Clownfishy
Well-Known Member
I wanted to share my experience battling GHA and how long it has taken me attempting to solve the issue. For those that don't want to read about the setup and circumstances of my aquarium, skip right to the Observations section.
Background
I have been keeping reef aquariums for many years and have always been fairly successful with coral growth to the point were I needed to frag corals continually. Well, that was until I moved to a different part of the UK and setup a brand new system. For nearly two years, although the corals I have kept have grown, I have never managed the growth I once had and have battled with hair algae for a long time
Before I explain my experiences, here are some details on water parameters and dosage as of today -
It is probably kinda hard to believe, but I have had GHA for about 1.5 years. The cause of it was very simple, my stupidity! I was given a whole lot of live rock that had dried out and I used this in my new aquarium. In the beginning, I started to see clumps appear in places and just assumed (I know….never assume!) it was caused by a bit of die off. Then, over next few months, more appeared on large parts of the rock and I started to pull it off the rocks each week while performing a water change. Then, things got worse as it started to grow on the silicon seams of the aquarium. At this stage, my Nitrate was approx 20ppm and phosphate was reading zero on my Salifert test kit so I thought I was dealing with a Nitrate problem and started increasing water changes from just over 20% per week to 30% per week. The water changes achieved nothing so I starting to lower the light levels removing the white light from my LED’s and increasing the blue light but again, this did nothing to improve matters. Changing this amount of water and continually pulling GHA each week become very frustrating very quickly so I starting to think some impurities might be getting through the RO/DI unit. Therefore, I added a second DI pod to the unit so as soon the TDS meter showed 1, I replaced the DI resin and always used the pod with the new resin on the last pod. While this was going on, my corals were all fine and although I did not have massive growth and did not need to add much calcium or alkalinity.
Thinking it maybe Phosphate
I then started to consider that the rock might be leaching phosphate and yes, you would have thought I would have come to this point a bit earlier! However, as every phosphate test was reading zero, I assumed (I know, I know, never assume!) it can't be phosphate. Also, at that point, I was not convinced that rock could hold onto phosphate then release it back into the water column. However, I brought some Rowaphos and as I did not have a reactor, I added some to a filter sock and dropped it into the aquarium. After a few weeks, I noticed the GHA was not growing so aggressively. I therefore came to the conclusion that phosphate maybe the issue and the GHA was absorbing it quickly. I ran Rowaphos like this for a number of months but things did not improve much more. As my Nitrates we still 20ppm, I thought I would tackle both Nitrates and phosphate using Red Sea NOPOX. As Red Sea state that you should remove any phosphate removed, I removed the Rowaphos and started dosing NOPOX. In just over a week, my Nitrates dropped to 5ppm but I had no idea what my phosphate was because I had stopped testing it as there was not point with it just reading zero all the time. Over time, things improved a bit and I was no longer seeing any algae growing on the aquariums silicon with all the algae now just on the rocks themselves. I also noticed I only needed to clean the glass once a week. It is also worth pointing out that I had on occasions taken out the rock, scrubbed the algae off with a toothbrush only to see it appear within a few weeks once placed back into the aquarium.
Adding a cleanup crew
Although I had a few snails and hermit crabs, I added a dozen more of both. After 3 months, I can't say I noticed that much difference and assume I added them too late. Maybe if I added them as soon as I started to see algae grow, things may have been different as they are clearly doing something.
Attempt to outgrow the algae!
I am now about 1 year into this issue and up until now, had assumed (there I go again!) that the rocks would stop leaching phosphate by now and it can only be a matter of weeks or a couple of months before I see algae die off. At this time, I purchased a Neptune and came to realise I had a pH problem. I wont go into detail here on how I fixed that as I documented all this in another post https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/my-experience-raising-ph.394826/
Once I fixed my pH issue, my coral growth started to kick in and switched to two part as my calcium and alkalinity consumption shot up. This gave me thought, if I could grow out my corals further, they would shade the rocks enough to prevent the GHA growing the on rocks as this was the only place it was now growing. I then tested increasing the lighting and observed more coral growth. I also fed the tank more and observed even more coral growth. The problem was the GHA grew quicker! I was still dosing NOPOX and added the Rowaphos back into a filter sock within the aquarium to see if this would help.
Realising it was a phosphate problem!
At this point, I thought I would spend the money on a Hanna phosphorus test kit as this is supposed to detect ultra low levels. I figured, this could be a waste of money as if the algae is taking up phosphate that quick, this test kit would also register zero. Well to my surprise I got a reading of between 0.07 - 0.08 in the first few tests.
One lesson I learnt from this was when people say they have zero phosphate, it maybe that the normal test kits we are using are not reading low enough.
I had now come to the conclusion my rock was still leaching phosphate and the algae on the rocks was taking it up directly. I lowered my lighting back down, stopped feeding the aquarium so heavily and purchased a reactor and loaded it with Rowaphos. Over the next few weeks, I religiously tested the water and changed the Rowaphos. Keeping my phosphate between 0.01 - 0.03 was problematic as I guess as soon as the Rowaphos took it up very efficiently, the rock leached more out.
Hydrogen Peroxide
At this point, it seemed I was in a continuous loop of the algae would start to die as the Rowaphos would start to kill some of the algae, a lot off mulm would appear which I siphoned out but then more algae would grow and on an on it went. I then read about using Hydrogen Peroxide. Now I have never added anything like this to any of my aquariums and was a little reluctant. However, at this stage, I could not see an end to this apart from breaking the whole tank down and replacing all my rock. Therefore, I took two approaches -
Here a pic before dosing
Here is a pic after a few days of dosing
Here is a pic while Hydrogen Peroxide is being dosed directly to the algae on the rock while in the aquarium
So here are my observations to date but I will keep this thread updated as I continue -
Observations
Background
I have been keeping reef aquariums for many years and have always been fairly successful with coral growth to the point were I needed to frag corals continually. Well, that was until I moved to a different part of the UK and setup a brand new system. For nearly two years, although the corals I have kept have grown, I have never managed the growth I once had and have battled with hair algae for a long time
Before I explain my experiences, here are some details on water parameters and dosage as of today -
- Aquarium water volume 185l (47.5 US gallons)
- Alkalinity: 10.00 - 11.00 dKH
- Calcium: 410-430
- Nitrate: 3-5
- Phosphate: 0.02 - 0.1 (more on this later!)
- Magnesium: 1380 - 1425
- Salt: Reef Crystals but recently switched to DD H2Ocean Pro
- Kalkwasser dosage: 4l per week (1.05 US gallons)
- Calcium/Alkalinity dosage: 20ml of each (http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-02/rhf/index.php)
- Water Changes: 20l (5.28 US gallons) per week
It is probably kinda hard to believe, but I have had GHA for about 1.5 years. The cause of it was very simple, my stupidity! I was given a whole lot of live rock that had dried out and I used this in my new aquarium. In the beginning, I started to see clumps appear in places and just assumed (I know….never assume!) it was caused by a bit of die off. Then, over next few months, more appeared on large parts of the rock and I started to pull it off the rocks each week while performing a water change. Then, things got worse as it started to grow on the silicon seams of the aquarium. At this stage, my Nitrate was approx 20ppm and phosphate was reading zero on my Salifert test kit so I thought I was dealing with a Nitrate problem and started increasing water changes from just over 20% per week to 30% per week. The water changes achieved nothing so I starting to lower the light levels removing the white light from my LED’s and increasing the blue light but again, this did nothing to improve matters. Changing this amount of water and continually pulling GHA each week become very frustrating very quickly so I starting to think some impurities might be getting through the RO/DI unit. Therefore, I added a second DI pod to the unit so as soon the TDS meter showed 1, I replaced the DI resin and always used the pod with the new resin on the last pod. While this was going on, my corals were all fine and although I did not have massive growth and did not need to add much calcium or alkalinity.
Thinking it maybe Phosphate
I then started to consider that the rock might be leaching phosphate and yes, you would have thought I would have come to this point a bit earlier! However, as every phosphate test was reading zero, I assumed (I know, I know, never assume!) it can't be phosphate. Also, at that point, I was not convinced that rock could hold onto phosphate then release it back into the water column. However, I brought some Rowaphos and as I did not have a reactor, I added some to a filter sock and dropped it into the aquarium. After a few weeks, I noticed the GHA was not growing so aggressively. I therefore came to the conclusion that phosphate maybe the issue and the GHA was absorbing it quickly. I ran Rowaphos like this for a number of months but things did not improve much more. As my Nitrates we still 20ppm, I thought I would tackle both Nitrates and phosphate using Red Sea NOPOX. As Red Sea state that you should remove any phosphate removed, I removed the Rowaphos and started dosing NOPOX. In just over a week, my Nitrates dropped to 5ppm but I had no idea what my phosphate was because I had stopped testing it as there was not point with it just reading zero all the time. Over time, things improved a bit and I was no longer seeing any algae growing on the aquariums silicon with all the algae now just on the rocks themselves. I also noticed I only needed to clean the glass once a week. It is also worth pointing out that I had on occasions taken out the rock, scrubbed the algae off with a toothbrush only to see it appear within a few weeks once placed back into the aquarium.
Adding a cleanup crew
Although I had a few snails and hermit crabs, I added a dozen more of both. After 3 months, I can't say I noticed that much difference and assume I added them too late. Maybe if I added them as soon as I started to see algae grow, things may have been different as they are clearly doing something.
Attempt to outgrow the algae!
I am now about 1 year into this issue and up until now, had assumed (there I go again!) that the rocks would stop leaching phosphate by now and it can only be a matter of weeks or a couple of months before I see algae die off. At this time, I purchased a Neptune and came to realise I had a pH problem. I wont go into detail here on how I fixed that as I documented all this in another post https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/my-experience-raising-ph.394826/
Once I fixed my pH issue, my coral growth started to kick in and switched to two part as my calcium and alkalinity consumption shot up. This gave me thought, if I could grow out my corals further, they would shade the rocks enough to prevent the GHA growing the on rocks as this was the only place it was now growing. I then tested increasing the lighting and observed more coral growth. I also fed the tank more and observed even more coral growth. The problem was the GHA grew quicker! I was still dosing NOPOX and added the Rowaphos back into a filter sock within the aquarium to see if this would help.
Realising it was a phosphate problem!
At this point, I thought I would spend the money on a Hanna phosphorus test kit as this is supposed to detect ultra low levels. I figured, this could be a waste of money as if the algae is taking up phosphate that quick, this test kit would also register zero. Well to my surprise I got a reading of between 0.07 - 0.08 in the first few tests.
One lesson I learnt from this was when people say they have zero phosphate, it maybe that the normal test kits we are using are not reading low enough.
I had now come to the conclusion my rock was still leaching phosphate and the algae on the rocks was taking it up directly. I lowered my lighting back down, stopped feeding the aquarium so heavily and purchased a reactor and loaded it with Rowaphos. Over the next few weeks, I religiously tested the water and changed the Rowaphos. Keeping my phosphate between 0.01 - 0.03 was problematic as I guess as soon as the Rowaphos took it up very efficiently, the rock leached more out.
Hydrogen Peroxide
At this point, it seemed I was in a continuous loop of the algae would start to die as the Rowaphos would start to kill some of the algae, a lot off mulm would appear which I siphoned out but then more algae would grow and on an on it went. I then read about using Hydrogen Peroxide. Now I have never added anything like this to any of my aquariums and was a little reluctant. However, at this stage, I could not see an end to this apart from breaking the whole tank down and replacing all my rock. Therefore, I took two approaches -
- Removed rock that could easily be removed and squirted the Hydrogen Peroxide onto the algae outside of the aquarium letting it stay out of water for about 3-4 minutes. Then washing it off with saltwater. I did this twice to each piece of rock and never did two rocks on the same day just in case some Hydrogen Peroxide entered back into the aquarium.
- Targeted 5ml of Hydrogen Peroxide directly at the base of the algae on the rocks in the aquarium. I only dosed 5ml per day and turned off all the pumps for 5 minutes after target dosing.
Here a pic before dosing
Here is a pic after a few days of dosing
Here is a pic while Hydrogen Peroxide is being dosed directly to the algae on the rock while in the aquarium
So here are my observations to date but I will keep this thread updated as I continue -
Observations
- Phosphate can leach from rock for a very long time
I had no idea I would still be dealing with high phosphate levels a year after adding the rock. I am assuming the rock must have been previously kept in an aquarium with very high phosphate levels which it absorbed over time. Looking back, if I had consistently kept the levels low, I believe I would not have been dealing with the level of algae for so long.
- Shading the rocks wherever possible was one of the most obvious ways to prevent the algae
I only buy small frags so it takes a long time for these corals to grow to a size that would shade the rocks they are attached to. Where I have corals that have grown to a reasonable size such as my Montipora, this obviously blocked the light the algae needed. It is worth noting that not all light is blocked and algae did grow, die off and then grow again, die off again and continued this cycle.
- Adding clean up crew didn't do anything
I added a couple of dozen snails and crabs but I did not see any major difference to the algae. Maybe the amount was not enough but I was not convinced from what I observed that it was going to make a difference and suspect it is best to add them as the algae is taking hold, not after the event.
- Lowering phosphate levels and nitrate levels was not enough to out compete the algae
In fact this had a negative effect on the corals especially when Nitrates stayed at zero for any length of time. I believe my phosphate never stayed at zero for any length of time as my rock must be loaded with phosphate so leached phosphate into the water column continuously,
- Hydrogen Peroxide temporary lowered the ORP levels in the aquarium
I have not seen any ill effects to my livestock adding Hydrogen Peroxide but as soon as I add it, ORP drops considerable and takes approx 1 hour to return to the previous level. I do not know what the medium to long term issues are with Hydrogen Peroxide to the aquarium and wherever possible, I remove the rock and treat it outside the aquarium.
- Hydrogen Peroxide made biggest change in reducing the algae
2-3 targeted doses of 5ml of Hydrogen Peroxide on the algae itself killed it. The algae turning white after a few days and by keeping the phosphate levels low using Rowaphas using the media reactor, prevented it growing back.
- Ensuring the media reactor ran efficiently is key to maintain low phosphate levels
When I first started using the reactor, the sponges preventing the Rowaphos escaping from the reactor would clog continually, reducing the flow and effectiveness of the reactor. This meant that my phosphate levels would rise at the time the reactor was clogged. Once I altered the sponges used in the reactor, I had a continuous flow of water running through it allowing phosphate to continually be removed from the water column.
- Changing a number of things at similar at times does not help confirming what solved the issue
Although Hydrogen Peroxide made the most notable change, it is worth noting that the following was also changed -- Raised and stabilised pH from low levels of 7.80 to between 8.20 - 8.30 (please see https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/my-experience-raising-ph.394826/)
- Reduced lighting intensity
- Reduced the use of frozen food and increased the use of pellet food
- Added reactor with Rowaphos to strip out phosphate
- Switched to adding 2 part for alkalinity and calcium
- Dosed kalkwaser over every night of the week rather than over just one night.
- Increased kalkwasser dosage from 2l to 5l per week
