I'm done, please help

[Damon Jensen]

I like the idea of biological control vs dosing something. What specific sea hare am I looking for? Do they grow fast?

Mine is a Dolabella, it is about 3 inches long. It not really grow fast, but devours algae. It will bury itself in the substrate for a couple days or when it is full. I sometime hand feed it seaweed just to watch it eat.

One bit of warning, you need to make sure it cannot get to any intakes. If it gets sucked in that can cause stressful death nd the release of toxins.

I originally bought two, one died after a couple months. I think because the tank was new and there was not enough to eat. Bloobberta, I have had for about 20 months.

 

[LegendaryCG]

Peroxide + fluconazole took care of my algae.

 

[14 foot reef]

Peroxide + fluconazole took care of my algae.

Did you dose Peroxide or empty tank and spray it on the GHA ?

 

[LegendaryCG]

Did you dose Peroxide or empty tank and spray it on the GHA ?

Dosed 2ml per gallon with carbon removed and pumps off. I tried to get it into the areas i wanted to address.

 

[Jeeperz]

Maybe that's why peroxide has not worked for me. I use 1 ml per gallon and I forgot my carbon bag in the back sump.

On the sea hare, I have no substrate. I do have some sand in my reefer 350 that's been cycling for 3 months(thinking of building a steel stand instead of the wobbly red sea stand) I can add sand to my tank. I've been wondering if me removing the sand bed is what's caused my hair algae issue as I never had it before, I only had to scrape glass every week or two also, now it's almost daily.

 

[14 foot reef]

Maybe that's why peroxide has not worked for me. I use 1 ml per gallon and I forgot my carbon bag in the back sump.

On the sea hare, I have no substrate. I do have some sand in my reefer 350 that's been cycling for 3 months(thinking of building a steel stand instead of the wobbly red sea stand) I can add sand to my tank. I've been wondering if me removing the sand bed is what's caused my hair algae issue as I never had it before, I only had to scrape glass every week or two also, now it's almost daily.

did you remove your sand bed all at once ?

 

[LegendaryCG]

I can't say with any certainty but my thought was the carbon would absorb the peroxide. My basic rule of thumb is if I'm adding any treatment I disable/remove my skimmer/carbon.

 

[Phildago]

Kill it with Flucanazole. Be swift or it will drive you insane.

I tried gfo reactors, water changes, manual removal, carbon dosing, a refugium.. Everything all to the end of extreme frustration and almost giving up. Then I stumbled across Flucanazole treatment and it worked like a miracle. No negative effects noted. I just dosed it, did water changes and the GHA literally melted away and never came back. Not a single strand.

You can buy reef Flux on Amazon. It's a good Flucanazole product.

 

[WallyB]

I don't feed much, just a huge variety. With frozen it's a slice off a small cube, less than 1/4 of the small cubes. Pellets, maybe a dozen or so. I don't feed daily so one feeding is pellets, one feeding frozen, one feeding reef nutrition brine/roe which is a couple drops each. I feed every other day at the most, usually every other two days.

Lights are ai prime hd's. One is original 3 years old, other one is about 2 years old.

Flow is original return pump with vca random flow generator and two current eflux 660 wave makers set on full blast. Detritus definitely settles out on rocks, I blow them off once or twice a week and before water changes.

Tank has been up 3 years pretty much how it looks. Never an algae problem until I moved states and at the same time removed the sandbed.

I will cut feeding back from 3 times a week to 2. Anything else I can do to remove this GHA? I will attempt to remove top 2 rocks and scrub and peroxide treat. And manual removal of the rest the best I can.

I change about 6-7 gallons of water each week. I may up that to double. I just don't want to start other issues with nutrients bottomed out

I'm not familiar with the Hydra Settings.

But it appears that you hvae a Lot of Purple/Violet in your setting.

That's means a lot of Red Specrtum (Percentage wise).
Red will fuel GHA.

Turn off all red/violet for a little while, and then once the GHA is gone, bring a little back.

I'll dig up a photo of what happened to my Tank when I was over feeding Corals and Had Red Cranked up.

 

[14 foot reef]

Kill it with Flucanazole. Be swift or it will drive you insane.

I tried gfo reactors, water changes, manual removal, carbon dosing, a refugium.. Everything all to the end of extreme frustration and almost giving up. Then I stumbled across Flucanazole treatment and it worked like a miracle. No negative effects noted. I just dosed it, did water changes and the GHA literally melted away and never came back. Not a single strand.

You can buy reef Flux on Amazon. It's a good Flucanazole product.

i've refrained from water changes, if you were doing water changes, were you redosing with the water change?
Very important to know.....how long did you dose? 1 time ? details please !!!!!

 

[WallyB]

Found the Photo.

This was my GHA outbreak in my 65 Gal Tank, just after about a year, fueled by Overfeeding Corals, and too much red light.

Here is a closer look at how bad it was.

Took rocks out and gave them a good scrubbing. TWICE. Maybe 3 times.

Once isn't enough. The reason is Phosphate and Red Light is Fueling Algae Growth.
The rocks have absorbed Phosphates, and after scrubbing, they will still continue to Leach out Phosphates (why the Alage comes back on rocks), so it take a while to all leach out.

Did some extra water changes, too (after each removal)!!

Then turned down my RED LED Specrtums. Stopped over feeding.

Put them back and GHA never came back.

You smaller tank shouldn't be as difficult. You may enjoy your new tank look once you re-scape things.
Better than looking at more GHA.

I don't believe in any Chemical Additives. Adding too much food or phosphates was the cause of problems (along with red/white lighting)

With chems....You are adding stuff, killing stuff (causing more waste) , and that doesn't really mean you're removing stuff, unless you have some really good export filtration. (which you don't have since this wouldn't have started if you did)

If you really want to add something, I would add one or two bags of ChemiPure Blue. (not ChemiClean)
It will polish up your water (removing Nutrients, and Phosphate) and continue using it, swapping out one bag at a time. SInce the bags will act like media to keep good de-nitrifying bacteria in your system.

Be patient, it takes time to rid your system of GHA. INSTANT/Miracle cures do more damage to good (in the long run)

 

[14 foot reef]

This is fabulous progress, but I don't see a lot of the same corals from pic 4 to pic 5. Seems like 90% restock of new frags. I Apologize if I'm incorrect. Truly sorry if I'm wrong.

 

[14 foot reef]

 

[Phildago]

i've refrained from water changes, if you were doing water changes, were you redosing with the water change?
Very important to know.....how long did you dose? 1 time ? details please !!!!!

I did two treatments of 3 weeks to be safe with 2 weeks between treatments. During the first treatment I did water changes weekly, using medicated water to replace what I removed. I was afraid of a massive swing in nutrients because my rank was completely caked in GHA, but from what I understand it may not have been necessary to do.

I removed my carbon, but ran my skimmer during the process. I kept the skimmer on the lowest setting so it kept the water well oxygenated but didn't produce any skimmate.

I tried not to make too much of a mess when I did the water changes so I'd just pluck whatever GHA I could grab during the water changes. After the first treatment it was pretty much all gone, but anything that concerned me I gave a quick brush with a tooothbursh and vacuumed it out.

The second treatment was purely for revenge purposes. Nothing had grown back yet, but I wanted to make sure it was the last I'd be seeing of GHA. I did one small water change (maybe 5 gallons) during the course of that treatment. Again replacing the medication in the new water. Then a series of larger water changes after the final treatment.

It was certainly a troubling time and I probably used more medication than others due to my worries about having fouled water from the massive die off. All I do know is that I think it was worth it because nothing went wrong, and spending an extra 45 dollars on treatment is worth even saving a single coral.

 

[Jeeperz]

I can't rescape after pulling rocks unless I break the coral off the rocks. I also have brittle stars living in the rock and peroxide will kill them and any sps that it touches. Chemipure I believe is just a carbon and purigen type product. I do have a bottle of purigen. I already run matrix carbon or red sea, whichever I grab when I change it out every couple weeks.

My red spectrum is at 7% not sure what lights you use but ai LEDs I don't believe are heavy in the red spectrum on the violet/ultra violet/royal blue diodes. I've always read it was whites that caused algae due to whites being full spectrum and neither of those are very high at all compared to most schedules I've seen. Those spectrums are actually lower now than the first year or so the tank was up, didn't like the extreme Windex look.

Sandbed was removed when I moved. Livestock was bagged. Rock was removed, ran through bucket of heated saltwater to help remove detritus and sand then put in cooler full of heated saltwater. Water was drained. Sand removed. Everything loaded up and moved 8 hours away then setup like before with no sandbed. Saw no cycle of nitrite or ammonia. Only difference is no sand and no longer by a window. Water never dropped below 74 in coolers by the time it was all back in the tank. No coral, fish, invert losses. Did the same with my girlfriend tank except she moved into my reefer 170 from a nuvo 20. And she feeds more, less rock and runs lights a tad higher % wise than mine. I run 2 prime hd's, she runs a Hydra 26 so basically the same lights

 

[Jeeperz]

So, I tried the air line trick using my fingers to pull it. No real luck as its slimy. Does GHA come in a redish color? That's kinda how I see it, but I've got eye color issues, why I don't like match the color test kits. I got a ton of it out but when looking, I barely put a dent in it and changed 7 gallons. Will do 7 more tonight. Then mix more salt and continue this week.

I'm trying to find a sea hare, may have to go online. Do they require a sandbed? I'd order an emerald but it will be 76 day qt once it arrives.

Do I reduce my UV, violet, royal blue, or blue to cut red spectrum? According to all spectrum charts, none of those cross the green/red spectrum. Maybe I cut just red completely?



And, thanks a bunch to everyone for all the info and help.

 

[Phildago]

So, I tried the air line trick using my fingers to pull it. No real luck as its slimy. Does GHA come in a redish color? That's kinda how I see it, but I've got eye color issues, why I don't like match the color test kits. I got a ton of it out but when looking, I barely put a dent in it and changed 7 gallons. Will do 7 more tonight. Then mix more salt and continue this week.

I'm trying to find a sea hare, may have to go online. Do they require a sandbed? I'd order an emerald but it will be 76 day qt once it arrives.

Do I reduce my UV, violet, royal blue, or blue to cut red spectrum? According to all spectrum charts, none of those cross the green/red spectrum. Maybe I cut just red completely?



And, thanks a bunch to everyone for all the info and help.

From what I understand a sea hare is an issue in itself. They can nuke a tank if something goes wrong. You can try some tuxedo urchins, an army of snails and hermits and some carbon dosing if you're really super against the Flucanazole...

 

[Jeeperz]

My tuxedo doesn't touch it. Neither do my cerith, nerite, and trochus snails. Or any of my crabs. Any other snails will have to go 76 in a qt before and my qt is 1 month in for more snails now.

I will order some reef flux or other flucanazole. There are a few. Any one better than the other?

 

[Phildago]

My tuxedo doesn't touch it. Neither do my cerith, nerite, and trochus snails. Or any of my crabs. Any other snails will have to go 76 in a qt before and my qt is 1 month in for more snails now.

I will order some reef flux or other flucanazole. There are a few. Any one better than the other?

I haven't found anything that could put a dent. The carbon dosing does work but it also starves the corals to an extent.

I suppose pharma grade Flucanazole would be best. It goes by brand name Diflucan, if you have access to it I'd go with that. Sometimes women have some at home if they were prescribed for a yeast infection. Reef Flux was my tried and true, I have a fresh bottle in the cabinet for any God forbidden reintroduction.

I'm not for just tossing random chemicals in a tank and hoping for the best, but when I say I tried everything, I mean I tried everything. I even switched out all my rock and put fresh live rock in the tank. Nothing worked, but the Flucanazole saved it all

 

[WallyB]

From what I understand a sea hare is an issue in itself. They can nuke a tank if something goes wrong. You can try some tuxedo urchins, an army of snails and hermits and some carbon dosing if you're really super against the Flucanazole...

Nothing will really tackle GHA.

When I had that Outbreak that I posted a Photo above...I took out SAMPLE rock PIECE (Covered in GHA) from DT, and placed in a test Tank.

Tried every kind of critter in that Tank. Shot Timelapse videos overnight to watch.

I didn't have everything out there, but a good selection.

Yes the SeaHare mowed down the GHA. Polished a rock clean overnight. I have videos to prove it.

BUT IT DIED withing a couple of days. No idea why.

The Tiger Cowrie was 2nd Best, but it was much slower. PROBLEM (that I learned Later), is that He LOVED EATTING CORALS TOO. He still is in my sump, years later.

Next best were the Ninja Star Snails. But slow. Tiny patch in days.

A shot of the Sea Share is in this Video (Intro). My son and I made a TimeLapse Movie about Algae based on Star Wars Theme.



My next attempt before Stipping Tank down was making one of these.
Better than the Tube Sihpon. (A siphon with a Whipper Snipper LIne attached to a dremil)


It worked, but I needed lots of Siphon time. So I tried siphoning thru a sock into sump.
LEARNED that the Pulverized Algae Still passed thru sock and my Phosphate High the Roof. Damaged some sps, and that's when I tore then tank down.

We ended up making a 2nd movie, but never the 3rd part ending.




Anyways, maybe if you can't tear your tank down. Use the chemicals, and do it properly, with post water changes to flush things out.