I Need Help. GHA battle

[Hallowhead]

Another week another water change, it feels like it's shifting, algae looking different, not sure if it's a new algae or if i am just winning the battle.

It's on more rocks than before, but small clumps not fields of grass.

Scrubbed a lot of rock tonight

Still adding nopox and bacter7

I'll need to seed with pods as I feel like I'm killing my population with these often scrubs and sand bed cleans

 

[CHSUB]

Appears to be receding with the copious amounts of husbandry, just concerned how I'm gonna keep it at bay after it's gone.

It is a constant battle, but it gets easier with snails and CUC to help….note to hobbyists: reef tanks are never done it is one battle after another.

 

[Hallowhead]

Its grown back quite a bit...

Getting annoyed, thought 4 weeks of weekly water changes would have had a significant impact. Maybe another 4. Scheduled to do one Monday before Christmas so tank looks semi presentable.

I'm thinking I should add some cheaper corals to help combat the high phos

 

[sgdnycct]

What helped me finally control it was massive chaeto growth. I had a big ball that I kept big so it would grow faster than the gha. Gha absorbs phos almost instantly. CUC eats it and creates waste with Phosphate which then reenters the water column. You need to outcompete it. CUC to eat it and a constant nutrient exporter. Corals won’t make a dent unless you stuff your tank full of them. Increase CUC and make sure you have something else to absorb the phos. It won’t always beat the gha but as long its taking a little more each minute/hour/day than the gha and water column you’ll get it. Without scrubbing and minimal manual removal. It took two months for me once I learned how to properly trim the chaeto.

 

[Hallowhead]

What helped me finally control it was massive chaeto growth. I had a big ball that I kept big so it would grow faster than the gha. Gha absorbs phos almost instantly. CUC eats it and creates waste with Phosphate which then reenters the water column. You need to outcompete it. CUC to eat it and a constant nutrient exporter. Corals won’t make a dent unless you stuff your tank full of them. Increase CUC and make sure you have something else to absorb the phos. It won’t always beat the gha but as long its taking a little more each minute/hour/day than the gha and water column you’ll get it. Without scrubbing and minimal manual removal. It took two months for me once I learned how to properly trim the chaeto.

What else did you use to absord phos ?

 

[sgdnycct]

Just chaeto. No water changes no other chemicals or absorbers. Urchin and snails to keep it clean. Completely stopped any dried foods. I slowly increased the light period for Chaeto to 18 hrs per day. Plan to bring tha down once it’s all clear.

 

[Hallowhead]

Just chaeto. No water changes no other chemicals or absorbers. Urchin and snails to keep it clean. Completely stopped any dried foods. I slowly increased the light period for Chaeto to 18 hrs per day. Plan to bring tha down once it’s all clear.

Did you spin chaeto? My chaeto doesn't spin and just clumps into detritus

 

[sgdnycct]

I’ve tried spinning chaeto but never worked for me. It gets some detritus but not much and that’s with slow flow. I think most of the detritus settles before it reaches the chaeto. I do flip it once in a while to keep all sides getting light. I also do net worry about detritus. To me it’s just one more place to more life to live.

 

[AgentKooper]

Get a Tomini or Kole tang.

 

[Hallowhead]

Making some changes to my refugium. It was filthy and my chaeto was not growing. Added a pump to my skimmer section that pumps back into my fuge to help lift detritus and cause chaeto to tumble more. Hoping I get more phosphate export this way

 

[RWReefer]

Update time:

After the scrubbing of all rocks back in December, GHA came back full force. I took a different approach this next run and let it grow. Didn’t scrub anything. Kept the GFO running full blast and walked away for a few weeks. Came back to a forest and to check parameters and PO4 was at 0.02 and nitrates were zeroed out.

What was immediately noticeable when I started to remove algae this time was that it just pulled right out. No scrubbing rocks needed, just hand removal, which was a massive difference to the elbow grease and bristle brush it used to take.

We’re now on day 5 after that clean up and the GHA appears to be subsiding. No immediate growth right back like it was. I did see my PO4 spike to 0.24ppm after I stopped GFO, so I’m wondering if the rock is still leaching, just not as massively as before. Stopped the skimmer and over feeding to get nitrates up a bit, sitting around 3.2ppm now. More to report as I monitor but today is a good day because it feels like a corner is being turned.

Cheers.

 

[reeferpdx415]

Did you buy the tuxedo urchins? If not, just go get 4 or so of them and your GHA won't exist any more!

 

[RWReefer]

Did you buy the tuxedo urchins? If not, just go get 4 or so of them and your GHA won't exist any more!

I’ve got two pencil urchins doing good work. Haven’t had much luck with tuxedos in the tank.

 

[ChrisfromBrick]

It is a constant battle, but it gets easier with snails and CUC to help….note to hobbyists: reef tanks are never done it is one battle after another.

100%- I dont think anyone here has never dealt with zero uphill battles

 

[Hallowhead]

Update time:

After the scrubbing of all rocks back in December, GHA came back full force. I took a different approach this next run and let it grow. Didn’t scrub anything. Kept the GFO running full blast and walked away for a few weeks. Came back to a forest and to check parameters and PO4 was at 0.02 and nitrates were zeroed out.

What was immediately noticeable when I started to remove algae this time was that it just pulled right out. No scrubbing rocks needed, just hand removal, which was a massive difference to the elbow grease and bristle brush it used to take.

We’re now on day 5 after that clean up and the GHA appears to be subsiding. No immediate growth right back like it was. I did see my PO4 spike to 0.24ppm after I stopped GFO, so I’m wondering if the rock is still leaching, just not as massively as before. Stopped the skimmer and over feeding to get nitrates up a bit, sitting around 3.2ppm now. More to report as I monitor but today is a good day because it feels like a corner is being turned.

Cheers.

Looks great! Ugh I yearn for a good tank. My tank looks awful tonight, it's due for my weekly water change, but nothing is changing. I think it's time to start over for me. Going to start looking for a new tank lol

 

[RWReefer]

don’t give up. It took a lot of patience and I almost gave in. I’m going to chalk my issue up to overfeeding frozen directly in the tank, which caused the dry Marco rock to suck up a ton of phosphate, and thereby providing buffet for GHA. I let GFO run for like a month straight (still running as I saw a spike a day after I turned it off), let the algae suck up whatever phosphate leached out, and then manual removal. It still growing, but not nearly with past vigor and is easily brushed off with a soft bristle toothbrush. Need it to warm up now so I can restock my clean up crew.

 

[Hallowhead]

don’t give up. It took a lot of patience and I almost gave in. I’m going to chalk my issue up to overfeeding frozen directly in the tank, which caused the dry Marco rock to suck up a ton of phosphate, and thereby providing buffet for GHA. I let GFO run for like a month straight (still running as I saw a spike a day after I turned it off), let the algae suck up whatever phosphate leached out, and then manual removal. It still growing, but not nearly with past vigor and is easily brushed off with a soft bristle toothbrush. Need it to warm up now so I can restock my clean up crew.

I was using chemipure elite you think I should just go with gfo ?

 

[RWReefer]

I was using chemipure elite you think I should just go with gfo ?

I’ve never used chemipure and don’t know anything about it so I can’t steer you one way or the other. I know what seems to be working for me right now is a GFO reactor. I’m just a quick search, it looks like chemipure filters multiple things, while GFO is straight phosphate removal.

Do you have any data around what your PO4 levels are/have been since you started chemipure? I don’t want to give you a solution (phosphate removal) if it’s not the root of the issue.

For reference, my phosphates were so high they didn’t register on the Hanna ULR. Finally got them down under 1.0ppm and then saw the gradual decrease down to 0.1 or under, but then if I shutoff the GFO reactor I would see them spike up again, hence the hypothesis that rock was leeching bound phosphate. Just saw this the other day when I spiked from 0.02 to 0.24 and now back down to 0.08 when I restarted GFO.

 

[Awesome Opossum]

You've got this. Ive been battling gha when I have time since may of last year. Its finally starting to look better. Peroxide, scrubbing and water changes. I also stopped dosing trace elements and amino acids. They seems to really spike the algae growth. OP, it sounds like we have the same issue. My tangs and large CUC cant keep up.