My GHA algae fight with ATS

[Coach v]

I have been battling GHA for several months now in my 120. It has sapped my interest, but I have kept up on water changes a few times a month and keeping the skimmer cup clean enough. I generally toothbrush scrub the rocks twice a month. I have a 29 gallon refugium which used to grow cheato well, but its crash coresponds with the GHA outbreak. I only use filter sock occasionally.

I haven't tested in a long minute, since November (like I said, lost interest). Back then regular testing had me at nitrates 1 to 5 and phos between 0.05 and 0.20. I was all zeros for a long while, but have added several fish and started feeding more. Tank has been up several years.

Anyhow, I had a wake up call due to my "lack of interest". I did a water change and forgot to turn the ATO back on. I didn't even check until 6 days later when the return was blowing air. I was 6-7 gallons low, salinity was a bit high. I didn't lose much, am urchin and serpent star but enough to kick my butt into gear.

I bought a used Icecap turf scrubber (medium). I got 3 urchins and some snails. I am going to get back into regular testing as well.

The ATS has been running for 5 days now. It is already showing good growth. I am hopeful and will keep going. Just wanted to get it off my chest! Pics are 2.5 weeks growth since last tank scrub.

 

[buruskeee]

Have you thought about grabbing a sea hare or two? They work wonders on GHA. Also run blues until the GHA is under control to hamper its growth.

 

[Coach v]

Tank tonight. I scrubbed rock 2 nights ago. I lost a flow pump this past weekend that I need to replace.

I run mostly blues, just white up for pics.

Have you thought about grabbing a sea hare or two? They work wonders on GHA. Also run blues until the GHA is under control to hamper its growth.

 

[Yang’s Blue Paradise]

IMO just need to be diligent in scribing the rocks once and for all and do it occasionally to get the rest it will eventually be fixed. If not don’t want to do that much work I heard reef flux can work on GHA. It just takes few weeks.

 

[buruskeee]

IMO just need to be diligent in scribing the rocks once and for all and do it occasionally to get the rest it will eventually be fixed. If not don’t want to do that much work I heard reef flux can work on GHA. It just takes few weeks.

In my case, a coarse brush does nothing with the rocks because of how dense it is. when it was lighter GHA it was relatively easy to brush it off the rocks.

I'd recommend Blue Life Flux Rx over Reef Flux. From all the research I've done, it seems more people have luck with GHA on Flux Rx over Reef Flux - many believe its because of potency.

 

[VintageReefer]

@Coach v hows everything looking now?

 

[brandon429]

Subscribed. That’s a fully eutrophic tank with complete old tank syndrome in place

The sandbed is totally full of clouding waste as well and nothing added to the tank can fix that part, adding reef flux here will make this tank a dinos swamp.

We study this condition here below

Old tank syndrome is vanquished in reefing now

the cause of old tank syndrome is compounding whole waste particles that blanket the interstitial sand grain zones and plug up the channels in live rocks- in some cases it's sheer overgrowth allowed from various invasions that plugs up the surface area on live rock combined with a thin veneer of...

www.reef2reef.com

I’m subbed to the thread to watch how well adding things vs removing things works for this large tank fix job.

 

[Coach v]

@Coach v hows everything looking now?

It has been about 6 weeks. I have harvested algae from the turf scrubber 3 times now, each time the algae mat getting much thicker/denser. This past time, I pulled a large thick mat of algae, several pounds worth. I still have a ton of algae in the tank, but it seems to have slowed down this past week. Only time will tell.

It did definitely got worse at around 3 weeks ago. The GHA became much more "rooted", becoming difficult to scrub off rocks with my toothbrush and seemed more vibrant. When I scrubbed a few days ago, it was easier to remove and much less numerous.

 

[reefermadnes5]

Subscribed. That’s a fully eutrophic tank with complete old tank syndrome in place

The sandbed is totally full of clouding waste as well and nothing added to the tank can fix that part, adding reef flux here will make this tank a dinos swamp.

We study this condition here below

Old tank syndrome is vanquished in reefing now

the cause of old tank syndrome is compounding whole waste particles that blanket the interstitial sand grain zones and plug up the channels in live rocks- in some cases it's sheer overgrowth allowed from various invasions that plugs up the surface area on live rock combined with a thin veneer of...

www.reef2reef.com

I’m subbed to the thread to watch how well adding things vs removing things works for this large tank fix job.

So these are saying without keeping the live rocks in a tank clear and healthy the over growth might never be taken back to a reasonable level due to improper cycling? Interesting. So in reefing where does the montage of "waiting it out" become get off your butt and clean your rocks? After the uglies (im still new)?

 

[VintageReefer]

The scrubber will weaken the algae in the tank, manual removal is still good here, it will grow back in weakened states, and this may happen for weeks or months. Your situation is rough. But the phosphate has to fully leach out of those rocks for the algae to stop

You will notice the scrubber algae is very healthy and the display algae will be lighter or more weakly rooted. Just keep up with emptying the scrubber on a schedule and removing from the rocks as it gets bad. In time this will be significantly better

 

[brandon429]

Genuinely interested to know: can anyone find eutrophic tank correction work threads or articles we can read, for it already being done in another test tank

What reading material is there on the matter than can be found with examples



How about evaluating options from the clean condition it’s the healthiest state for your tank. imagine the tank looking and running like you want it to by six pm today. Corals hungrily eating up extra spot food added since the tank is so clean it can handle it. It looks brand new, only we never lost your cycle in that cleaning + export surgery. Corals fully extended and happy in clean water

Work is what gets the clouding mass out of the sandbed, you can’t leave that stuff in

Snails added will turn plants into waste pellets on top of full clouding in the sandbed, they’re a fish disease import risk

that’s why I asked to see some work examples from other eutrophic tank fix jobs or articles.



Corals choked back, feed withheld due to system impact, plant irritation compounds and soon to be dying mass compounds if that mass is killed anyway inside the tank and allowed to degrade is the least healthy state for the tank. We should rip clean it, then from the clean condition make some changes you choose.

What does alternate reading on the matter show

 

[Devisissy]

In my case, a coarse brush does nothing with the rocks because of how dense it is. when it was lighter GHA it was relatively easy to brush it off the rocks.

I'd recommend Blue Life Flux Rx over Reef Flux. From all the research I've done, it seems more people have luck with GHA on Flux Rx over Reef Flux - many believe its because of potency.

I can confirm Reef Flux did nothing, using blue life now and byropsis is dead, but the GHA sticks around. I am going to wait the whole 14 days then do a water change then retreat. I am also running a algae skimmer. I left it running but made sure to clean the screen well. But now I have cyano.

 

[buruskeee]

I can confirm Reef Flux did nothing, using blue life now and byropsis is dead, but the GHA sticks around. I am going to wait the whole 14 days then do a water change then retreat. I am also running an algae skimmer. I left it running but made sure to clean the screen well. But now I have cyano.

Besides just white tips the first week I didn’t see a noticeable difference until about 2 weeks where it completely eviscerated the GHA.