Increasing AWC % for GHA?

t5Nitro · Feb 15, 2021

Looking to see if anybody else is using auto water change system. My nutrients NO3 and PO4 read low, around undetectable and 0.04 respectively. I have to dose nitrate and phosphate. I change out about 1.3% daily, 1 gallon on my 75 via auto water change pumps.

Should I increase to 2 gallons/day changed and also work on more aggressively manually removing the GHA? I want to keep nutrients in the tank for macroalgae on the way as well as the current SPS corals if possible.

brandon429 · Feb 15, 2021

In my opinion the challenge and support for gha isn’t in the water its the whole solids cast into rocks and or sand

removing the leak catch at an increased rate doesn’t help as much as removing whole waste stores before they leak into gha fuel and vector via the water. Rarely nowadays are people causing gha with water in any way- high tds or collected dissolved nutrients in the display it’s usually light intensity overdone and cloudy sand or detritus in the rocks as the feed source. People can zap gha all day long with fluconazole and it usually works we can see in the big posts, but cyano comes with meanness two months later on the collective stores.

*every tank is different, some people have not much whole waste feed to break down near plants and directly feed they have whiter bright lights hitting rock areas reflective and no coralline, this will cause gha in anyone’s reef here. In my opinion we set water details to what maximizes coral the best, algae is handled independently and not by water adjustments, by direct kill in fact.

xiaoxiy · Feb 15, 2021

That may work, but AWC isn’t the most efficient way at removing nutrients.

What does your CUC look like?

t5Nitro · Feb 15, 2021

I'm handling a cyano outbreak currently on day 2 of chemiclean.

What happens is I remove a 4 inch filter sock worth of GHA only to result in an intermittent improvement in what the tank looks like from an algae standpoint before a cyano bloom in the next few days after siphoning.

cuc at this point remains 2 tuxedo urchins and an assortment of hermits of which im not sure how many are actually left. I do see a few big ones on occasion and some smaller ones. I think my snail population is minimal. I had purchased 40 to 50 astrea and they didn't last long.

Crustaceon · Feb 15, 2021

Macro algae in a refugium won’t outcompete hair algae in a display once it’s already a problem. Your nitrates and phosphates are really low because they’re locked up in the green hair algae which means the only real nutrient reduction you need to do is to just get the hair algae out. Once you do that, then whatever nitrates and phosphates that are produced in the tank can go to the macro algae. Water changes aren’t going to help in this scenario aside from aiding in siphoning out hair algae clumps.

t5Nitro · Feb 15, 2021

This addresses my primary question well I think. I can continue dosing to keep measurebale nutrients for now and work to aggressively remove GHA from the tank and adjust accordingly. Thank you!

xiaoxiy · Feb 15, 2021

I recommend manually removing as much hair algae as you can and grabbing a bunch of turbo snails. They’re cheap and do really well for hair algae.

1guydude · Feb 15, 2021

I had best success with pencil urchins.
Algae turf scrubber or fuge would be good. You need more filtration?
More flow?
Tanks ive ran algae turf scrubbers on always had gha on the scrubber never anywhere else.

I am a supporter of bio pellets as well. They make smaller cheaper reactor now days..cpr makes a nice.nano and mini.
Hths
D

mdb_talon · Feb 15, 2021

xiaoxiy said:
I recommend manually removing as much hair algae as you can and grabbing a bunch of turbo snails. They’re cheap and do really well for hair algae.

Agree on the turbos in the right tank. They mow through algae. Unfortunately they plow through coral also(not eating just knocking it over).

Pistondog · Feb 15, 2021

xiaoxiy said:
I recommend manually removing as much hair algae as you can and grabbing a bunch of turbo snails. They’re cheap and do really well for hair algae.

Emerald crabs will eat gha, but will bother other stuff if hungry.
Starry or lawnmower Blenny.

1guydude · Feb 15, 2021

Ya those large turbos work. I forgot about those. Golfball size is best.
D

t5Nitro · Feb 15, 2021

Hey guys, thanks for all the input here. I do have an ATS that I stopped using as it has a design flaw which floods your floor when the slot where the filter screen attaches into plugs in under a week. Im on the waitlist for a turbo scrubber!

Next, regarding a fuge -- I have 1 pound of red ogo macro coming at the end of the week. Going to grow it in an eggcrate box right in the tank under the 8 bulb T5. Hopefully that really grows it well.

Finally, regarding the turbos -- my LFS won't order turbos since they only live a few weeks and don't do well in our reef tanks as they're mostly coastal catch and live in much cooler waters than our reefs. Not sure if true but I won't be able to get any local. My snails do however not live super long whether its hermits killing them or just dying. I still might go with a longspine urchin if I can ever find one local.

Love the corals but hate the algae. It takes all the enjoyment from the hobby that im ready to destroy the algae and lose the corals if needed -- hopefully they'll be tough as nails. Im just past a 48 hour chemiclean treatment. Im washing up a bunch of filter socks now and will be setting the AWC pumps to change out 15 gallons over the next 24 hours, restarting the UV sterilizer and adding carbon back in.

Then starting tomorrow or so im going to be removing easily removable rocks to scrub and spray with a treatment of peroxide and then back in the tank. If I can keep this up until the weather is warmer I may be able to have some turbos shipped in. I had 10 turbos from reefcleaners DOA last year due to shipping delays.