I need help.

[rusya_reef]

Help guys ive been battling this GHA for about 4 months already if not longer. I tried different approaches, my Nitrates and Phosphates were in check last time i checked at least, running a test rn as we speak. Feel like my tank is too far gone now. The back of my AIO tank is just a mess as well no CUC can help with that. Any help/tips is appreciated :(
Thank you

 

[EnterName]

I'm sure it will be easier for the community to help you if you can answer the following questions:

Are you sure it's only GHA?

Have you ever considered an ICP test just to check if something is off or your tests are "lying"?

What exactly are the current nutrient (NO3, PO4) levels?

Do you perform regular water changes and how much?

What filtration methods do you use?

How does your current CUC look like?

Are you using your own RO/DI system, tap water, distilled water, or water bought from your LFS?

 

[ReeferTCG]

From my experience low nutrients can still cause algae. Id there are low nutrients algae is going to beat corals for nutrient consumption. Best thing is fish or cleanup crew that can devour algae. Coraline algae helps as well.

 

[rusya_reef]

I'm sure it will be easier for the community to help you if you can answer the following questions:

Are you sure it's only GHA?

Have you ever considered an ICP test just to check if something is off or your tests are "lying"?

What exactly are the current nutrient (NO3, PO4) levels?

Do you perform regular water changes and how much?

What filtration methods do you use?

How does your current CUC look like?

Are you using your own RO/DI system, tap water, distilled water, or water bought from your LFS?

Yes it seems to be only GHA, i dealt with dinos in the past but defeated.

How do I do an ICP Test?

Water Changes I do monthly Id say

My filtration is Filter Socks and Media Basket with carbon and floss

I have around 6 hermit crabs, 2 Conches, 1 lawnmower blenny, an emerald crab as well as a couple different kinds of snails around 5 total.

And I use my own RO/DI water

 

[rusya_reef]

From my experience low nutrients can still cause algae. Id there are low nutrients algae is going to beat corals for nutrient consumption. Best thing is fish or cleanup crew that can devour algae. Coraline algae helps as well.

In one of my replys I showed an Image of results from before my water change today

 

[ReeferTCG]

From my experience low nutrients can still cause algae. Id there are low nutrients algae is going to beat corals for nutrient consumption. Best thing is fish or cleanup crew that can devour algae. Coraline algae helps as well.

In one of my replys I showed an Image of results from before my water change today

Urchins are also good algae eaters

 

[rusya_reef]

From my experience low nutrients can still cause algae. Id there are low nutrients algae is going to beat corals for nutrient consumption. Best thing is fish or cleanup crew that can devour algae. Coraline algae helps as well.

In one of my replys I showed an Image of results from before my water change today

Urchins are also good algae eaters

I havent had luck recently cuz my LFS did a tank remodel so not much stock to choose from

 

[EnterName]

I'm sure it will be easier for the community to help you if you can answer the following questions:

Are you sure it's only GHA?

Have you ever considered an ICP test just to check if something is off or your tests are "lying"?

What exactly are the current nutrient (NO3, PO4) levels?

Do you perform regular water changes and how much?

What filtration methods do you use?

How does your current CUC look like?

Are you using your own RO/DI system, tap water, distilled water, or water bought from your LFS?

Yes it seems to be only GHA, i dealt with dinos in the past but defeated.

How do I do an ICP Test?

Water Changes I do monthly Id say

My filtration is Filter Socks and Media Basket with carbon and floss

I have around 6 hermit crabs, 2 Conches, 1 lawnmower blenny, an emerald crab as well as a couple different kinds of snails around 5 total.

And I use my own RO/DI water

I would get a proper tds meter to determine the purity of your RO/DI. How often do you change the deionization resin and other filters?

Icp tests are ordered (e.g. from ATI or Oceamo) then you simply fill a few vials with water and send it to the lab.

Are you not using a skimmer?

 

[rusya_reef]

I'm sure it will be easier for the community to help you if you can answer the following questions:

Are you sure it's only GHA?

Have you ever considered an ICP test just to check if something is off or your tests are "lying"?

What exactly are the current nutrient (NO3, PO4) levels?

Do you perform regular water changes and how much?

What filtration methods do you use?

How does your current CUC look like?

Are you using your own RO/DI system, tap water, distilled water, or water bought from your LFS?

Yes it seems to be only GHA, i dealt with dinos in the past but defeated.

How do I do an ICP Test?

Water Changes I do monthly Id say

My filtration is Filter Socks and Media Basket with carbon and floss

I have around 6 hermit crabs, 2 Conches, 1 lawnmower blenny, an emerald crab as well as a couple different kinds of snails around 5 total.

And I use my own RO/DI water

I would get a proper tds meter to determine the purity of your RO/DI. How often do you change the deionization resin and other filters?

Icp tests are ordered (e.g. from ATI or Oceamo) then you simply fill a few vials with water and send it to the lab.

Are you not using a skimmer?

can i get a meter on amazon for tds?
i bought a skimmer but didnt fit in my rear aio chamber. gonna be buyin a bubble magus mini q, would that be okay for a 32 gallon?

 

[EnterName]

I'm sure it will be easier for the community to help you if you can answer the following questions:

Are you sure it's only GHA?

Have you ever considered an ICP test just to check if something is off or your tests are "lying"?

What exactly are the current nutrient (NO3, PO4) levels?

Do you perform regular water changes and how much?

What filtration methods do you use?

How does your current CUC look like?

Are you using your own RO/DI system, tap water, distilled water, or water bought from your LFS?

Yes it seems to be only GHA, i dealt with dinos in the past but defeated.

How do I do an ICP Test?

Water Changes I do monthly Id say

My filtration is Filter Socks and Media Basket with carbon and floss

I have around 6 hermit crabs, 2 Conches, 1 lawnmower blenny, an emerald crab as well as a couple different kinds of snails around 5 total.

And I use my own RO/DI water

I would get a proper tds meter to determine the purity of your RO/DI. How often do you change the deionization resin and other filters?

Icp tests are ordered (e.g. from ATI or Oceamo) then you simply fill a few vials with water and send it to the lab.

Are you not using a skimmer?

can i get a meter on amazon for tds?
i bought a skimmer but didnt fit in my rear aio chamber. gonna be buyin a bubble magus mini q, would that be okay for a 32 gallon?

Yes you should be able to find tds meters on Amazon. The Hanna Instrument's pure water tester (HI98308) would work as well. TDS and conductivity meters will both work. You want to stay below 1μS/cm. A TDS meter should show 0ppm TDS. Note that you need to test freshly made RO/DI as carbon dioxide from the air will dissolve into RO/DI quite fast and increase TDS/conductivity. There are also inline solutions for RO/DI systems which would solve this issue. Some even come with multiple propes which makes it easier to determine if certain filters need to be replaced.

I mean, any skimmer is better than no skimmer, but there should be a tank size recommendation for the skimmer of your choice which tells you if it's fine. I think the bubble magus mini q is slightly too small but you have to verify yourself.

 

[commod0re]

One of the strongest tools in your arsenal for controlling algae is that it’s highly dependent on light to process nutrients, grow, and proliferate. Blast it with lots of light and it will grow quickly. Turn your lights down and its growth will slow. You are blasting it with an orbital laser with the lights set as they are now and I see maybe 1 coral in your tank? why do you need all those photons for that one coral? The lights are mostly feeding the algae. Get some more corals in there as well to soak up more light lol

Try to get the AIO area as close to total darkness as you can as well. The amount of light getting back there is why you have all that algae growing in there. If you cover it and make it dark all that algae will die in a few days and it will be a lot easier to clean up just by siphoning it out

Also I think if you scrape the front glass clean it won’t look as bad and that should regenerate some of your hope for the tank :)

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

The tank looks like it has been ignored for some time, obviously it will take some amount of elbow grease to clean it up, clean up the filtration, and add more rock, add more flow. The tank looks empty and it doesn't look very exciting. It just looks like its not gotten any love since you put it up.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

IMO, a good clean up crew is much more effective on algae than is trying to control it by nutrients.