I Need Help. GHA battle

[Renfield42]

I was able to eliminate the GHA in my tank during the first year with nutrient management, manual removal and pithos crabs. The crabs did most of the work.They are phenominal and even clean off corals and zoas without harming them. When the algae is gone they readily take seaweed.

I had plenty of snails of the various types but they were pretty lazy on the rocks compared to the pithos.

 

[ChrisfromBrick]

could your test kits also be wrong?

 

[RWReefer]

could your test kits also be wrong?

I’ve gone through a few different batches of Hanna reagents so probably not entirely likely. I do have an ICP test incoming so I can compare.

 

[Louis Z]

Correct. I look at a fairly new tank having GHA the same as a small kid teething. It sucks but it is part of the cycle

So an idea would be to setup a CUC OWLR first? , get the micro fauna populations up . Grow your selected macroalgae . Add a clean up crew . Manage your alkalinity , pH and calcium, magnesium . Add a fairly amount of light . See if any nuisance algae grows. If it does then blackout , fluconazole , hydrogen peroxide , carbon dosing. Once stable then add fish . Year later add corals . . Yikes I may not have the patience to do that . . I always add fish first , then CUC

 

[Grog]

I was able to eliminate the GHA in my tank during the first year with nutrient management, manual removal and pithos crabs.
.....
I had plenty of snails of the various types but they were pretty lazy on the rocks compared to the pithos.

Pithos crabs rock.

 

[RWReefer]

And we are clean.

More turbos and trochus on the way.

And a bunch of corals.

 

[RWReefer]

First corals have arrived.

 

[Hallowhead]

How's the battle, I'm going through it as well

 

[RWReefer]

How's the battle, I'm going through it as well

It’s going pretty well so far. A little cleaning every day. Did a big clean this weekend and placed a bunch of corals. Eagerly awaiting my next batch of snails next week.

 

[Hallowhead]

It’s going pretty well so far. A little cleaning every day. Did a big clean this weekend and placed a bunch of corals. Eagerly awaiting my next batch of snails next week.

Looking great ! My tank is ground zero. The large Mexican turbo I got is already making huge strips clean across rock, but so much floating around tank. I'm eager to follow your path

 

[RWReefer]

Looking great ! My tank is ground zero. The large Mexican turbo I got is already making huge strips clean across rock, but so much floating around tank. I'm eager to follow your path

Good luck. It’s definitely time consuming but I’m stubborn and will not lose this battle. Can definitely tell it is not coming back as thick, but it’s growing back noticeably after a couple of days. Removed some of my rock work because it was becoming a hindrance to cleaning. Few more emeralds and a bunch more turbos on the way. Even saw my first sign of coralline on the rock.

 

[Hallowhead]

Good luck. It’s definitely time consuming but I’m stubborn and will not lose this battle. Can definitely tell it is not coming back as thick, but it’s growing back noticeably after a couple of days. Removed some of my rock work because it was becoming a hindrance to cleaning. Few more emeralds and a bunch more turbos on the way. Even saw my first sign of coralline on the rock.

My rocks are all covered in coralline. But then that's covered in hair. Under white it's disgusting

 

[sgdnycct]

How’s the battle going? I’m at the (hopefully) tail end of my battle.

 

[Hallowhead]

How’s the battle going? I’m at the (hopefully) tail end of my battle.

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

 

[ChrisfromBrick]

My rocks are all covered in coralline. But then that's covered in hair. Under white it's disgusting

Usually the coralline will not allow the hair to grow over it (at least not as easily) from my experience.

 

[sgdnycct]

After reading a ton about it the one thing that helped was to understand just how quickly GHA absorbs phosphates. It’s almost instantaneous and if you have enough roots (I.e. it’s not easily visible but the root of the leaves are still alive in large quantities) then it may seem to be gone but as soon as the right nutrients increase the growth rate accelerates exponentially. I’ve been focusing on outcompeting it by increasing the CUC and extending the light and period for my Chaeto. Ive seen a gradual but definite improvement. I also added an urchin which seems to get to the roots. I can see clear trails where the urchin has been that have no fuzz (that’s my unscientific term for the roots). Unfortunately it seems to be eating up some Coraline but I’ll take the hit to get gha under control. The point is to transfer the nutrients out of the gha and water into a removable medium (in my case Chaeto).

Another thing I learned is that I’ve been culling too much chaeto. Now I cut a thin layer along the horizontal when it over grows. I think cutting it back too much allowed the gha to get ahead again, restarting the cycle.

 

[Hallowhead]

The urchin is the only thing that's mowing it when I'm not manually removing. My large Mexican turbo just falls over and goes to sleep now lol. When he was first added he ate a TON

My refugium is filthy and not tumbling but apparently that's not an issue from what I've read. I used to love when it tumbled, need to get more flow but every power head I add breaks due to getting clogged

 

[StradicCi4]

One thing I can suggest that has been working VERY well for me, when you have a rock that's being stubborn, pull it out and spot treat it with peroxide - I do this to all my rocks that are bad, I have noticed when I do this, I get 4-6 weeks of that rock being algae free. I feel like it kills the root, and it takes time to re-establish, and by then hopefully my cleaners handle it.

 

[Hallowhead]

One thing I can suggest that has been working VERY well for me, when you have a rock that's being stubborn, pull it out and spot treat it with peroxide - I do this to all my rocks that are bad, I have noticed when I do this, I get 4-6 weeks of that rock being algae free. I feel like it kills the root, and it takes time to re-establish, and by then hopefully my cleaners handle it.

How do you spot treat with peroxide ?

 

[StradicCi4]

How do you spot treat with peroxide ?

I pull the rock and put it in new salt water. I have a little spray bottle, and I spray it on the rocks. Let it sizzle for a minute or 2 and then put it back in the tank. A couple days later the algae is gone