GHA - Thinking of trying a combo

[DesertFishkeeper]

I have a hair algae bloom that creeped up out of no where and since I haven’t been able to beat it. As of now my nitrates and phosphates are reading zero but I know that is because it’s all in the algae. But before I had the algae my nitrates were 1-5 and phos was 0.09ppm-0.17. I do feed a lot but mostly rods foods original reef blend and one of the half sized sheets or nori s day for my small tangs (which are getting to the 3-4 in range and I will be moving them on soon). My tank is a 90gal and I change 10-25 gal a week. I have a Red Sea roller mat, a masxspect sk200 skimmer, and a 16x12 refugium. I keep my alk, calc, and mag at 7/420-460/ 1350-1400. I try to keep them close as possible to tropic Marin pro reef because that’s the salt I use. I’m a year and a half into this tank with 6 months experience with a nano before this for salt water. Now that I have all that out of the way I see a lot of people say they have good luck with reef flux. But I’ve also seen that api algae fix is the same active ingredient as vibrant and I have it on hand for my freshwater planted tank and thought about using them as a combo to knock it out. Of course I’d pull my chaeto out and put it in a bucket with saltwater and a bucket with an air stone and ad some ferts to keep it alive. Anyone have any thoughts?

 

[voelter76]

I had a big blow up a few months back and a group of large turbo snails wiped it out in a few days.

 

[Tamberav]

Do something natural. Don’t use algae fix if you have corals… the my have symbiotic algae in them. Makes room for Dino, meh.

Manual removal and cuc.

 

[DesertFishkeeper]

I had a big blow up a few months back and a group of large turbo snails wiped it out in a few days.

I have like 10-15 with a few urchins, and other crabs and snails. How many would you consider a group and what size tank?

 

[mjszos]

I have like 10-15 with a few urchins, and other crabs and snails. How many would you consider a group and what size tank?

IMO 10-15 turbos in a tank that size is overkill. They get huge

 

[DesertFishkeeper]

Do something natural. Don’t use algae fix if you have corals… the my have symbiotic algae in them. Makes room for Dino, meh.

Manual removal and cuc.

My coral is why I’m nervous. And despite tbe algae growing the coral is growing great too. Got some beginner acro that is doing well and growing, my basic but probably favorite purple stylo that grew from a few tiny stumps to an 8in around 20 branch colony, and my rainbow monti that’s been encrusting now to child fist size (there’s a lot more but a few examples). I don’t want to lose them but I’ve even tried a sea hare that died/ disappeared even though there was pleanty of algae and the water is stable. I’ve tried adding different clean up crew. I have the lights up high but that’s for the coral. Should I try bringing my cuc up to 1 critter per gallon?

 

[blecki]

What's the stocking in the tank? A bristle tooth tang is small enough for a 90 and will decimate the algae.

Depending on how bad it is (pics would help) there's a couple strategies other than getting something to eat it or chemically treating - in the past I've defeated it by removing a few rocks at a time and keeping them in a bucket with water, sealed in for a few weeks, then slowly switching them out until I'd 'cured' every rock. For rocks that I couldn't blackout because of attached coral I took the rock out and treated with peroxide. Again maybe a rock a day, tops. Not all at once. You can also spot treat with peroxide inside the tank using a pipette. For 90 gallons, a few tens of milliters at a time at most. Hit the stubborn spots and the algae will turn white and die in a matter of days.

The thing is you can't really starve GHA out without also killing everything else. And it can be a real beast because it consumes all the nitrate and starves out it's competition.

 

[DesertFishkeeper]

What's the stocking in the tank? A bristle tooth tang is small enough for a 90 and will decimate the algae.

Depending on how bad it is (pics would help) there's a couple strategies other than getting something to eat it or chemically treating - in the past I've defeated it by removing a few rocks at a time and keeping them in a bucket with water, sealed in for a few weeks, then slowly switching them out until I'd 'cured' every rock. For rocks that I couldn't blackout because of attached coral I took the rock out and treated with peroxide. Again maybe a rock a day, tops. Not all at once. You can also spot treat with peroxide inside the tank using a pipette. For 90 gallons, a few tens of milliters at a time at most. Hit the stubborn spots and the algae will turn white and die in a matter of days.

The thing is you can't really starve GHA out without also killing everything else. And it can be a real beast because it consumes all the nitrate and starves out it's competition.

Stocking is a bit high. I have 3 small tangs (which are moving out soon), a rabbit fish that I’ve tried removing several times but I’m going to have to drain the tank to get him out, 2 clowns, a cherub angel, a royal gramma, and a diamond goby. What I don’t understand is my nutrients weren’t high at the time if the break out. But I’m kind of shooting myself in the foot making it worse trying to feed more because I’m afraid the algae is getting all of it and keeping my corals from getting what they need

 

[DesertFishkeeper]

 

[voelter76]

I have like 10-15 with a few urchins, and other crabs and snails. How many would you consider a group and what size tank?

4 big ones along with a bunch of baby Trochus snails that got in somehow in a 26g. Also a good crew of various hermit crabs. They keep things pretty spotless!!

 

[jbhydroman]

I had a horrible time with hair, bubble and slime algae. I then bought some hermits, Nassarius snails, and Emerald crabs. My algae problem is now gone. They cleaned up the entire tank in about 2 weeks. I have a 40 gal. with about 15 hermits, 3 emeralds, and 6 snails.

 

[blecki]

Feeding more to raise nutrients when your fish are already well fed is a sure fire way to grow algae.

But I'm a little shocked you have any algae at all with three tangs, a rabbit fish, and an angel in the tank. I'd skip a day or two feeding them and see if they will take a go at the GHA. That sailfin will be big enough to eat all of that in a day in a year or so. But if they constantly have brine shrimp 'candy' and big meaty foods to gorge on they won't touch it.

And don't discount the clean up crew... I'd pour like 50 hermits into that tank and a bunch of snails (not turbos, you need little ones - they make houses for the hermits....)

 

[Tamberav]

Stocking is a bit high. I have 3 small tangs (which are moving out soon), a rabbit fish that I’ve tried removing several times but I’m going to have to drain the tank to get him out, 2 clowns, a cherub angel, a royal gramma, and a diamond goby. What I don’t understand is my nutrients weren’t high at the time if the break out. But I’m kind of shooting myself in the foot making it worse trying to feed more because I’m afraid the algae is getting all of it and keeping my corals from getting what they need

It has been shown time and time again you can have high nutrients and still no algae problems.

But.. debris can clog rock pours and get caught in algae feeding it more..

All those tangs and foxface are fertilizing your grass ;) Especially since they aren’t even hungry enough to eat it.

 

[DesertFishkeeper]

I know i was just worried about my coral not getting its nutrients. As far as the tangs and rabbit fish go I’ve only seen them eat the algae after I pull the rock out and put hydrogen peroxide on it. That’s why I still feed nori because I don’t want them to get constipated. Since I’ve had them for a year and a half they have only been fed a variety of types of nori and rods foods. I don’t know if you can tell by the picture but they go to the front right corner when they see me and follow me when I walk around the tank. Not as bad as my melanarus wrasse I used to have. He was killing all my cuc but would eat out of my hand. I don’t know how I feel about holding back food i don’t want to starve the non algae eating fish. I think I’ll definitely put in tons of hermits and other cuc though.

 

[Tamberav]

Are you sure it isn’t bryopsis or such?

Bryopsis isn’t very palatable to most fish.

 

[DesertFishkeeper]

Are you sure it isn’t bryopsis or such?

Bryopsis isn’t very palatable to most fish.

It’s definitely hair. It’s like a dark greenish brown. I posted a picture not sure if it’s good enough to tell. If you can tell with a better picture if it’s another type I’m happy to take another one I’ll soak up anything helpful.

 

[Tamberav]

It’s definitely hair. It’s like a dark greenish brown. I posted a picture not sure if it’s good enough to tell. If you can tell with a better picture if it’s another type I’m happy to take another one I’ll soak up anything helpful.

Bryopsis will just be feathery but look similar. There are many kinds and some are not obvious and look similar to gha.

 

[DesertFishkeeper]

Bryopsis will just be feathery but look similar. There are many kinds and some are not obvious and look similar to gha.

Maybe that’s why some people have luck with reef flux and some don’t. Maybe some people actually have bryopsis and think it’s gha. I didn’t even question that it was gha because it looks like hair and it’s my first algae struggle with salt water so that’s a new perspective. Did you look at the picture I posted?

 

[blecki]

If it's bryopsis you have far fewer options. You can't starve it unless you're prepared to kill the entire rock and nothing really eats it well enough to control it.

 

[exnisstech]

I'm sorry but I don't see anything in that tank that I would be concerned about. I have a tank with a GHA problem and I wish it looked like your tank. Heck I wish all my tanks looked that good. Mine problem tank is too small for herbivore fish so I decided to try Flux rx. It took a toll on the gha then came cyano so in with the chemi clean and then off I went.