Help!! I need advice! About to throw in the towel!

[prsnlty]

+1
Fwiw, in 8 years ive never dosed anything like nopox . my gfo is 6 years old. I do however have a really nice scrub brush set.

Lol I do the nopox only in emergency situations for short periods.

I actually had a 150g with 200lbs of lr flowing with gha years ago. I bought out the homestore of 5g buckets and pharmacy of h202. I killed it all!!!!! Lol. I still have some of those rocks and to this day they don't get algae on them ironically [emoji12]

 

[Crashjack]

I will look into phosguard. Thanks. The chemipure elite I am using is a carbon and GFO mix. Is that much different that phosguard?

Phosguard works by adding it to a mesh bag in a high flow area and then testing every 4 days. If phosphate goes down, you don't change out the Phosguard until it starts to go back up. If phosphate doesn't go down or goes up after 4 days, you replace the Phosguard and repeat the process. This should eventually result in bringing down phosphates/silicates to negligible levels. You would want to remove as much of the algae as possible by hand initially, which will remove some of the nutrients and should give you more accurate phosphate readings. This process is simple and cheap, which is why I recommend. If it doesn't work, you aren't out much time or money, and you won't harm your livestock or biological filtration.

I would also make sure your tank isn't getting light from a window, mainly during times when your lights aren't running. If so, you might want to keep the curtain pulled or if no curtain, cover the window with a sheet or something until you get the algae under control.

 

[CastAway]

With a pH of 8.2, is PO4 likely to leach? In my relative ignorance, I don't think so.

I second manual removal, water changes, and driving the NO3 down by feeding very very minimally.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Phosguard works by adding it to a mesh bag in a high flow area and then testing every 4 days. If phosphate goes down, you don't change out the Phosguard until it starts to go back up. If phosphate doesn't go down or goes up after 4 days, you replace the Phosguard and repeat the process. This should eventually result in bringing down phosphates/silicates to negligible levels. You would want to remove as much of the algae as possible by hand initially, which will remove some of the nutrients and should give you more accurate phosphate readings. This process is simple and cheap, which is why I recommend. If it doesn't work, you aren't out much time or money, and you won't harm your livestock or biological filtration.

I would also make sure your tank isn't getting light from a window, mainly during times when your lights aren't running. If so, you might want to keep the curtain pulled or if no curtain, cover the window with a sheet or something until you get the algae under control.

Plus one

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

With a pH of 8.2, is PO4 likely to leach? In my relative ignorance, I don't think so.

I second manual removal, water changes, and driving the NO3 down by feeding very very minimally.

I don't believe ph is a factor in po4 binding to aragonite but I could be wrong. Seems we'd know as it would effect the rate gfo binds too.

 

[jason2459]

pH can effect it but would not be something you want to do with a tank. We keep our pH in a very narrow range.

There's studies on CaCO3 and PO4 and can look up regenerating GFO.

 

[jason2459]

With a pH of 8.2, is PO4 likely to leach? In my relative ignorance, I don't think so.

I second manual removal, water changes, and driving the NO3 down by feeding very very minimally.

Yes, PO4 can "leach" from the rock. It's more of an equilibrium thing. If PO4 is lower in the water column then it will leach. If PO4 is higher then it could absorb.

Using GFO or LaCL3 will help lower the PO4 in the water column. Which could help speed up the process of removing it from the rock.

Be careful with Lanthanum. Watch your Alk.

 

[NakiFantaki]

Thanks for all the advice guys, I really appreciate it! I did a large water change tonight.. about 45-50% and replaced all of my media and sponges. Also scrubbed all of the rock and cleaned the sandbed and my coral frags. I added 2ml of peroxide for good measure. Lol. Tomorrow morning I will go ahead and dose 350mg of fluconazole and hope for the best. Tank looks great right now!! Lol...

Next major clean out I will dip the rocks in peroxide. And go that route. I'm also trying to get my hands on a used skimmer and I might try to make a DIY fuge. I will be getting some phosband this weekend and I will up my GFO.

I really don't want to shut the tank down but sometimes it gets so frustrating... and the water change and the taking care of the tank is hard on me sometimes. I have a pretty bad cervical injury and I'm waiting surgery so when I posted the initial post I was in a lot of pain and just over it! Lol. I do love my tank so much and I have never had a hobby that I have enjoyed like this. Even though I don't have the money to have all of the nice equipment sometimes I still enjoy it greatly.

Thanks again everyone!

 

[NakiFantaki]

Phosguard works by adding it to a mesh bag in a high flow area and then testing every 4 days. If phosphate goes down, you don't change out the Phosguard until it starts to go back up. If phosphate doesn't go down or goes up after 4 days, you replace the Phosguard and repeat the process. This should eventually result in bringing down phosphates/silicates to negligible levels. You would want to remove as much of the algae as possible by hand initially, which will remove some of the nutrients and should give you more accurate phosphate readings. This process is simple and cheap, which is why I recommend. If it doesn't work, you aren't out much time or money, and you won't harm your livestock or biological filtration.

I would also make sure your tank isn't getting light from a window, mainly during times when your lights aren't running. If so, you might want to keep the curtain pulled or if no curtain, cover the window with a sheet or something until you get the algae under control.

Awesome! I will look into it when I'm at the LFS this weekend. The issue can't be a window or another light source... we have black out blinds on all our our bedroom windows... lol I love it dark! And can't sleep when the sun is burning my eyeballs! Lol

 

[NakiFantaki]

how much did you use?

+1 to the young tank not processing nutrints btw, so lots for the algae and coral.

If you decide to use peroxide and scrub out side the tank, do a piece at a time or dont use much. You might have some wonky PH issues, but then beef up the snails.

sorry for the woes. Been there. And fwiw. I was in the hobby 5 years before I bought a skimmer. it is about bacteria and feeding.

Sorry - just getting to this now. I used 400mg

 

[60CubeReefer]

Manually remove as much of the HA as you can by hand, start running GFO, and get some snails to eat the algae. Worked for me!

 

[NakiFantaki]

Manually remove as much of the HA as you can by hand, start running GFO, and get some snails to eat the algae. Worked for me!

Sigh. Thanks man. I don't think you read my initial post though..

 

[Water Dog]

When I had GHA problems in a newly set up tank, I'd do this on water change day... I'd manually scrub the rocks with a toothbrush, continually dipping the toothbrush with undiluted H2O2 as you scrub the algae making sure the GHA on the rocks get soaked with the peroxide. Scrub thoroughly making sure to scrub all the algae effected areas of the rock. Then rinse the rock in the wastewater from your water change and put it back in. You'll notice the algae turning white and little air bubbles forming on the rocks, that's good. The next day do another big water change so you minimize the effects of the nutrient spike from the algae die off. Repeat this process if you see the GHA re growing on your rocks. This process in combination with the other mentioned preventative steps will go a long way in eventually eliminating your GHA issue. I know it's frustrating, but hang in there and you will have this beat!

 

[JEREMY82]

Hey u may be able to look into a Ats algae turf scrubber,from what I understand it may help with the gha

 

[Jenna Bearden]

Check your phosphates. Your nitrates are really high. A good quality carbon and high capacity gfo accompanied with phosphate rx will help with the algea. Check this guy out! He uses this all the time!
. Good luck! I had a horrible break out due to high phosphates. Got that under control and my nano is hair free!!!! If I missed you saying you had a protien Skimmer get one worth every penny.

 

[Cperkins]

You can make a silencer for your skimmer airline. Makes them super quiet. I used an old medicine bottle. With the cap on drill a hole in the top and in the bottom but make them offset. Line from the skimmer goes in the bottom and another short hose goes in the top. NOW GO GET A SKIMMER!

 

[Flippers4pups]

Yes, PO4 can "leach" from the rock. It's more of an equilibrium thing. If PO4 is lower in the water column then it will leach. If PO4 is higher then it could absorb.

Using GFO or LaCL3 will help lower the PO4 in the water column. Which could help speed up the process of removing it from the rock.

Be careful with Lanthanum. Watch your Alk.

This is the reason I said what I said in my response. It takes time, depending on how much PO4 is locked in the rock. Takes time, hopefully quickly.

 

[prsnlty]

You can make a silencer for your skimmer airline. Makes them super quiet. I used an old medicine bottle. With the cap on drill a hole in the top and in the bottom but make them offset. Line from the skimmer goes in the bottom and another short hose goes in the top. NOW GO GET A SKIMMER!

While he's drilling the bottle cap he can put tons of small holes in the bottom and fill it with soda lime and now he has a DIY CO2 scrubber hooked up to his new skimmer [emoji12]

 

[bblumberg]

Manually remove as much of the HA as you can by hand, start running GFO, and get some snails to eat the algae. Worked for me!

+5 on this

Lots of cerith snails and also a fish or two that like to eat gha algae such as lawnmower blennie, yellow tang, etc. Get a GFO reactor from bulk reef supply, keep up with your water changes and wait. Fluconazole will help, as will peroxide, but nothing is going to permanently reduce your algae problem better than controlling nutrients. In my experience, GHA and bryopsis will come back if nutrient problem is not controlled. Be sure that you are not overlighting the tank either.

Bruce

 

[bblumberg]

ps. a Tunze 9001 will work well in your tank and you will not hear it (at least I don't hear mine).