GHA and Reef FLux

Wolfinstien69 · May 15, 2022

I have had my tank for a little over a year now and everything was great until about 2-3 months ago. I had a bad outbreak of GHA and got it under control but them it came back with a vengeance. I stepped up my game and reduced lighting, reduced feeding, increased water changes, aggressively scrubbed the rock, and got a lawnmower blenny. These all helped, but it just wont go away.

Every time I check my levels the nitrates are zero and the phosphates are barley detectable. I have a sump with grape Caulerpa and Red Ogo and I think they keep the levels low, but not enough to kill off the algae. I noticed right before the algae explosion the Caulerpa and ogo stop growing so I recently started to add macro algae food. I realize this also feeds the algae, but it has brought back both the Caulerpa and ogo.

I called a local fish store, explained my situation and he recommended Reef Flux. I have read about it and hate to go the chemical route, but nothing else is working. I plan to treat it this week but need some advice.

So I have a few questions:
1. I have a 90 gal with a 30 gal sump. Accounting for the rock and sand I think i have about 100 gal? Should I dose for 100 gal or under dose?
2. Instructions say to remove Caulerpa. What do I do with it being this treatment takes 3 weeks? Will Reef Flux hurt the Ogo?
3. Any other suggestions?

maleks.reef · May 15, 2022

Wolfinstien69 said:
I have had my tank for a little over a year now and everything was great until about 2-3 months ago. I had a bad outbreak of GHA and got it under control but them it came back with a vengeance. I stepped up my game and reduced lighting, reduced feeding, increased water changes, aggressively scrubbed the rock, and got a lawnmower blenny. These all helped, but it just wont go away.

Every time I check my levels the nitrates are zero and the phosphates are barley detectable. I have a sump with grape Caulerpa and Red Ogo and I think they keep the levels low, but not enough to kill off the algae. I noticed right before the algae explosion the Caulerpa and ogo stop growing so I recently started to add macro algae food. I realize this also feeds the algae, but it has brought back both the Caulerpa and ogo.

I called a local fish store, explained my situation and he recommended Reef Flux. I have read about it and hate to go the chemical route, but nothing else is working. I plan to treat it this week but need some advice.

So I have a few questions:
1. I have a 90 gal with a 30 gal sump. Accounting for the rock and sand I think i have about 100 gal? Should I dose for 100 gal or under dose?
2. Instructions say to remove Caulerpa. What do I do with it being this treatment takes 3 weeks? Will Reef Flux hurt the Ogo?
3. Any other suggestions?

Hi. Same story here. I ended up using Flux Rx which contains the same chemical as Reef Flux but apparently people say they have had more success with flux rx. Before you go down that route, I suggest you get some chaeto, which is easier to grow than what you have, and try to maximize nutrient export and minimize nutrient import. The thing with chemicals is that they are a temporary fix. By that i mean that sure the flux might work and kill your GHA but if the fundamental reason behind the GHA is not removed then GHA will come again.

Now I have used flux rx as i mentioned above, this was about 4 months ago. Lately i have been noticing some gha popping back up which is beyond frustrating. The Flux Rx did work for me but I overdosed and kept the treatment for longer than suggested until I saw that the GHA was gone. So to answer your questions:
1) Start with the suggested dose, which is 120 gal for your case, and then after a few weeks you can add the equivalent of 10 gals for example to increase the dose. If you do any WCs throughout the treatment then make sure to replace whatever you took out. So for example if you did a 20 gal WC, put in 20 gal worth of flux back into the tank after the WC.
2) Fluconazole (the drug in these products) can kill both microalgae and macroalgae. What I did was take out my chaeto, put it in a container with just enough water to submerge it and I gave it light for a couple of hours a day. It survived just fine.
3) Keep in mind that you will probably have to treat for over 3 weeks and more than the suggested dose. I have a 30 gal and over the course of 2 months I probably had 50 to 60 gal worth of flux in there.

Wolfinstien69 · May 16, 2022

maleks.reef said:
Hi. Same story here. I ended up using Flux Rx which contains the same chemical as Reef Flux but apparently people say they have had more success with flux rx. Before you go down that route, I suggest you get some chaeto, which is easier to grow than what you have, and try to maximize nutrient export and minimize nutrient import. The thing with chemicals is that they are a temporary fix. By that i mean that sure the flux might work and kill your GHA but if the fundamental reason behind the GHA is not removed then GHA will come again.

Now I have used flux rx as i mentioned above, this was about 4 months ago. Lately i have been noticing some gha popping back up which is beyond frustrating. The Flux Rx did work for me but I overdosed and kept the treatment for longer than suggested until I saw that the GHA was gone. So to answer your questions:
1) Start with the suggested dose, which is 120 gal for your case, and then after a few weeks you can add the equivalent of 10 gals for example to increase the dose. If you do any WCs throughout the treatment then make sure to replace whatever you took out. So for example if you did a 20 gal WC, put in 20 gal worth of flux back into the tank after the WC.
2) Fluconazole (the drug in these products) can kill both microalgae and macroalgae. What I did was take out my chaeto, put it in a container with just enough water to submerge it and I gave it light for a couple of hours a day. It survived just fine.
3) Keep in mind that you will probably have to treat for over 3 weeks and more than the suggested dose. I have a 30 gal and over the course of 2 months I probably had 50 to 60 gal worth of flux in there.

Thanks for the experience and the info. I know this is a temp fix but my hope is if I can kill off al the GHA my CUC and fish will keep it at bay once I reset. Plus I wont feed reef roids as much to reduce the risk of another explosion.

As for the chaeto, I just cant seem to grow it. When I started my tank I went to a LFS and he asked about chaeto and he gave me some. After doing a bunch of reading I found he actually gave me grape Caulerpa. Did a bunch of reading and got nervous of it going sexual but I have to say it grew with NO problem and never died off or went sexual. In the first 6 months of my tank I only had a few fish and I would pull a softball size of Caulerpa out every other week.

So I got curious about other forms of macro and I stumbled across "Mixed bed" macro. So I decided to try it and I ordered Chaeto, Red Ogo, and Green lettuce. I put a divider in the sump and mixed these 3 together so the Caulerpa wouldn't overgrow them. Long story short, months later the red ogo was the only to survive and the Caulerpa had no issues. A neighbor friend has 3 tanks and she was a marine biologist and she said she had no luck with chaeto either.

maleks.reef · May 16, 2022

Wolfinstien69 said:
Thanks for the experience and the info. I know this is a temp fix but my hope is if I can kill off al the GHA my CUC and fish will keep it at bay once I reset. Plus I wont feed reef roids as much to reduce the risk of another explosion.

As for the chaeto, I just cant seem to grow it. When I started my tank I went to a LFS and he asked about chaeto and he gave me some. After doing a bunch of reading I found he actually gave me grape Caulerpa. Did a bunch of reading and got nervous of it going sexual but I have to say it grew with NO problem and never died off or went sexual. In the first 6 months of my tank I only had a few fish and I would pull a softball size of Caulerpa out every other week.

So I got curious about other forms of macro and I stumbled across "Mixed bed" macro. So I decided to try it and I ordered Chaeto, Red Ogo, and Green lettuce. I put a divider in the sump and mixed these 3 together so the Caulerpa wouldn't overgrow them. Long story short, months later the red ogo was the only to survive and the Caulerpa had no issues. A neighbor friend has 3 tanks and she was a marine biologist and she said she had no luck with chaeto either.

My guess as to why your chaeto died is probably due to being out competed by both the GHA and the caulerpa. If the caulerpa is growing without issues then keep it. Also i suggest you cut out reef roids completely for the foreseeable future.