My algae is getting out of control

[GARRIGA]

There was a thread I read where a few users started having STN when they began carbon dosing. It may be coincidental, and dosing into a reactor may not really add any benefit compared to dosing the tank but I don’t mind adding a diy filter.
Also, in the thread started by Donovan he said that his design would help prevent bacteria blooms in the tank and reduce the odds of getting cyano (I don’t know if either of those things are common problems or not with normal carbon dosing).

Regardless how carbon is introduced it makes it to the display quickly. Unless water traveling through the reactor slow enough to be fully utilized by the bacteria using it for conversion of nitrates and sulfur which I'd think would be beyond many's abilities to fine tune that process as we don't have a method of testing carbon with home kits.

That's where my skepticism rises and very familiar with the original AquariPure design which relied on a drip to fully utilize denitrification and later it was discovered that carbon direct was quicker since flow no longer mattered. Don't recall exactly what he fed the bacteria but likely some form of carbon or might have been as simple as sugar. Been a while but what deterred me from his design was the restricted flow. No different the coil denitrators of the 80/90s. Needed several based on tank size.

I'll have to go refresh myself on Donovan's design but the biology seems logically to be the same since it's the same design with a new name. Kind of like all the scrubbers based off Adey's design yet don't mention him but perform the same biological function.

 

[Megaloptera]

250 gallon - GHA problem. I changed to Hanna checker for alk. Started dosing buffer with a dosing pump. Scrubbed the rocks off the with a brush every couple days to get the long stuff. Urchins maintained the small stuff. The increase in alk allowed for Coraline to take off.
I also was doing too much maintenance in one day. I was doing a water change, filter sock change and skimmer cleaning at the same time. Doing each on separate days keeps the low nutrients more stable instead of bottoming out. After 3 months the GHA
can only be found in the overflows and refugium.

 

[Bruce Burnett]

Two years no algae, no water changes, no mechanical filtration. Large assortment of snails and a couple of conch. Diamond goby, and foxface. Also have a blue eyed kole and a tomini tang. I do have an ats, skimmer, activated carbon reactor.

 

[52728299]

I only have a 13.5gal, so tangs are a no-go for me. I couldn't get algae fully under control despite reduced feeding, improved flow, and vigilant husbandry, and all the usual recommendations, no matter how many snails I threw at it. I always avoided any kinds of crabs because people say they tend to go rogue eventually. What finally did the trick for me was adding (on top of the existing ceriths, astreas, etc) one tuxedo urchin and one pitho crab that I've been told will not go rogue. The two of them have been absolute machines and I can't find any evidence of algae at all. Since then I've upped my feeding, and also started giving a little nori to the pitho.

Yep I have a pitho and a Tuxedo I agree they've been great. But I also saw the fastest improvement after adding a bunch of hermits tbh. The bad thing is once the algae is gone they turn their attention to the snails..

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

I believe that unless you are starting a tank with fresh live rock you will have GHA. If you have mixed LR and dry rock you will have GHA on the dry rock. On my 40g cube I had dry rock and some cycled rock all of it got GHA. I even wrote a post about how I could check my flow patterns because of it. But I feel it is part of a new tank cycle and until something out competes it, it will be there. But it may not disappear on its own, sometimes you have to help other Biome get a leg up. On my 40g I threw in a couple emeralds, Astrea's, turbos, hermies and a couple urchins. It was funny because the Emeralds didn’t miss a beat, as soon as the were out of the bag and on the rock they started to eat the GHA. I still get tuffs here and there but pretty minor.
I just recently combined my two Nano temperate tanks into a RS170, both the tanks I combined were pretty established, in-fact, one I never had to clean the glass anymore. So in the new tank the only place I that I have GHA is on the tips of a couple Seafans that I rescued from the beach after a storm recently where the flesh had been damaged.
In all my tanks I do dose, in one form or another. That could be Red Sea trace, AFR, Kalk etc. All tanks get a good strain of Phyto ( Tet and ISO) added daily. I have Phosphates and Nitrates that vary among my tanks but nothing out of range.
There is nothing that I do that is a magic bullet for GHA except for patience and providing an opportunity for others to compete with the GHA. I can not point to any others who have an issue and say " You are doing this wrong." Because pest algae's can exist under many different variables.
That being said, over the holiday weekend I started a IM 30L. Dry rock, Ocean Direct sand and some reef rubble from a sump along with some ceramic media from a sump. I already have Diatoms...
"Let the games begin...."

 

[ShadowMan]

I've tried quite a few things over the past year and just couldn't get a handle on it. I feed heavy, but that's how my tank rolls, fish and corals love it. So I've needed a natural solution and the one that's working an absolute treat for me is.... a single little Sea Hare, an absolute algae beast

 

[KilianSP]

I just write my experience here as a macroalgae Keeper.
I have this tank for 1,5 year up and running without any CUC, since i keep predators.

I never had any issues with GHA or Bryopsis. It was growing in the tank.
The GHA and Bryopsis gets outcompeted by every other macroalgae. I can wait for 2 months and it only grows to a size of a pingpong Ball or less.
The fastest growing macroalgaes are Ulva and Caulerpa racemosa, cheato isn't growing that fast at all, but with caulerpa you are always riding the edge of nutrient limitation and a sudden die off, which in my case are often the trace elements.
The tank is at 25-50mg Nitrates and 0,5mg Phosphates. Lights are running for 12 hours and i got around 400 PAR at the bottom. I combined grow lamps and Marine lights, so i can play with different light spectrums. The grow lights have Infrared and UV LEDs, the key for the fastest grow in algae and still GHA got no Chance.
As a macroalgae dominant tank, there is no way i could use, FLUX, Tangs or hydrogenperoxide.
But i can confirm that algae grows faster at lower alk and magnesium levels. I got the fastet macroalgae grow at 6 alkalinity and 1350mg Magnesium. I get a stunned grow of algae Overall when magnesium is starting to reach 1450mg, die off starts at around 1600mg.
Most consumed tracelements of algae are Fluoride, Manganese, Iron and Iodine just in case someone needs that Information.
Red lightning also promotes algae grow. When green algaes get alot of blue light, they grow more compact, the more Red they get they tend to grow bigger and wider leafes.
I am adding a Clean up Crew next week as i try to get a little more controll over the sea lettuce, since i am to lazy to collect every week a bucket full of ulva. As for Ulva removal, bigger leaves are much more easier to remove from rockwork without leaving bits on the Rock behind. Smaller leaves tend to rip and bits still remain on the Rock.
I hope i could provide some informations or prove some facts.

 

[MoshJosh]

One of those threads may have been mine and I solved the issue. . . I bought new rock!

Now was this a horrible idea? Maybe. . . but hear me out. . . I changed up my light, bulstered my CUC, and changed up my feeding/filtration. I assume the rock will get ugly, but hopefully I can stave off another GHA epidemic!

 

[Diastro]

I just write my experience here as a macroalgae Keeper.
I have this tank for 1,5 year up and running without any CUC, since i keep predators.

I never had any issues with GHA or Bryopsis. It was growing in the tank.
The GHA and Bryopsis gets outcompeted by every other macroalgae. I can wait for 2 months and it only grows to a size of a pingpong Ball or less.
The fastest growing macroalgaes are Ulva and Caulerpa racemosa, cheato isn't growing that fast at all, but with caulerpa you are always riding the edge of nutrient limitation and a sudden die off, which in my case are often the trace elements.
The tank is at 25-50mg Nitrates and 0,5mg Phosphates. Lights are running for 12 hours and i got around 400 PAR at the bottom. I combined grow lamps and Marine lights, so i can play with different light spectrums. The grow lights have Infrared and UV LEDs, the key for the fastest grow in algae and still GHA got no Chance.
As a macroalgae dominant tank, there is no way i could use, FLUX, Tangs or hydrogenperoxide.
But i can confirm that algae grows faster at lower alk and magnesium levels. I got the fastet macroalgae grow at 6 alkalinity and 1350mg Magnesium. I get a stunned grow of algae Overall when magnesium is starting to reach 1450mg, die off starts at around 1600mg.
Most consumed tracelements of algae are Fluoride, Manganese, Iron and Iodine just in case someone needs that Information.
Red lightning also promotes algae grow. When green algaes get alot of blue light, they grow more compact, the more Red they get they tend to grow bigger and wider leafes.
I am adding a Clean up Crew next week as i try to get a little more controll over the sea lettuce, since i am to lazy to collect every week a bucket full of ulva. As for Ulva removal, bigger leaves are much more easier to remove from rockwork without leaving bits on the Rock behind. Smaller leaves tend to rip and bits still remain on the Rock.
I hope i could provide some informations or prove some facts.

Wow beautiful tank! Have you ever dealt with pink hair algae? I have a macroalgae tank which I will admit has been neglected for a bit. I made the fatal mistake of trying to remove a pink hair algae clump and it has spread all over the tank. I'ma wanting to start a new tank but am worried about moving in this horrible pest of an algae. I've tried low nutrients, high nutrients, water changes, chemiclean (I know it wasn't for pink hair algae) and manual removal.

Right now

Before, when it was beautiful.


On another note, what's the lights you have on that tank.

 

[KilianSP]

Wow beautiful tank! Have you ever dealt with pink hair algae? I have a macroalgae tank which I will admit has been neglected for a bit. I made the fatal mistake of trying to remove a pink hair algae clump and it has spread all over the tank. I'ma wanting to start a new tank but am worried about moving in this horrible pest of an algae. I've tried low nutrients, high nutrients, water changes, chemiclean (I know it wasn't for pink hair algae) and manual removal.

Right now

Before, when it was beautiful.


On another note, what's the lights you have on that tank.

I don't have this algae, but i would love to have it. I only have 27 different macroalgaes right know.
As for your algae, it should be a Asparagopsis sp. very dominant.
I know that tigahboy got this Kind of algae in one of his tanks, but it doesn't grow fast since it gets outcompeted by other macroalgaes.
I've read sea urchins eat this algae, but probably will eat other macroalgaes aswell.
How would i approach such a problem?
There are many was, the easiest would probably be to get mollys and transfer them to saltwater. Mollys eat hair algae, green and brown ones, so i would think they would also eat the Red ones. But don't feed the mollys or they will get lazy in algae eating.
You could remove the other macroalgaes, clean and rinse them completly same for the corals. Then turn up the lights 24/7 and don't do waterchanges anymore, the algae will starten of someday without nutrients and trace elements and put an uvc in there to get rid of the Spores. With that option you won't crash your cycled tank.
Third Option would be, remove manually with a siphon, and put alot more macroalgaes in there for competition, would go with caulerpa racemosa and mollys.

As for my lights, i have 2x Spiderfarmer SE3000 and 4x Popbloom T75 Reeflights