My ongoing battle with GHA

[HKesinger]

Back in February I had a huge takeover of cyano, bryopsis and GHA.
First photo, I know it was bad.
I was in a bad headspace

I know what happened: overfeeding, lack of maintenance & topping off with questionable store bought water and the occasional tap water top off.

I’ve manually removed a lot of algae since then, kept up on weekly water changes and just overall better about routine now that I’ve sorted myself out. Replaced my RODI cartridges too.
Fast forward to today (2nd photo) I’m just left with lots of GHA and some bryopsis.

Dosed FluxRx today and I plan on giving it the full two weeks before another WC.
I’m keeping an eye on my nutrients and dosing as needed so I don’t end up with Cyano again.

 

[jsker]

Check the nutrient levels. I find carbon dosing helps.

 

[Dom]

By your own admission, tank husbandry has been lacking. That's ok; we've all been there. Life happens! I respect the candor in your post.

Based on your post and without knowing your water chemistry numbers, it would appear that your nutrient levels are elevated (think nitrates and phosphates).

The best way to deal with this issue is manual removal and water changes.

Begin with FAITHFUL, WEEKLY 20% water changes using RODI. Scrub the GHA off first so that you collect up all the free floating algae during the siphon.

Do this for about 6 weeks and reassess your tank's condition. I think this strategy will go a long way in your efforts.

Make changes to your system one at a time. Multiple changes at the same time will not allow you to know which of the changes were effective.

In my experience (and as has already been mentioned), carbon dosing can be effective. But I layered carbon dosing on after water changes alone weren't doing the job.

 

[Seansea]

Buy an ATS. Plug it in. Run 24/7. One month hair algae gone never to be seen in display again. Just clean out scrubber every 7-14 days you good to go.

 

[dschuffert]

I hear you; I have been in a bad headspace, too; I think it is part of being human.

It seems everyone has things that work for them to get rid of different algae, and those things do not work for others. What works for me in my main display tank is a large CUC, mainly Mexican turbo snails. Along with 1/2 Gallon of Dinkins Reef Snacklebox Copepod and Rotifer Blend once a month. I then manually dose Dinkins Phytoplankton 200ML daily. I am also dosing 9ml of Red Sea NoPox daily. I use a ReefMat 1200 to scrub the water and rapidly remove any organic material from the system before it breaks down. I also use a Red Sea Skimmer 900 to draw what I can that has broken down in the water. I have also found that consistency on the water level helps the skimmer, and ReefMat does its job better. I recently installed the ReefATO+ and like how well it works.

 

[HKesinger]

Thanks everyone for the tips! Much appreciated.
I’m on day 4 of the reef flux dose. This pic is before I manually pulled any weakened algae from the rock today.
I don’t think it’s the reef flux working that fast, but because I’ve been consistent with daily maintenance.
I’m starting to get a little Cyano but I kind of expected that to happen. A little extra elbow grease and balancing will fix that though

 

[exnisstech]

Thanks everyone for the tips! Much appreciated.
I’m on day 4 of the reef flux dose. This pic is before I manually pulled any weakened algae from the rock today.
I don’t think it’s the reef flux working that fast, but because I’ve been consistent with daily maintenance.
I’m starting to get a little Cyano but I kind of expected that to happen. A little extra elbow grease and balancing will fix that though

Keep an eye on it. I used Flux rx a while ago and went from gha to being over run with cyano. Fortunaly it was a smaller tank and I ended up doing a rip clean.