GHA issue

[Robin316us]

Hi all. I'm having trouble with GHA. Tested phosphate 0.04, nitrate 3. 20gal tank. Have cheato reactor. Ai prime HD. Hate to remove everytime the GHA from the rock and on the corals . Feed few pellets 3-4 days a week for fish.. and feed corals once a week..Tank is setup since May.
Where as I've 120 gallon and no GHA. Phosphate 0.09, Nitrate 5. Running algae scrubber. And I feed daily. T5 and 3 Hydra 26HD...

What am I missing?

 

[CoralNerd]

Bacter dosing good slow option.
Manually removing best option.
Running GFO best option.
Fluconazole a option
Filter socks to catch the hairs.

 

[brandon429]

.

 

[SPR1968]

It’s generally caused by raised phosphate levels which it can use as a food source and because of this give false low readings.

I would maybe look at phosphate export methods, more frequent water changes which should be easy in a tank that size, and also the type of pellet food your using

 

[Garf]

Hi all. I'm having trouble with GHA. Tested phosphate 0.04, nitrate 3. 20gal tank. Have cheato reactor. Ai prime HD. Hate to remove everytime the GHA from the rock and on the corals . Feed few pellets 3-4 days a week for fish.. and feed corals once a week..Tank is setup since May.
Where as I've 120 gallon and no GHA. Phosphate 0.09, Nitrate 5. Running algae scrubber. And I feed daily. T5 and 3 Hydra 26HD...

What am I missing?

You’re missing snails and hermits, going from your intro.

 

[Robin316us]

You’re missing snails and hermits, going from your intro.

I do have 2 snails..

 

[Robin316us]

It’s generally caused by raised phosphate levels which it can use as a food source and because of this give false low readings.

I would maybe look at phosphate export methods, more frequent water changes which should be easy in a tank that size, and also the type of pellet food your using

I do water change once a week... 5 gal

 

[Dkmoo]

If your tank is new from May, then it's right on the 8 month mark where its common for the waste that was absorbed in your rock and sand to start leaching back out to your system.

You have an excess waste issue of both no3 and po4 that is not impacted but how much you are feeding now. Its the accumulation of how much you fed in the last 8 months when you have a young tank that is not mature and effective nutrient export yet. Your test results doesn't give you a full picture because remember it is only testing "whats left on the water". You no3/po4 levels may have tested fine in the past bc the excess waste was absorbed in the rock/sand. Now it tests fine because the excess waste is already absorbed by your GHA

This is a very common issue in young tanks - especially young small tanks. Only long term natural solution is time and manual removal. Time will mature your tank and increase the biodiversity and competition for nutrients that will keep gha in check.

How have your chaeto been growing? Keep in mind that just bc you have chaeto, doesn't meant it is absorbing all that excess waste. Remember it has to outcompete everything else in your DT for those waste - outcompete lighting, biomass, surface area, flow, etc...if your GHA already takes hold, the chaeto is not going to be effective. Ie, if you have 4x as much gha than chaeto, then 4/5 of your waste will be absorbed by gha instread. And this assumes that ur chaeto receives the same amount of light as gha, which often is not the case bc we have much fancier light in DT than in Fuge.

Upgrading your fuge light will help outcompete the gha as well

Gfo and vibrant could also work but I wouldn't recommend that in such a young tank bc it doesnt help with the long term maturation process of the tank.

 

[Garf]

I do have 2 snails..

What sort of snails? Banded Trochus Snails are great little munchers. Most snails avoid any longer algae and go for the shorter. Redleg Hermits will in fact cut down algae but there’s only so much they can do. You need more of both, then manually remove to make it short and watch them go to work.

 

[tnewell]

Go to live aquaria, order the pack of 5 mexican turbo snails. Cleared my gha in 2 weeks. Although, longer pieces you must scrub with a toothbrush

 

[Robin316us]

What sort of snails? Banded Trochus Snails are great little munchers. Most snails avoid any longer algae and go for the shorter. Redleg Hermits will in fact cut down algae but there’s only so much they can do. You need more of both, then manually remove to make it short and watch them go to work.

idk what snails I got.....