Extended blackout to combat GHA

[LucasRe]

Hi All,

My tank has gone through a period of neglect while I was fighting cancer (I won ), and has succumb to a green hair algae infestation. I'm thinking about doing an extended tank blackout in the realm of 4 - 6 weeks to deal with the algae, I have very few corals that I can move to my frag tank during the process. Has anyone done a blackout on this scale before? Also, is simply removing the lighting sufficient for a blackout, or should I go as far as covering the tank to ensure ZERO light enters the tank? I intend to continue running my refugium during this period, are there any ill effects that I'm not considering? Also, do you think 4 -6 weeks with no light will kill off the algae?

Thanks

 

[Dan_P]

Hi All,

My tank has gone through a period of neglect while I was fighting cancer (I won ), and has succumb to a green hair algae infestation. I'm thinking about doing an extended tank blackout in the realm of 4 - 6 weeks to deal with the algae, I have very few corals that I can move to my frag tank during the process. Has anyone done a blackout on this scale before? Also, is simply removing the lighting sufficient for a blackout, or should I go as far as covering the tank to ensure ZERO light enters the tank? I intend to continue running my refugium during this period, are there any ill effects that I'm not considering? Also, do you think 4 -6 weeks with no light will kill off the algae?

Thanks

Glad to hear about your health!

The ideal remedy is physical removal of the algae by you and snails. It is ideal in the sense that you aren’t driving the aquarium’s ecosystem into uncharted waters. Specifically, killing off a large amount of algae will dump a large amount of organic matter into your system. What will grow as a consequence? Maybe nothing bad, but maybe cyanobacteria. The free lunch could shift the system’s bacteria population. Maybe nothing bad happens and the shift returns to normal.

A compromise between my paranoid thoughts and just doing a blackout is to remove as much algae as you can before doing the blackout. This way, maybe, the uncharted waters you are sending your system aren’t so bad.

 

[BroccoliFarmer]

Hi All,

My tank has gone through a period of neglect while I was fighting cancer (I won ), and has succumb to a green hair algae infestation. I'm thinking about doing an extended tank blackout in the realm of 4 - 6 weeks to deal with the algae, I have very few corals that I can move to my frag tank during the process. Has anyone done a blackout on this scale before? Also, is simply removing the lighting sufficient for a blackout, or should I go as far as covering the tank to ensure ZERO light enters the tank? I intend to continue running my refugium during this period, are there any ill effects that I'm not considering? Also, do you think 4 -6 weeks with no light will kill off the algae?

Thanks

First and foremost...congrats on the fight. Lived through this hell for 15 years with my in laws..so kudos for staying strong.

Unless you are going completely fallow, I am not sure I wouldnt do a 4-6 week black out. It is going to disrupt your ecosystem too much (potentially spiking nutrients, low oxygen, others). Without knowing more..the basic good answer on this is to get your nutrients under control, do some manual removal then get a super powered CUC of herbivores.

 

[LucasRe]

Glad to hear about your health!

The ideal remedy is physical removal of the algae by you and snails. It is ideal in the sense that you aren’t driving the aquarium’s ecosystem into uncharted waters. Specifically, killing off a large amount of algae will dump a large amount of organic matter into your system. What will grow as a consequence? Maybe nothing bad, but maybe cyanobacteria. The free lunch could shift the system’s bacteria population. Maybe nothing bad happens and the shift returns to normal.

A compromise between my paranoid thoughts and just doing a blackout is to remove as much algae as you can before doing the blackout. This way, maybe, the uncharted waters you are sending your system aren’t so bad.

Hi! Thank you so much for the reply, I should have added that I have significantly increased my nutrient exportation systems and manually removed about 75% of the GHA already. I am confident that the system will be able to handle whatever organics are released by the death of the remaining GHA.

 

[theMeat]

Congradulations!

Hmm. With a 4 to 6 week window would think if you turn the lights off on display and refugium. As well as stop feeding and keep skimming. You’d pretty much start with a clean slate.
Otherwise would do a 72 hour black out, covering tank. Remove as much gha as possible. Followed by some major water changes, and keep nutrients in check

 

[LucasRe]

First and foremost...congrats on the fight. Lived through this hell for 15 years with my in laws..so kudos for staying strong.

Unless you are going completely fallow, I am not sure I wouldnt do a 4-6 week black out. It is going to disrupt your ecosystem too much (potentially spiking nutrients, low oxygen, others). Without knowing more..the basic good answer on this is to get your nutrients under control, do some manual removal then get a super powered CUC of herbivores.

Hi, I should have added to my original post that I have significantly beefed up my nutrient export and done a substantial amount of manual removal prior to approaching the blackout.

I have what I would consider a large number of herbivores, 6 adult tangs, 3 more juvenile tangs, an adult foxface and an adult emperor angel. In addition to around 100 snails, a starfish and a sea cucumber. Nothing seems particularly interested in whatever strain of GHA I have growing.

 

[w8lifts]

I rotate/flip my rocks to kill GHA or put a rock directly over trouble spots.

 

[BroccoliFarmer]

Hi, I should have added to my original post that I have significantly beefed up my nutrient export and done a substantial amount of manual removal prior to approaching the blackout.

I have what I would consider a large number of herbivores, 6 adult tangs, 3 more juvenile tangs, an adult foxface and an adult emperor angel. In addition to around 100 snails, a starfish and a sea cucumber. Nothing seems particularly interested in whatever strain of GHA I have growing.

Depending on the snails...you mentioned what are usually detritus removers..not herbivores. good herbivores are hermit craps, Turbo snails and collector urchins. They will take care of it quick.

another option..put in an algae scrubber in your sump. I know...one more piece of equiptment..but I actually solved my sump GHA issue because it all grew in my scrubber and not the sump.

 

[LucasRe]

Depending on the snails...you mentioned what are usually detritus removers..not herbivores. good herbivores are hermit craps, Turbo snails and collector urchins. They will take care of it quick.

another option..put in an algae scrubber in your sump. I know...one more piece of equiptment..but I actually solved my sump GHA issue because it all grew in my scrubber and not the sump.

About 90% turbos and 10% trochus snails I’ve got a refugium running in my sump, same concept as a scrubber right?

 

[theMeat]

Yeah. Scrubber is like a refugium on steroids. Except it gets cleaned regularly.

 

[BroccoliFarmer]

About 90% turbos and 10% trochus snails I’ve got a refugium running in my sump, same concept as a scrubber right?

See @theMeat for the scrubber...on the money. In theory the same...but does wonder on bringing GHA to a specific spot and outcompete the free floating gha. Easy to harvest and gives more ideal situation to grow GHA

 

[Itsadeepbluesea]

From one survivor to another congrats on your health. My recommendation would be to dig in for the long haul. Work through manual removal, make sure you have good flow, use a turkey baster to keep detritus off the rocks, have a good clean up crew and get back to solid husbandry techniques.

 

[theMeat]

See @theMeat for the scrubber...on the money. In theory the same...but does wonder on bringing GHA to a specific spot and outcompete the free floating gha. Easy to harvest and gives more ideal situation to grow GHA

This ^
The best part about removing gha is that it gets removed. Unlike when it dies it just re-releases whatever nutrients it consumed to grow. A scrubber gives you the ideal situation to grow gha, and an easy way to remove it from the tank for good

 

[Waters]

I kept my GHA live rocks in Brute cans in the dark for months while I replaced my tank and the algae not only thrived but grew with 0 light other than the occasionally overhead basement lights being turned on So I am gonna say no, the extended blackout will not help.

 

[LucasRe]

I kept my GHA live rocks in Brute cans in the dark for months while I replaced my tank and the algae not only thrived but grew with 0 light other than the occasionally overhead basement lights being turned on So I am gonna say no, the extended blackout will not help.

That’s very concerning. Did you ever get on top of it?

 

[LucasRe]

Some photos of what I’m fighting

 

[theMeat]

Noticing a lack of coralline. Where coralline grows gha struggles to get a hold

 

[LucasRe]

Noticing a lack of coralline. Where coralline grows gha struggles to get a hold

Yep :/ This system has always struggled to grow any coralline at all. I’ve got no idea why, it’s been running over 2 years and never had more than a few tiny spots. In my mind the parameters are stable and should support coralline growth well (besides undesirable nutrient levels towards the last half of my treatments).

 

[theMeat]

Yep :/ This system has always struggled to grow any coralline at all. I’ve got no idea why, it’s been running over 2 years and never had more than a few tiny spots. In my mind the parameters are stable and should support coralline growth well (besides undesirable nutrient levels towards the last half of my treatments).

Get your hands on a piece of rock with coralline. Scrape off as much as you can. Turn off pumps and sprinkle the scrapings onto your rocks. If calcium and alkaline are within range it should grow

 

[LucasRe]

Get your hands on a piece of rock with coralline. Scrape off as much as you can. Turn off pumps and sprinkle the scrapings onto your rocks. If calcium and alkaline are within range it should grow

I have done so on a number of occasions with no change to the coralline situation.

Alk is a permanent 8.5 managed by my KH Guardian (hasnt drifted beyond 8.4 and 8.6 for over a year now). Calcium is at 400, PH never changes from 8.2, for what it’s worth phosphate is 0.05 (had a period where it was out of control an as high as .6 but has been Brough back to 0.05 since I’ve been able to work on the tank again) and nitrates are sitting between 10 and 15.