How to beat GHA ! The road to a algae free tank !

rapid · Nov 6, 2020

So this seems to be the latest problem I have right now in my tank. For about almost a year I have been battling GHA (green hair algae).

I have spent the last year slowly controlling my phosphates and nitrates. They were around 25 ppm for nitrates and .25 for phosphates. I have had a massive algae outbreak of GHA. To combat this I assumed it was caused by the high nutrients in the tank and started process about 4 months ago to lower these numbers before starting to combat the GHA. This process of lower the nutrients was to increase the frequency of water changes and size of water changes. Also I added Activated Carbon and GFO. Both high quality brands. I made sure to rinse the **** outa the media bags that I was using to run the GFO and Carbon in a Canister filter hooked up to the sump. Been running this combo for about two months. I really need to take a sample to my LFS of water to have them test it to see if I have had any good results in lower the two key nutrients in the tank. ( I do not regularly test my water) usually monthly only by the LFS. I tend to not chase numbers but this GHA is Destroying the BEAUTY of the tank. I have noticed visually though since the Use of the canister and its media I have seen no new growth of GHA or Film Algae on the glass and wave makers. I was literally cleaning the glass and wavemakers every other night with how much algae grew on them no I can go about a month before having to scrap the glass and clean the wave makers. But the GHA that's already on the rocks has grow a little bigger but hasn't spread. The growth seems to have been stunted so I can accept that the levels of Phosphates have defiantly dropped. I have been trying to manually remove as much GHA as I can suck out but this GHA isn't dead for some reason so its still very hard to grab and pull off the rocks always a little left at the base then it slowly grows back.

HOW CAN I ERRADICATE THIS PERMENTALY!

Should I try 12% food grade hydrogen peroxide spot treatments 1 ml per 10 gallons of water ? so 4 mls every other day on a certain spot of rock?

Should I try vibrant ?

I am not sure which method I want to take I have heard good things regarding both treatments. Anyone care to add in there opinion?

JasonK84 · Nov 6, 2020

I used Vibrant for the first year and a half in my FOWLR and never had GHA. Nitrates were “0” but phosphates we’re off the chart. I’ve quit using the vibrant since I’ve got 4 tangs keeping it under control but wouldn’t hesitate to grab the bottle again.

rapid · Nov 6, 2020

JasonK84 said:
I used Vibrant for the first year and a half in my FOWLR and never had GHA. Nitrates were “0” but phosphates we’re off the chart. I’ve quit using the vibrant since I’ve got 4 tangs keeping it under control but wouldn’t hesitate to grab the bottle again.

Yes I may grab a bottle
MMH idk how I feel about the hydrogen peroxide spot treating in my tank. All my corals are doing good and growing liek weeds Afraid the Peroxide would have ill effects on the coral and bacteria ?

JasonK84 · Nov 6, 2020

rapid said:
Yes I may grab a bottle
MMH idk how I feel about the hydrogen peroxide spot treating in my tank. All my corals are doing good and growing liek weeds Afraid the Peroxide would have ill effects on the coral and bacteria ?

Just start the Vibrant slowly. Some have shown bad results. I’ve got nothing but good words for the product but it was also a FOWLR tank.

rapid · Nov 6, 2020

JasonK84 said:
Just start the Vibrant slowly. Some have shown bad results. I’ve got nothing but good words for the product but it was also a FOWLR tank.

Ill start with half the recommended dose for a couple weeks and see what that does !

rapid · Nov 25, 2020

so update :

I am about two weeks into vibrant dosing and im doseing it every 3 days about 5ml for a 50 gallon tank with 20 gallon sump. I am also running a canister filter with polishing and heavy sponge to catch any debretus. I also run a compartment of the canister with activated carbon and GFO High capacity both by kesslar labs.

I have noticed a much clear water and cleaner Glass after two weeks of this. I use to clean my glass once a night now i can go a entire 2 weeks before i have any neeed to clean my glass!
WOW

i cannot say i have seen any reduction in the Current GHA I am noticing no new growth tho so that is good. i was hoping to be able to get the current gha out of the aquarium manually but for some reason even two weeks in the GHA is still extremely hard to pull off the rocks i can only get the long stuff.

i have noticed the GHA starting to turn brown ? not green. but i also think i see more brown and red algae appearing which i believe is cyano ? so i started to dial back my Use of GFO !. i figure the use of vibrant would kill the gha causing a mass pollution of nutrients. but it seem the GFO is working too well. And now i am seeing cyano appear because the reduction in PO4 ?.

i have notice a reduciton in my zoa and paly heads they seem to be getting smaller. My pipe organ coral isnt too happy some of its polyps are retracted. and my frog spawn is defintly not as full and large as usual. so the plans for friday is to do a big water change and stop the use of the GFO. OR atleast use a smaller amount. i am still going to run the carbon. for clearity in the water and just to help with any chemical warefare that may be a potential problem one day.

rapid · Dec 2, 2020

Update:

I recently just checked my phosphate and nitrate.

Phosphate is at .25 and nitrate is around 10-20 after doing a 20 % water change phosphate stays roughly the same and nitrate goes down to about 0-5.

as for the algae ? I haven't seen any new growth except for on the return pump I am starting to get a little bit of growth. So I started to increase my dosage of vibrant to 2 times per weeks. doing about 1 weekly 20% water change ! i just purchased reef flux. I do not see vibrant alone killing this GHA even with my weekly water change and manual removal.

Ive done some research and have found that fluconazole treatment should kill all GHA and have no ill effect on the tank life ! SO we shall see it will be arriving from amazon with hopefully soon ! will update with current photos soon.

rapid · Dec 2, 2020

im going to continue to dose vibrant till the bottle is empty. it does wonders for keeping my algae and water column clean !

becon776 · Dec 21, 2020

can you update?

Waters · Dec 22, 2020

Yeah Vibrant can be weird. Sometimes it works....sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes it irritates coral....sometimes it doesn't lol. I have used it a few times over the years with both very good luck, and also devastation. In my case my problems using it were never related to nutrient reduction as I tested daily during use. I just can't figure the stuff out. I am currently using it now but am about to stop due to some SPS issues.

rapid · Dec 22, 2020

Update:

So I started to does vibrant and now im about over halfway done with the bottle been dosing about 6ML in my 40 gallon every Sunday After a water change !

I have noticed that vibrant does work but doesn't eliminate hair algae. Since using it I have noticed no ill effects with any of the coral or fish. But it has stopped any further growth of GHA and drastically reduced the amount of film algae on the glass!. I only clean the glass once a month now ! The GHA is still alive though. It doesn't seem to be spreading or growing but its still there and very hard to remove still ! especially some places I cant get my fingers. So i will continue to dose it until it is empty and may buy another bottle to just help with keeping the water column and use it as a water conditioner because it seems to only have an effect of algae in the water column. It defiantly does not work for killing and ridding the alage in the tank ! good to use tho if starting a tank.

I moved on about 14 days ago to something called fluconazole. It is a fungus med for fish and aquarium's. the brand i ordered off amazon was called reef flux! now i have heard many things about this med and its effects on the aquarium so please do your research.

I followed the directions and does 5 of the capsules into the water column directly into the sump i left the carbon and skimmer running while doing this. now the directions say wait at least 14 days before doing a water change !

After 2 days i noticed no effects everything was fine.

4 days = noticed some reduction in the anemones and coral

5 days= i woke up to all the algae in the tank long GHA turning white ! again i noticed more polyp reduction on all corals expect the palys and zoas. the frogspawn was completly closed and so was the torch. They looked ticked !

7days = it tested the water cause all coral now was ticked and my nems were Turing a nasty pale dark almost black color. they were bright green and orange and some red Before treatment. the tests showed my phosphates and nitrates were sky high ! !! so i added more carbon and more GFO in my reactor.

8 days = Most of the GHA is grey and falling off of the rocks and the rest melted away.

14 days = Around 14 days i decided enough was enough. All my coral was defiantly mad but the were still alive for sure ! all the GHA basically just vanished and melted away after doing a huge 90 % water change over the course of two days i got the tank back to normal parameters and all coral are starting to come back out and the anemones are defiantly regaining the color they once had ! The tank could defiantly use another treatment to completely kill the gha because there are still some spots of GHA but only small patch here and there. before using the GHA was basically covering all the coral and i couldn't see any of the rocks ! reef flux defiantly works and i feel is a great last resort to battling GHA !

My plan now is to keep dosing vibrant and give the tank a month to recoup and try to starve the rest of the small GHA out of the tank by keeping nutrients down low which is what i neglected in the past ! My hope is that the vibrant will keep the small patches of GHA from spreading in the water column and i can stop its growth with low nutrients. but if i notice is coming back i have another five capsules left of reef flux which i wouldn't hesitate to use again to kill the remaining GHA

Will update with photos tonight !

I did manage to loose two of the only SPS in the tank during this treatment ! im not sure why because they were fine before the fluconazole but after i did my water change i noticed the two red sticks were pale and completely white over night ! so im guessing the fluconazole had some ill effect on the SPS ! we shall see if the recover ? but i did notice one of the nems moved ontop of the stick for a moment and were toucheing them so i guess the nem could of killed them !

Waters · Dec 22, 2020

Glad the fluc is working.....be careful while using it and Vibrant at the same time. I believe there are several threads on here relating to issues using them both together.

rapid · Dec 22, 2020

Waters said:
Glad the fluc is working.....be careful while using it and Vibrant at the same time. I believe there are several threads on here relating to issues using them both together.

i have yet to see any real issue in my tank except for the lose of the two sticks ? not sure but maybe it was too much for the stick to handle or it was just the nems stinging them to death everything else seems to have had no effect on except for color and polyp expansion.

zalick · Feb 11, 2021

rapid said:
i have yet to see any real issue in my tank except for the lose of the two sticks ? not sure but maybe it was too much for the stick to handle or it was just the nems stinging them to death everything else seems to have had no effect on except for color and polyp expansion.

Any update? Still gha free?

codycolina707 · Feb 11, 2021

zalick said:
Any update? Still gha free?

I had great luck with brightwell razor and gha didn't harm any corals this stuff made it so I didn't even have to scrub my glass for the 3 weeks I dosed it

Smite · Feb 11, 2021

codycolina707 said:
I had great luck with brightwell razor and gha didn't harm any corals this stuff made it so I didn't even have to scrub my glass for the 3 weeks I dosed it

Good to hear I just started dosing today. I love the brightwell products I've used hopefully this will be one of them too.