied to a few lately regarding my bout with GHA. Some will avoid it, but I used food grade 12% (CAREFULLY) inside the tank at a rate of 1ml per gallon (daily) applied directly via syringe to the GHA. Works like a champ. However, your parameters have to be in check or it will come right back.

If you have a refugium, get some chaeto. Also, a good algae turf scrubber will help (Turbo Aquatics L2...not sure if you have availability in the UK). UV may help some. All of the above has helped me almost eradicate the plague of GHA. Good luck!

R2R GHA Search Results

I'm using my own RODI system. My tap water has high TDS (300+) and high silicates, so it has 1 x filter, 1 x carbon, 2 x RO membranes, 2 x DI resin, and 1 x silicate resin. This gives zero TDS and an ICP came back with no issues (except 5.44 ug/l, which is much lower than before I started using the silicate resin).

I tried using hydrogen peroxide a while ago, but I will try it again. Unfortunately my main rock structure is one piece, so I'm not going to be able to remove it. I should be able to remove the other pieces though. I'll read up on adding it inside the tank as well.

I wish I could get an algae turf scrubber, but nowhere sells them in the UK, and importing them from the US would cost a lot (and make returning faulty items/getting spares tough). I have played with a refugium in the past, but there wasn't much room for one in my sump, and it didn't really export any nutrients.

I wish I had the space for a tang

 

[Hallowhead]

Thank you all for your comments. I will look at the searches you posted - I have done a fair amount of reading on this already but it sounds like I have missed something.


I'm using my own RODI system. My tap water has high TDS (300+) and high silicates, so it has 1 x filter, 1 x carbon, 2 x RO membranes, 2 x DI resin, and 1 x silicate resin. This gives zero TDS and an ICP came back with no issues (except 5.44 ug/l, which is much lower than before I started using the silicate resin).

I tried using hydrogen peroxide a while ago, but I will try it again. Unfortunately my main rock structure is one piece, so I'm not going to be able to remove it. I should be able to remove the other pieces though. I'll read up on adding it inside the tank as well.

I wish I could get an algae turf scrubber, but nowhere sells them in the UK, and importing them from the US would cost a lot (and make returning faulty items/getting spares tough). I have played with a refugium in the past, but there wasn't much room for one in my sump, and it didn't really export any nutrients.

I wish I had the space for a tang

You can always get a baby tang and re-home when it's bigger

 

[jakeb]

Agreed with much of SPS2020. Are those Kessil 180s? How many hours per day are they on? Consider cutting them back a couple of hours a day. Yes, where are you getting your water? That could be everything! I would stop feeding my fish pellets ((higher phosphates)if that’s what you are feeding them. Frozen is better. How much sunlight? Direct or diffused is adding to the problem? Looking forward to hearing back. Good luck.

Yes, they are Kessil 180s. They are on for 7 hours 30 mins a day - should I reduce them by an hour? They used to ramp up/down from 15 to 60 intensity and spectrum, but my controller broke last week, so now they are on about 50% intensity and 40% spectrum. I'll drop the spectrum down a bit.

I keep direct sunlight off the tank, but it does get indirect (nothing I can do about that really, although the algae doesn't seem worse in parts of the tank that get indirect sunlight.

I feed a bit of a cube of frozen mysis, and a small amount of frozen copepods or rotifers. I do put in a small amount of flake and pellets, but I will stop with the pellets.

 

[jakeb]

Raise magnesium to 1500. It really weakens GHA and makes it easy to pull off and your cleaner crew to mow it down. Does not affect corals or fish. Little hard on shrimp molting but my tank looked worse then yours and everything gone in 3 weeks.

I'd read that elevated magnesium can affect snails as well shrimp. Have you had an issue with this? Mine was at 1400 for a few weeks, so I reduced it to see if it helped with my snail loss (it hasn't seemed to).

 

[jakeb]

Do you know why your Sea Hare died? Was it a Dolabella Sea Hare... big ugly thing. That's the one you want. BUT... if you are using algaefix or vibrant, it will kill it. I'm not sure about the Flux Rx.

It seemed fine, then split open and it's digestive system came out... It was still alive when this happened, but didn't last long. (This was before I used Flux RX).

 

[jakeb]

I am following as I'm fighting GHA as well. I've added a bristletooth tang, emerald crab and several turbo snails just last week. Along with that I did a large manual scrub down. I too added vibrant as an effort to remove it t against my will. My tank seems to be receding and not growing back but over the last 10 months this seems to be common.

I'm debating adding chaeto to out compete it but fear I'll introduce other stuff to my tank.

I'm trying to find an urchin to add as well.

What are your light colors ? Maybe reduce whites ? Mine don't go passed 15%

I removed my chaeto as the Flux RX kills it as well, and my GHA was outcompeting it anyway.

 

[SlugSnorter]

It seemed fine, then split open and it's digestive system came out... It was still alive when this happened, but didn't last long. (This was before I used Flux RX).

sea hares can be tricky, could have gotten attacked, super stressed, pulled into powerhead, poisoned (depending on GHA species).

 

[ReefGeezer]

Man, I haven't had that happen. I had one die because of Vibrant.. I think... but it just stopped moving and inked the tank a little. Was a little bit of a mess in the filter socks and skimmer cup for a few days, but didn't seem tp o bother anything too much. I only knew it happened when the socks and skimmer cup turned black. It might be worth another shot. Sea Hares will consume the long hair algae most other organisms won't touch, and they eat a lot of it.

 

[SlugSnorter]

Man, I haven't had that happen. I had one die because of Vibrant.. I think... but it just stopped moving and inked the tank a little. Was a little bit of a mess in the filter socks and skimmer cup for a few days, but didn't seem tp o bother anything too much. I only knew it happened when the socks and skimmer cup turned black. It might be worth another shot. Sea Hares will consume the long hair algae most other organisms won't touch, and they eat a lot of it.

IMO better to get some turbos.

 

[Lavey29]

I'd read that elevated magnesium can affect snails as well shrimp. Have you had an issue with this? Mine was at 1400 for a few weeks, so I reduced it to see if it helped with my snail loss (it hasn't seemed to).

None of my big snails had any problems at all. I see a few small cerith shells here and there over the months but think hermits most likely. Inverts are actually one of the things I've been most successful with in my tank. My trochus are huge. My banded shrimp, cleaner and fire shrimp are gigantic too. Magnesium had no affect although it did stunt my chaeto growth for a bit but now it has rebounded too.

 

[SPS2020]

I'd read that elevated magnesium can affect snails as well shrimp. Have you had an issue with this? Mine was at 1400 for a few weeks, so I reduced it to see if it helped with my snail loss (it hasn't seemed to).

My snails are fine (over 400) and my Mag is 1545 as of today.

ATS are relatively easy to make and there are tons of info on R2R and here