One more attack on GHA

[Tango2]

I'm at wits end in battling the hair algae outbreak in my tank and looking for suggestions before I do something more drastic than necessary.

History on my tank:
Started in Nov 2013 as a skimmerless 50G cube with 20G tank as sump. No significant algae. Fast forward a year or two, Reef Octopus skimmer added. Eventually had a bubble algae outbreak that lasted at least a year. Tried everything - emerald crabs, manual removal, etc. It would come back in a matter of weeks and blanket the live rock. I was about to pull the liverock and boil it all when someone said to try Vibrant. Within a few weeks, my bubble algae was 100% gone.

Soon after, I started noticing what appears to be GHA popping up. I shook this off as a side effect of the Vibrant. Now I have traded my bubble algae for GHA, at the same pre-Vibrant level that I grew bubble algae.

I have a 2-4" sand bed that has been in place since the beginning. The sand stays very clean as my diamond goby stays busy, but the rocks are completely covered in a matter of weeks. My two clownfish are hosting in my GHA now! I'm back on track doing continuous water changes, but it seems that something is leaching into the tank feeding the algae. I had cut my feeding schedule down to almost nothing, and I upped my CUC to try to get ahead of it. The CUC eventually died off and was easily outrun by the rate at which the algae grew back.

I plan to do water testing this week, but if I'm not putting anything into the tank, it's being fueled by something and my guess is the testing results won't necessarily help me pinpoint what that is. Any advice before I suck all my sand out and replace?

 

[Jeff Jarry reef]

I'm at wits end in battling the hair algae outbreak in my tank and looking for suggestions before I do something more drastic than necessary.

History on my tank:
Started in Nov 2013 as a skimmerless 50G cube with 20G tank as sump. No significant algae. Fast forward a year or two, Reef Octopus skimmer added. Eventually had a bubble algae outbreak that lasted at least a year. Tried everything - emerald crabs, manual removal, etc. It would come back in a matter of weeks and blanket the live rock. I was about to pull the liverock and boil it all when someone said to try Vibrant. Within a few weeks, my bubble algae was 100% gone.

Soon after, I started noticing what appears to be GHA popping up. I shook this off as a side effect of the Vibrant. Now I have traded my bubble algae for GHA, at the same pre-Vibrant level that I grew bubble algae.

I have a 2-4" sand bed that has been in place since the beginning. The sand stays very clean as my diamond goby stays busy, but the rocks are completely covered in a matter of weeks. My two clownfish are hosting in my GHA now! I'm back on track doing continuous water changes, but it seems that something is leaching into the tank feeding the algae. I had cut my feeding schedule down to almost nothing, and I upped my CUC to try to get ahead of it. The CUC eventually died off and was easily outrun by the rate at which the algae grew back.

I plan to do water testing this week, but if I'm not putting anything into the tank, it's being fueled by something and my guess is the testing results won't necessarily help me pinpoint what that is. Any advice before I suck all my sand out and replace?

Have you tried a ATS yet ?

 

[Jeff Jarry reef]

I'm at wits end in battling the hair algae outbreak in my tank and looking for suggestions before I do something more drastic than necessary.

History on my tank:
Started in Nov 2013 as a skimmerless 50G cube with 20G tank as sump. No significant algae. Fast forward a year or two, Reef Octopus skimmer added. Eventually had a bubble algae outbreak that lasted at least a year. Tried everything - emerald crabs, manual removal, etc. It would come back in a matter of weeks and blanket the live rock. I was about to pull the liverock and boil it all when someone said to try Vibrant. Within a few weeks, my bubble algae was 100% gone.

Soon after, I started noticing what appears to be GHA popping up. I shook this off as a side effect of the Vibrant. Now I have traded my bubble algae for GHA, at the same pre-Vibrant level that I grew bubble algae.

I have a 2-4" sand bed that has been in place since the beginning. The sand stays very clean as my diamond goby stays busy, but the rocks are completely covered in a matter of weeks. My two clownfish are hosting in my GHA now! I'm back on track doing continuous water changes, but it seems that something is leaching into the tank feeding the algae. I had cut my feeding schedule down to almost nothing, and I upped my CUC to try to get ahead of it. The CUC eventually died off and was easily outrun by the rate at which the algae grew back.

I plan to do water testing this week, but if I'm not putting anything into the tank, it's being fueled by something and my guess is the testing results won't necessarily help me pinpoint what that is. Any advice before I suck all my sand out and replace?

I'm using vibrant to get rid GHA now. I built a ATS and I'm going to try that.

 

[Malifry97]

I'm at wits end in battling the hair algae outbreak in my tank and looking for suggestions before I do something more drastic than necessary.

History on my tank:
Started in Nov 2013 as a skimmerless 50G cube with 20G tank as sump. No significant algae. Fast forward a year or two, Reef Octopus skimmer added. Eventually had a bubble algae outbreak that lasted at least a year. Tried everything - emerald crabs, manual removal, etc. It would come back in a matter of weeks and blanket the live rock. I was about to pull the liverock and boil it all when someone said to try Vibrant. Within a few weeks, my bubble algae was 100% gone.

Soon after, I started noticing what appears to be GHA popping up. I shook this off as a side effect of the Vibrant. Now I have traded my bubble algae for GHA, at the same pre-Vibrant level that I grew bubble algae.

I have a 2-4" sand bed that has been in place since the beginning. The sand stays very clean as my diamond goby stays busy, but the rocks are completely covered in a matter of weeks. My two clownfish are hosting in my GHA now! I'm back on track doing continuous water changes, but it seems that something is leaching into the tank feeding the algae. I had cut my feeding schedule down to almost nothing, and I upped my CUC to try to get ahead of it. The CUC eventually died off and was easily outrun by the rate at which the algae grew back.

I plan to do water testing this week, but if I'm not putting anything into the tank, it's being fueled by something and my guess is the testing results won't necessarily help me pinpoint what that is. Any advice before I suck all my sand out and replace?

Maybe try taking rocks out one by one and hitting with some hydrogen peroxide rinse in dirty tank water and then put back. Should work.

 

[artieg1]

Fluconazole. May take two rounds. Vibrant was worthless for me, personally. 2 rounds of Fluconazole (you will need to manually remove what remains, but the Fluc weakens it so much it is easier). Holding nitrates down to about 4.0-6.0, and my tank has been awesome for a year.

 

[Tango2]

My concern is the source, so I haven’t tried an ATS yet. I’ll have to look into the other options.

 

[Bryknicks]

+1 on the fluconazole. Reeflux will work great. May need to do two rounds based on how bad your problem is. I used Reeflux for bryopsis and it also killed any GHA I had in my system.

 

[Tango2]

I’ve always tried not to stay away from chemical treatments because I’ve feared that it’s a slippery slope once you start. I guess my slopes are pretty slippery now because they’re covered with hair algae, so maybe it’s just the nature of the beast. I’ll check into fluconazole, as I’d like to understand HOW it works a little better before I go crazy with it. I’m really not sure I have room to setup an ATS, but I haven’t been staying up to date on the new designs people are using either.

I also have an empty fuge right now that I’d like to repopulate with chaeto, but last time I did it all died off pretty quick. It definitely want a lack of nutrients available, because I was breeding some serious GHA at that time too.

 

[Bryknicks]

I agree with you and used it as a last resort before the bryopsis took over my tank. Wasn't trying to remove the GHA as I believe some is good for the tank, but it worked on that as well. I did weeks worth of research before pulling the trigger on it and realized it was harmless. I forget exactly how it works but you will be able to find in here (on R2R) as that's where I found it. I have a mixed reef tank with plenty of SPS, LPS, CUC, and fuge with chaeto. Nothing other than the bryopsis and GHA were affected.

 

[Haberdasher]

Remove the sand bed. Manually remove as much algae as possible. Blackout the tank. Do massive water changes at the end of the blackout. Turn the lights back on. Keep up with your water changes. Run chaeto in the sump with good light and good flow on it.

 

[saltwaterpicaso]

do you have corals do you have a refugium section

 

[Tango2]

do you have corals do you have a refugium section

I have both, but my fuge is currently empty. Here’s a couple of quick pictures of the current state (viewer discretion is advised)

 

[saltwaterpicaso]

I would set a refugium light up on the fuge you can get a sweet one off ebay for 30 bucks I would run it 24h a day on the fuge. I would do a week blackout on display and have the rocks cleaned in the meantime then return light at 5 hours a day and half setting keep the fuge going it will grow the hair algea in the fuge keep throwing out algea sooner or latter the fuge will take all the nutrients out of the tank along with the skimmer I would also run a uv steralizer can get a cheap one of amazon as well the jebao is great. i cant see enough corals in your tank to really matter you could do a month blackout it will die off and you can start over with proper nutrient control

 

[dadnjesse]

I had a lot of Hair Algae in my tank, I bought the Turbo Algae Scrubber, It didn't seem to help me. I feel like running that thing promotes the growth of GHA and then It just spreads to the rest of the tank. I used Fluconazole and the GHA slowly died. Now I don't have any and I'm afraid to run the Algae Scrubber.

 

[Tango2]

Remove the sand bed. Manually remove as much algae as possible. Blackout the tank. Do massive water changes at the end of the blackout. Turn the lights back on. Keep up with your water changes. Run chaeto in the sump with good light and good flow on it.

I’m afraid it might come to this, but I’ve been reading on the success many have had with ReefFlux and I’m thinking I’ll give it a try. I don’t want to run bare-bottomed, and I’m not sure my goby would be too happy if I took his sand bed from him.

I would set a refugium light up on the fuge you can get a sweet one off ebay for 30 bucks I would run it 24h a day on the fuge. I would do a week blackout on display and have the rocks cleaned in the meantime then return light at 5 hours a day and half setting keep the fuge going it will grow the hair algea in the fuge keep throwing out algea sooner or latter the fuge will take all the nutrients out of the tank along with the skimmer I would also run a uv steralizer can get a cheap one of amazon as well the jebao is great. i cant see enough corals in your tank to really matter you could do a month blackout it will die off and you can start over with proper nutrient control

I bought the tunze refugium light a while back and the chaeto I had in there died. Not sure if it was the light‘s fault or something else. Way back when I first set up the tank, I had a plain ol’ PAR38 bulb LED bulb on my fudge and chaeto would grow so fast I’d have to prune it at least every 2 weeks. I don’t have many corals now, but the ones I do have are at least stable and I’d rather not jeapordize them.

I had a lot of Hair Algae in my tank, I bought the Turbo Algae Scrubber, It didn't seem to help me. I feel like running that thing promotes the growth of GHA and then It just spreads to the rest of the tank. I used Fluconazole and the GHA slowly died. Now I don't have any and I'm afraid to run the Algae Scrubber.

I feel the same way right now. I basically have an algae scrubber in my DT right now, and I see no end in sight of whatever is fueling it. I’m hoping the ReefFlux proves to be the answer.

Question for those that have used fluc... Are water changes over time enough to remove it from the water column, or is it necessary to do massive WCs right after treating?

 

[Bramzor]

Your tank looks like mine a month ago. Today I have 0 algae. How?

1) You need to figure out what’s feeding it, in my case PO4 dosing and probably trace elements. I stopped doing both
2) Currently all those nutrients are inside your algae. If they die off, which won’t happen for weeks, it will free up in the tank. To avoid that, suck it off. One of my easy tricks was plucking it by hand. Took some time but did work. Find an easy way to do it. Leave some easy to access spots under the lights and leave some there. Those spots will be easy to access and take up all the nutrients that will free up. Or in your case, al algae scrubber.
3) Battle the spots where it still grows. Someone mentioned hydrogen peroxide but I actually prefer caustic soda. Kills everything and you apply it with pumps off for 30 min and you see the white stuff on the algae when spot treated so you see exactly what’s being treated. Some parts will flow but not a big issue. Keep it to a minimum though. After 2-3 days algae on those spots are gone. You have to spot treat for a week or 2 to get everything but after that no algae and you always have an easy way to get rid of them afterwards. It burns everything so do not put it on corals you want to keep!

Do not dose more than a few ml at once. It increases PH when doses and you don’t want to let it go up too much. Instead wait a day between dosages. I personally use 1ml per 100l.

With those 3 steps, I now have a ULN tank and 0 algae. Will be placing an algae scrubber back so I can add some nutrients again but that’s basically it.

 

[Tango2]

Your tank looks like mine a month ago. Today I have 0 algae. How?

1) You need to figure out what’s feeding it, in my case PO4 dosing and probably trace elements. I stopped doing both

That's what I've been unsuccessful in over the past year or two. IMO, that's the only true way to get rid of it. I am literally adding nothing to the tank besides topoff water that reads 0 on the TDS meter, and I cut feedings down to every two weeks for long periods. Manual removal would clean up the tank for a short period of time but it would just keep coming back. I honestly haven't tested PO4 in quite some time because my readings were always reasonably low even with wild algae growth, which told me that the algae was consuming the PO4. It didn't help me identify where it was coming from.

 

[Bramzor]

That's what I've been unsuccessful in over the past year or two. IMO, that's the only true way to get rid of it. I am literally adding nothing to the tank besides topoff water that reads 0 on the TDS meter, and I cut feedings down to every two weeks for long periods. Manual removal would clean up the tank for a short period of time but it would just keep coming back. I honestly haven't tested PO4 in quite some time because my readings were always reasonably low even with wild algae growth, which told me that the algae was consuming the PO4. It didn't help me identify where it was coming from.

If you have that amount of algae, you should always be reading 0 PO4. If that is any higher, you have something that leaks it. It does get buffered in rocks etc so maybe thats leaking it but normally that amount of algae is also able to pull almost everything out of buffered stone so you really shouldn't be measuring any PO4.
If that's the reason, you can always add GFO to pull it out.

 

[dadnjesse]

I would be careful with GFO if you have SPS.

 

[Bramzor]

I would be careful with GFO if you have SPS.

With that .amount of algae, SPS corals are already gone.