GHA and Cyno Issues - Remediation Plan Feedback

[crabgrass]

Hi -

I am cross posting a link to my tank build. Things were going great for the first year, and a combination of lapse in maintenance + CUC Deaths and other issues created a massive GHA and Cyno issue in my tank. It essentially smothered out all Coral and rock. I am looking for feedback on remediation plan.


Over the last week, I have done a few deep cleans and vaccumed out a lot of the GHA (although it still bounces back, albeit slower now).


Action Plan (in progress)

• Daily dosing of Microbac Clean + Razor (per instructions). Goal is to loosten up agae for easier removal - in progress over next 2 weeks
• Vacuuming GHA every 2 days (next 2 weeks, or until GHA is gone) - in progress
  • Will take toothbrush to rocks for really stuck on algea
• Replace underperforming IM Skimmer with IceCap K1 - Complete
• 20% Water changes every 2-3 Days (for next 2 weeks, or until N levels are stabilized)
• Restocked 3x Turbo Snails - Complete
• Re-configuring rockscape (reducing # of rocks, moving rocks away from glass) - in progress
• Reduced lighting to 40%, removing Reds and Greens completely (next 8+ weeks)
• If Cyno doesn’t get under control, will consider dose of Chemiclean
• Feeding Schedule will only be frozen shrimp (no flakes)

Objective is to eradicate all GHA and Cyno over the next 2 weeks. Then stabilized N/Po for 8+ weeks before attempting to introduce any new Coral.

 

[Reeferbadness]

Your plan looks pretty good but eradication in 2 weeks seems pretty unrealistic. It took a while for GHA to build up and it takes some time to beat GHA back as well as remedy conditions in your tank that led to the GHA outbreak to begin with. I would also advise getting a couple of Tuxedo Urchins and adding (if you don't have some already) a few grazing fish like Tangs and Foxface.

 

[crabgrass]

Your plan looks pretty good but eradication in 2 weeks seems pretty unrealistic. It took a while for GHA to build up and it takes some time to beat GHA back as well as remedy conditions in your tank that led to the GHA outbreak to begin with. I would also advise getting a couple of Tuxedo Urchins and adding (if you don't have some already) a few grazing fish like Tangs and Foxface.

Thanks.

No Urchins, but thinking about aquiring one.

This is a 20G - So Tangs are a no-go. Would a Lawnmower Blenny be an OK substitute? I already have 3 fish (2 Clowns a royal Gamma)

Assuming I can stop the source of the GHA, I also want to balance out not overloading the CUC and then having starve with nothing to eat

 

[Reeferbadness]

Thanks.

No Urchins, but thinking about aquiring one.

This is a 20G - So Tangs are a no-go. Would a Lawnmower Blenny be an OK substitute? I already have 3 fish (2 Clowns a royal Gamma)

Assuming I can stop the source of the GHA, I also want to balance out not overloading the CUC and then having starve with nothing to eat

Lawnmower blenny might help, def some turbo snails and back again with urchins

 

[brandon429]

Two weeks? Here’s multiple tanks made completely uninvaded in two hours. Designed for nano reefs= https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/algae-identification.707457/

two weeks is so slow I’d never take that long to fix a nano.

 

[crabgrass]

Two weeks? Here’s multiple tanks made completely uninvaded in two hours. Designed for nano reefs= https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/algae-identification.707457/

two weeks is so slow I’d never take that long to fix a nano.

Here is what I ended up doing:

1) EOD of mechanical algae removal at the start of September
2) Dosed Microbac clean+ razor

GHA slowed but did not stop. Cyano regrew daily.

So:

3) 4 day blackout
4) Used Chemiclean (for Cyano) Wednesday
5) 30% WC Friday
6) re-dosed chemi clean Friday

7) Then did a rip Clean Sunday (and 60%+ WC).
- scrubbed / picked off all GHA I could get
- dipped rocked in Hydrogen peroxide / saltwater mix for 5 mins

Back of the tank (reservoir looks brand new), and REALLY needed to be thoroughly cleaned. Some rocks look better than others, and a few still have a lot of green on them (but no longer long).

Will observe over next few days and post some pictures

 

[crabgrass]

Observations (18 hours post Rip Clean / Peroxide Dip):

- Tank was crystal clear last night - but not somewhat cloudy (I assume that is some of the algea coming off)
- Skimmer is going nuts and collecting green water (again algae)

Fish seem healthy, active and exploring new layout.

 

[crabgrass]

Water is now super cloudy, and skimmer going overtime. I tested Ammonia (just incase i nuked good bacteria) and it is 0 - which is good.

Is the cloudiness just a factor of the GHA die-off?

 

[crabgrass]

Tank Status as of 9-19 AM:

- Lots of green algea over many of the rocks (most of it has not died off from coral bath). Picture below
- The room the tank was in (my office/upstairs) smelled like low tide all day (Some algea die-off / bacteria bloom?)
- Added Carbon (ChemiPure) to tank last night to help with Odor (family was not happy).
- Odor this AM is better (but not perfect)
- Water clarity significantly better
- Checked N and P this AM (Hanna Tester)
- N (HR): 0.1 (was at 5.6 a few days ago)
- P (LR): 0 (not previously tested with Hanna)

I understand that bottoming out these #'s is equally as dangerous situation, and opening the doors for the next infestation.

My assumption is that the GHA is soaking up all of the N and P.

I am looking for suggestions at this point. Thoughts / not necessarily action plan:
- Get a tuxedo urchen + a few more turbos (as suggested earlier), to clear off GHA and evaluate where my numbers are w/o GHA
- Add a couple of softies/LPS and possibly out compete GHA on N and P intake
- Overfeed slightly (although I suspect GHA will just take anything i put in the water)
- Remove Carbon/GFO since we've bottomed out N and P

 

[kevgib67]

I second and third a tuxedo urchin, nothing I’ve had does a better job on gha. A couple more suggestions, dose 1ml 3% hydrogen peroxide per 10 gallons daily. Does Microbacter 7 as instructed. We. Have all been there, patience you’ll get through it.

 

[brandon429]

If you want that tank to thrive you need to exchange all the rock for cured reef rock with coralline from a pet store. It’ll save you 18 months wait for that rock to cure into half as good rock compared

a rip clean was 100% water changes in the example thread plus complete tank takedown and cleaning off the glass totally, that was a partial clean. The takedown + cleaned glass back to new + all new water removes things that can cause clouding a few days after…the white light spectrum will be the top grower of algae to reduce, the tank needs to run blues mostly. Can you post an update pic here from today as the reef runs normally, curious how much blue is used

the degree of removal you did will still help for sure. Additives you put in the tank also factor in that, they haven’t been removed fully yet. You can see in the rip clean thread we didn’t use additives, or dip rocks in anything. That won’t hurt your rock much since there wasn’t coralline or lots of hiding places for pods, it’s new and still maturing rock.

if you can access replacement skip cycle cured live rock from a pet store, add a piece anyway so it will transmit some of its growth in your tank to help seed it over time. As it sits above, there’s nothing to import reef life into the tank it’s just fish and dry cycled rock. Any bright lighting will grow algae again, the rip clean gives you a clean start and you’ll have to reef differently in order to not need another one in a month. Real live rock from a pet store, subdued blue lighting quality feeding and stocking a few corals would change the tank around quickly. You need to lift our rocks and scrape off algae or cyano when it comes, vs ever using razor, chemi clean or any additives to control algae. Use physical cleaning to make the tank clean, then change your reefing approach the next round to try and gain a different result.

 

[crabgrass]

Sounds good, I’ll get some cured rock and add it. I did drop the white light, greens and reds

 

[brandon429]

Hey look how close our lights are

Mine are this low because it's a one gallon pico reef... but the spectral curve is just about the same:

 

[brandon429]

Plus my light sits nearly directly on the lid even that above is strong for a tiny vase. That's a quality light for sure

Even adding a few pounds to cure into the rest of the tank will help

Don't let them sell you a trashy base rock, find and spend on a real display quality live rock with coralline, no visible bad algae etc. That's what you want seeding and casting off into the tank to cure out. We can fix it up and age it out here live time in the thread it'll be fun.

My lights used to be more power than that, twice as much in fact

It was causing me to have more physical work in my pico to avoid algae, so I dropped light intensity for two months am testing this one here a while. Am feeding very well + water changes, it's why the corals aren't harmed, feed carries them nicely and now I'm at less algae work, still growing corals

found the tune for my particular light mount, height, bioload dynamics etc and I wound up benefiting from a third of the light power I'd started with

The right way to cure that reef with some rock added is via water changes with hq feeding like benepets dry reef once you have corals. When a rock gets algae or cyano, remove it and use a rasping tool to clean off the rock outside the tank, rinse it in saltwater, set back. Over and over until the rock is matured coralline and that'll start rejecting algae attachment on its own. No chemicals, just aim for lesser algae cleaning work with lighting changes and all manual spot cleaning, you get to back off in time but the key is I never allowed my pico to be invaded before I'd found the tune

I made this light reduction not because I had an invaded reef, but because I was cleaning it all the time to avoid green glass growths. I wanted to reduce the work load required to have a non invaded reef tank, that's such a key element to being invasion free in reefing, use all physical controls it makes nano reefing easier. Nice drop tank too I've never seen one in person

 

[crabgrass]

Should i take out the carbon at this point? I added it because the smell was terrible, but that may have stabilized at this point. I also don't want it to continue to help bottom out my N and P (although i suspect the GHA is doing that over anything else)

 

[crabgrass]

Dropped a small cured live rock in plus a couple of lps and an urchin in.

Algae on rocks is mostly staying at bay. There are a couple of longer stands that continue to grow which is concerning, but the others seem to have been stunted at least from the scrub + peroxide dip last weekend

 

[crabgrass]

Photo

 

[crabgrass]

Parameters Today:

- N (HR): 1.4 (previously 0.1)
- P (LR): .19 (previously 0)

My guess is both are increasing as some of the GHA dies off.

 

[RRA]

Personally I would hold off on a lot of chemical warfare. I never think that’s the answer. You are in a vicious cycle of feeding and nitrates. snails and CUC really skyrocket when they die your po4/no3 when they break down, so I would be very cautious adding more as last thing you want to do is them starve and die as they typically don’t eat GHA and cyno (your issue) further perpetuating this battle.

Personally I think you have months ahead of you no chemical, mechanical or CUC is going to solve this issue in two weeks, just time and natural tank maturity. Personally I would do weekly large water changes and ride this out and just understand this won’t be fixed over night. You are starting a fight well behind due to the algae has already taken hold.

To many times people jump on this chemical war to fight something and it may fix one issue, but creat another and you find yourself 8 months later frustrated fighting one issue after another, when if you just let the tank mature with routine maintenance the problem would eventually balance out as good bacteria/husbandry/habits finally over populates bad/young tank issues.

 

[crabgrass]

unraveling the onion further, I overlooked the ATO reservoir while doing the rip clean.

Hose itself had some pink stuff in it (Cyano backsplash?)

Reservoir is had some white filmy stuff in it. As far as I know only Distilled or RO went in it.

I am currently soaking everting in vinegar and going to do a quick spray of bleach to kill off bacteria.

This hasn’t been cleaned in 18 months. Today i learn.