Ready to give up! GHA

[sghera64]

Guys, I have GHA, and it’s taking over. It’s gotten worse and worse. It’s only one one single rock but I already have corals glued down. I got it from some corals I got at once. I got four at once and it affected two corals that I purchased and has just spread everywhere on this one rock. I have been dosing vibrant and hydrogen peroxide but its not seeming to help. I just treated my tank for flatworms so I don’t want to put too much stress on said tank. My tank is beautiful and has grown immensely in four months, but I’m just so frustrated. I pick this off and it comes right back. I’m ready to give up. I just picked it off yesterday%

I’m just “turning the corner” with the same problem. I decided to do Vibrant after watching the BRS video on it. LIke them, I started dosing at the “Very Dirty Tank” level. Then I dosed 2x per week at the “Very Dirty Tank” level staring at week 6. And things did start to get better around week 6.

I also decided to apply a 3-day “black out” at around week 6. What I found was that after about two days of darkness, I was able to use a turkey baster to “blow” the GHA off the rocks. Apparently, after being in the dark for 48 hrs, it begins to weaken. I keep the power heads on when using the baster and the sump pump off. I use a fish net in front of the power heads to “capture” the floating strands of GHA that I removed from the rock. This helps harvest nutrients from the system.

My story is not over, but I feel much better about the prognosis.

 

[Crcreef]

Cuc and an emerald crab will do the trick

 

[johnfarrellmd]

Guys, I have GHA, and it’s taking over. It’s gotten worse and worse. It’s only one one single rock but I already have corals glued down. I got it from some corals I got at once. I got four at once and it affected two corals that I purchased and has just spread everywhere on this one rock. I have been dosing vibrant and hydrogen peroxide but its not seeming to help. I just treated my tank for flatworms so I don’t want to put too much stress on said tank. My tank is beautiful and has grown immensely in four months, but I’m just so frustrated. I pick this off and it comes right back. I’m ready to give up. I just picked it off yesterday%

GHA makes you want to pull your own hair out.
1. Relax. It’s ugly but there are far worse things that can go wrong.
2. Reduce nutrients in tank. Go to every other day feedings if necessary and feed sparingly.
3. Scrub rock. It’s a pain but it helps.
4. Frequent, relatively large volume water changes.
5. I’m not a fan of black outs. Algae will grow in the absence of light as long as the nutrients are there. You can consider reducing your photo period to 4-6 hours a day temporarily.
6. Clean up crews are how your LFS and online retailers make money. Don’t bother spending a lot on them. Relocate your hungry hermits to a refugium or a friend’s tank. A handful of snails helps for other algae and detritus but won’t cure GHA.
7. It will pass. Keep the faith.

 

[Crabby48]

I like to let the tank do it’s own thing and let it correct it’s self if possible. I would stock up on snails and if hermits are a problem remove them but they can clean up a lot. Dry rock can take awhile to age and in the mean time algae’s like to take hold. Keep up on water changes and manual removal with patients.
Recommend good test kits that can read low levels of po4 and NO3. For that I like Hanna ulr phosphate and Red Sea pro NO3

 

[absoluteNANOreef]

See if you can get money cowries from @WWC they cleaned up GHA in my tank in 2 days.

 

[bigcheese]

My advice:
Take a deep breath and relax, this is part of the ugly stage, one that most (if not all) reefers go through. Patience is the key, you might not be doing anything wrong. Don't go hog-wild with dosing or spend a hundy in CUC that will probably starve to death in 2 months once the gha is gone.
At 4 months, your bacterial ecosystem is immature. Once that's strong and diverse, the uglies go away for the most part.

You can't trust NO3 and PO4 readings in the water column; the GHA will suck those out as fast as they can be produced. You can use some GFO to reduce excess PO4, but that will only slow the GHA, not kill it.

For now, manual removal (I prefer forceps: clamp, twist, pull) and maybe an emerald crab or two. If some gha is encroaching on a nice coral, rip and peroxide around it (not if you have a cleaner shrimp, h2o2 is toxic... so use @brandon429's advice and pull the rock).

Build your ecosystem from the ground up and this will go away in due time. Find a local reefer and swap some sand or get some fresh skimmate. Dose some Dr. Tims, MB7 and Seachem Pristine. Get yourself some pods and phytoplankton. Whatever it takes to build those micro-critters that outcompete the GHA, naturally.

Patience, grasshopper. It's a bit of a shock to see your reef like that, but it's just part of the maturing process.

 

[Lalaallieu]

(Edit: we cross posted I was typing while you was replying to others so some questions you just answered)

How old is the tank? That one single rock... where did it come from and was it cycled prior to adding it. If so how was it cycled?

There could be excess nutrients locked into that rock and that is what is feeding the GHA.

I've had mature systems, add a new rock and all of a sudden I look like I have a chia pet growing in the tank.

GHA isn't the end of the world... it's ugly.. it will drive your OCD mad, but just wait it out. Once the nutrients are released from the rock it will die out on its on. As long as it's not being fed from over feeding.

You will need to replace the snails. I don't have a issue with my red (scarlet) or blue leg crabs killing off my snails. Normally if I see them going after a snail it's because it's kicked the bucket and they are having a dinner party at the funeral.

make sure you acclimate the snails slowly... that could be why you are loosing snails as it can take a couple of days for them to die off if not acclimated properly.

A urchin would help, but that tank is going to be to small to sustain one log term, not to mention they are great for knocking one coral into another as they are like bulldozers. Same goes for larger mexican turbos... so make sure everything is glued down well.

You can kill the lights for 2-3 days and boost your snail clean up crew and that should put a dent into it. Snails are cheaper than most of these additives being suggested.

In 15+ years of having reef tanks I've never dosed anything to kill GHA.

Like others said it looks to be a fairly new system and you have to let the tank mature on it's own and it will settle down.

Your showing zero most likely on your test kits due to the GHA absorbing it as a fuel source.

Is this in your 13.5 system? I glanced over your past threads and noted you had one.

This is in my 13.5 Fluval. The rock was dry came from BRS. The two white rocks came. Added them, began fishless cycling with bottled ammonia. Had added a rock in but had a coral turn colors on me. The lfs said it’s because the rock was leeching calcium and it killed all their corals and they pulled it. So I traded it out for another CaribSea life rock. That’s the only “Live“ rock I purchased.

 

[mav3rick478]

My tank is 4 months old. I did use dry rock. The rock has went from pure white to green with some spots of coralline. I do not have control of my lights, it’s either white/blue or all blue. Tank is the Fluval 13.5.

Ok, so like others have said, take a deep breath. We've all gone through similar issues but you have to play the waiting game and be patient, this will pass as the tank matures. Hell my tank skipped the green hair algae and went straight to dinos, cyano, bacterial blooms and Bryopsis. Only with the cyano did I finally use Chemiclean as a last resort because my tank balance was all out of wack, probably from using peroxide to try and get rid of the Bryopsis.

Since your lights aren't adjustable for intensity you can shorten the photo period a few hours or just shorten the photo period of the whites. Your rock is probably leaving phosphate which is normal but that will pass. Cut your feedings down if possible, every other day or every couple of days. What types of hermits do you have and how many?

 

[Cory]

In most coral reefs the population of algae is controlled primarily by sea urchins and parrot fish. Parrot fish being to big, id get a sea urchin. The black long spined ones are the best but not easy to keep alive long term. Youll need to supplement algae wafers that sink.

Dont get a sea hare, they are very short lived and their death can poison your tank.

Even in the open sea with very low po4 and no3 algae grows. However very little. But scientists have found that the addition of iron causes phytoplankton to grow despite very low nutrients. Iron is the limiting nutrient there.

 

[Reef AquaCult]

In most coral reefs the population of algae is controlled primarily by sea urchins and parrot fish. Parrot fish being to big, id get a sea urchin. The black long spined ones are the best but not easy to keep alive long term. Youll need to supplement algae wafers that sink.

Dont get a sea hare, they are very short lived and their death can poison your tank.

Even in the open sea with very low po4 and no3 algae grows. However very little. But scientists have found that the addition of iron causes phytoplankton to grow despite very low nutrients. Iron is the limiting nutrient there.

I agree. I was adding iron to help chateo grow but instead got an explosion of GHA.

 

[pasquale petrovia]

I would make a bucket of salt water and heat it up to same temp as tank to preserve corals. Patiently remove rock and scrub around corals with tooth brush while in bucket, spray rock and not corals with peroxide and put back in your tank. Repeat this a few times, but give it a week between cleanings. If you scrub it in tank the loose algae will grab on elsewhere. Raise your mag if possible it will help. Don't panic.

 

[Lalaallieu]

Ok, so like others have said, take a deep breath. We've all gone through similar issues but you have to play the waiting game and be patient, this will pass as the tank matures. Hell my tank skipped the green hair algae and went straight to dinos, cyano, bacterial blooms and Bryopsis. Only with the cyano did I finally use Chemiclean as a last resort because my tank balance was all out of wack, probably from using peroxide to try and get rid of the Bryopsis.

Since your lights aren't adjustable for intensity you can shorten the photo period a few hours or just shorten the photo period of the whites. Your rock is probably leaving phosphate which is normal but that will pass. Cut your feedings down if possible, every other day or every couple of days. What types of hermits do you have and how many?

3 dwarf red legs. I don’t feed the tank regularly. They’ve always just eaten the algae and I’ve never worried about it. I got a shrimp recently so I was going to go tonight and pickup some mysis. I used to feed corals twice a week But haven’t since I moved And this issue started.

 

[Drewbacca]

I know it seems stressful, but this is easy, dont give up. Imagine a tank with tons of fully grown out corals especially sps ..glued directly to the rock.. whick is part of an entire aquascape..THAT would be challenging. You have it isolated to a single easily removable rock..with a couple small frags still on the discs. The superglue will give before the disc/plug. So just twist/lift them off If you can in the tank and set them over on the substrate..if you cant just get a bucket with enough tank water to cover the rock in it and take it out and set in there to get better leverage to snap off the plugs or just use pliers. (Youll be throwing that water out anyway) and then set the corals back in the tank. Take the rock OUT and spray it with peroxide in a spray bottle as you scrub it...rinse with a cup or 3 of the tank water in the bucket or RO...then spray and scrub and spray n scrub ...then rinse and then dip in the bucket andcswish around and sit back in tank. Do a peroxide dip on the corals if they have gha & then Keep the corals on the sand until you
Order some reef welder and make litte plug holders like this photo.. that fit into your rock in eack place you want the corals. This way they grow in the spot you choose and can be removed if needed and when the tank is well established you can glue them ditectly to the rock.
If you have an extra little rock you can sit in there at the top of that rock temporarily..it might grow hair algae and you just let it get longer and longer and it will pull all the nutrients out so it doesnt growcelsewhere until you figure out yhe prob and just pull it out. But with zero phos..im not sure why you got gha. Mine kept coming back everywhere once until I finally left one rock in and let it grow and absorb all the nutrients and it never grew back on any other rocks. Which is basically what my chaeto does now in my sump/fuge.
You got this!!
I've been stressing lately about every little problem that is out of my control...like my giant rose anemone splitting and causing caos and 4 zoa colonies that i grew not opening now. Grrr.
But.. Its always something, so we just accept it as part of the hobby and NOT that you're failing at the hobby..because thats how it is..for all of us.

Treat your tank like a daily crossword... knowing there will always be something to do or figure out each day...some youll know the answers...some you won't and some will be alot harder than others..but your experience, knowledge and tank(s) will all continue to grow, and youll have your own tricks and tips and methods.
But Luckily for us..unlike a crossword...asking fellow hobbyists for help with the answers... ISN'T cheating.
Just dont give up because you couldnt figure out one answer. : )

My hammer in the middle is still using his "big boy disc holder" (otherwise it would have to be glued sideways there)

 

[artieg1]

Agree with above, that this is perfectly normal. So you can let it freak you out if you want, but seriously, this is normal. Particularly with dry rock (which I used). You will get through it. It is unsightly. Don't take radical steps, just remove what you can physically, keep water parameters correct, etc. If you want to kick start removal, consider Reef Flux (as I said, worked for me). But this is not a reflection on you as a successful reefer. This is what happens. It's a good sign, in a way!

 

[Fishko]

You can blast some of the algea off with a turkey baster, and deal with the nutrient in a way you see fit

 

[Gareth elliott]

Lots of good advice above.
so will only give a video to keep you going.


Never surrender!

 

[michael lyons]

Tuxedo Urchin works wonders , helped get rid of all my unwanted algae plus some good snails and emerald crab I have a 29g biocube and had that problem , can't beat a good clean up crew

 

[brandon429]

An example of following the masses advice on algae vs the few

Jon did something so rare I’ve only seen it once in reefing. He did something that lessens gha before it begins, vs reaction. No need to spend money at retail is a big deal

He did what everyone here would have said is destabilizing.

120 gallon rip clean

Hey is that lysmata still kickin He was hiding probably starting to molt. I dripped some fish food in and he is still happy. My tank hasn’t been this clean or happy in years!!

www.reef2reef.com

What Jon did is for new tanks

What Jon did is for old tanks

What Jon did allows anyone to skip the uglies phase even though algae isn’t bad, if he was being reactive he could just kill the algae off rocks during the take down phase. But his rock is purple coralline 100% so he had no targets to kill. He just added big time lifespan to his tank, it continues in the current condition vs bell curving down.

the way to plate coralline onto white new rocks is to keep them manually free of algae so space can slowly be taken over by coralline.

 

[KINGROWLAND1217]

Vibrant worked for me. My whole tank was covered. My parameters were perfect, nothing was off. I pulled out buckets full and it always came back. Tried scrubbing, blackouts, adding cuc. Nothing worked. Stop peroxide because thats killing the bacteria in vibrant. Just give vibrant time by itself, took mine about a month to completely disappear. Once I got it under control,my cuc and foxface keep it in check. Just follow the vibrant instructions.

 

[Infidel]

Need snails to deal with algae. Hermits eat the snails. Feed hermits so they dont eat the snails. Create more algae from excess nutrients. Vicious cycle, ain't it?

Good advice given here, brandon429 in particular has a ton of experience in this regard, if not a bit labor intensive. Either pull the rock and work around the corals spot applying h202 as needed or pull the corals and remount after cleaning. If you think the algae came in on a frag or two, you will probably want to h202 dip those as well.

+1

Make sure your hermits have shells to grow into so they don't play Grand Theft Auto with your snails for theirs.

Some Trochus snails would get the ball rolling in addition to your vibrant dosing.

Edit: Missed that the tank was nano size.