My tank was cruising along nicely parameters were perfect acros were looking good and then bam, I started seeing a couple small patches of GHA. I figured no biggie I’ll just buy more snails and crabs. So I bought a bunch of algae eaters including turbo snails and scarlet hermit crabs. At this point my PO4 was around .12 and Nitrate 5-10. Pretty good.
The cleanup crew arrived but the gha kept spreading. So, I bought more cleanup crew, this time a bunch of astreas and emerald crabs and my PO4 was about .14, nitrate the same 5-10. GHA kept spreading and was encroaching on my acros, especially the “nubs” which cost several hundred.
I realized it had been several months since I turkey basted my rocks, so I did this and they were very dusty. GHA kept spreading and started smothering my small acro frags, so I took a tooth brush and scrubbed the bases of all my acros. While I was at it, I took a big brush and scrubbed all my rocks which made a huge mess in the tank. At this point in time my PO4 was .14, however the day after the scrubbing my PO4 spiked to .24 and most my acros bleached (I’m assuming from the PO4 spike). They got bleached/pale quick, like within 24-hours of the spike.
Still trying to avoid GFO I then decided to buy some Prodibio Biodigest and Bioptim, essentially bacteria and carbon source to lower PO4. This didn’t work so then I decided keep dosing Prodibio but also dose KZ Coral Snow Plus which is also supposed to lower PO4, but it also isn’t doing much. The “Plus” is thought to be Lanthanum Chloride.
PO4 is steady around .24 - .26 and 15% water changes don’t do much at all.
Now about 90% of my rocks are covered in 1/2”+ of hair algae, it’s actually more of a brown color and I’ve been basting almost daily which always creates a big cloud. So, still trying to avoid GFO I bought some KZ Bio-Mate which will arrives next week. This bacteria is supposed to lower PO4 and clean the mulm on my rocks.
Most of my big Turbo snails I bought are dying, I don’t think they like this algae. Which is not helping my situation since they are pretty big and getting eaten up.
With that said, I’m pretty sure it’s not byropsis, as I don’t see anything fern-like.
That brings the story up to yesterday. I’ve been daily dosing Coral Snow Plus for a week and cut my feeding down a long time ago to where my less assertive fish are getting very skinny.
Today I did another scrubbing of just the frags since I had my first RTN of my smallest nub which got smothered by algae.
Most my acros are still pale/bleached but still have some PE and luckily some hardy acros look good still, like BK Chem Froot Loops.
2-hours after scrubbing today I took a PO4 reading and it was .30. It’s possible I create a spike every-time I scrub or baste.
Skimmer runs 24/7. Alkalinity has luckily been pretty steady around 8.6 and consumption also steady. I stopped adding any new corals since before I saw the first sign of GHA.
I’m very tempted to setup my GFO reactor this weekend. Thoughts? Suggestions?
The cleanup crew arrived but the gha kept spreading. So, I bought more cleanup crew, this time a bunch of astreas and emerald crabs and my PO4 was about .14, nitrate the same 5-10. GHA kept spreading and was encroaching on my acros, especially the “nubs” which cost several hundred.
I realized it had been several months since I turkey basted my rocks, so I did this and they were very dusty. GHA kept spreading and started smothering my small acro frags, so I took a tooth brush and scrubbed the bases of all my acros. While I was at it, I took a big brush and scrubbed all my rocks which made a huge mess in the tank. At this point in time my PO4 was .14, however the day after the scrubbing my PO4 spiked to .24 and most my acros bleached (I’m assuming from the PO4 spike). They got bleached/pale quick, like within 24-hours of the spike.
Still trying to avoid GFO I then decided to buy some Prodibio Biodigest and Bioptim, essentially bacteria and carbon source to lower PO4. This didn’t work so then I decided keep dosing Prodibio but also dose KZ Coral Snow Plus which is also supposed to lower PO4, but it also isn’t doing much. The “Plus” is thought to be Lanthanum Chloride.
PO4 is steady around .24 - .26 and 15% water changes don’t do much at all.
Now about 90% of my rocks are covered in 1/2”+ of hair algae, it’s actually more of a brown color and I’ve been basting almost daily which always creates a big cloud. So, still trying to avoid GFO I bought some KZ Bio-Mate which will arrives next week. This bacteria is supposed to lower PO4 and clean the mulm on my rocks.
Most of my big Turbo snails I bought are dying, I don’t think they like this algae. Which is not helping my situation since they are pretty big and getting eaten up.
With that said, I’m pretty sure it’s not byropsis, as I don’t see anything fern-like.
That brings the story up to yesterday. I’ve been daily dosing Coral Snow Plus for a week and cut my feeding down a long time ago to where my less assertive fish are getting very skinny.
Today I did another scrubbing of just the frags since I had my first RTN of my smallest nub which got smothered by algae.
Most my acros are still pale/bleached but still have some PE and luckily some hardy acros look good still, like BK Chem Froot Loops.
2-hours after scrubbing today I took a PO4 reading and it was .30. It’s possible I create a spike every-time I scrub or baste.
Skimmer runs 24/7. Alkalinity has luckily been pretty steady around 8.6 and consumption also steady. I stopped adding any new corals since before I saw the first sign of GHA.
I’m very tempted to setup my GFO reactor this weekend. Thoughts? Suggestions?