GHA live rock to new tank?

Old Dog · Aug 19, 2022

I have a 75 gallon tank with tons of rock. A friend had it up for about a year. I had the LFS move it for me when I bought it. I've had it up a little over 2 years. It has a canister filter which doesn't seem to do much. About 6-7 months in, I started getting hair algae. I started doing massive water changes to get rid of nutrients. Finally got rid of the hair algae, and then ran into the problem everyone talks about. Suddenly I had dinos. Couldn't raise my nitrates/phosphates and had to dose. Dinos went away, but guess what GHA came back with a vengeance. I was sick and has the LFS came out. Owner basically turned my rocks upside down and suggested fluconazole. I've tried it on 2 occasions and not seen any results.

I finally decided my problem is the canister filter and the number of fish I have. So, I purchased a 150 gal that has been running for 3 years. I followed advice on here, captured as much good water as I could, bought new live sand and cleaned the rocks in saltwater. This tank had no algae in it. 3 of the 5 fish survived the move. It has been up and running at my house for almost 3 weeks. I did not test the water from the previous owner's. I have done 30 gallon water changes each week. The nitrates and phosphates are still crazy high. Currently nitrates at 56 and phosphates at .47. I've been checking ammonia through and has always been 0. I'm think I'm now trying to lower what the previous owners had.

I recently stopped doing big water changes on the 75 gallon thinking the nitrates and phosphates are now locked up in the GHA and rock, not in the water. I have started trying to manually remove the GHA but there is just so dang much! On the bright side, in the last week my coral has just gone crazy with splitting/growing.

I want to move the fish, coral and some live rock to the larger tank and then take down the 75 gallon. My dilemma. The GHA is still covering the old tank. With nitrates/phosphates that high in the new tank, it would seem I am just transferring my problem. My wife wants her room back to normal which means I need to get the old tank down. LFS told me to use a sea hare to clear everything first. Sea hare made 1-1/2 weeks and died. One person at the LFS told me to just ditch the rock. But, GHA is on ALL coral frags too.

I'm thinking this:
1. get the nitrates/phosphates down lower in the tank
2. move majority of fish from the old tank to the new tank
3. now pray for a quick miracle and the GHA to start dying?

Any advice is appreciated! Please let me know if something here doesn't make sense and I'll try to provide more info.

Thanks!

davidcalgary29 · Aug 20, 2022

Is it possible that PO4

Old Dog said:
I finally decided my problem is the canister filter and the number of fish I have. So, I purchased a 150 gal that has been running for 3 years. I followed advice on here, captured as much good water as I could, bought new live sand and cleaned the rocks in saltwater. This tank had no algae in it. 3 of the 5 fish survived the move. It has been up and running at my house for almost 3 weeks. I did not test the water from the previous owner's. I have done 30 gallon water changes each week. The nitrates and phosphates are still crazy high. Currently nitrates at 56 and phosphates at .47. I've been checking ammonia through and has always been 0. I'm think I'm now trying to lower what the previous owners had.

I'm not sure I understand -- what is "good" water? And you didn't test existing tank params before moving the aquarium? This isn't a criticism -- just seeking clarification.

GHA isn't the end of the world -- and clearly your coral is thriving despite of it -- but I'd consider a rip clean if you really are bothered by it. I'm still not sure if live rock can leach out nitrates and phosphates in the way that people suspect, but multiple people on this site have been satisfied with the results that they've seen with a rip clean.

My GHA problem disappeared within a couple of months after I started to dose phyto and added a tuxedo urchin to the CUC.

Old Dog · Aug 21, 2022

Ah, I see what I said. When we were draining the tank, I was capturing all of the water coming out. When I got fairly low, the owner was pulling out rocks and really stirred things up. Good water = clear water. Whereas the bad water was all clouded up for him stirring up the detritus.

Old Dog · Aug 21, 2022

The rip clean is what I was thinking. I do have a tuxedo in the 75 gallon GHA tank. The coral that isn't is the organ pipe. I had one die and one that is not looking very good because of being smothered in GHA.