Still battling GHA

Zane · Jan 2, 2016

Run some gfo, and call it a day.

goatcorals · Jan 2, 2016

A battle... GFO and lots of manual removal worked for me a couple of years ago, but it took 3-4 months. Long time ago I torn down with new sand and rock and washed all the corals with salwater repeatedly before putting them back, and the hair algea didn't return.

UV, snails, fish all seem best at preventing rather than resolving an outbreak in my experience.

melev · Jan 2, 2016

djbetterly said:
I've been battling GHA for quite some time now. I've done countless doses of peroxide, which temporarily helps, but never fully gets rid of it. My nitrates are undetectable with the Red Sea kit, and my PO4 is .04. I've cut feeding back to once every three days with hopes of it helping but its not seeming to help.

I feel like at this point I should just get one of those slugs....any other suggestions?

What size tank and how many snails do you have currently?

Reef Junky150 · Jan 2, 2016

I had this issue with an 11year old tank after moving it to new home. Just now after nearly 2years got it under control. I completely cooked cleaned all the dt liverock. Nothing grew on the sand 2" so I left it alone. I now run a gfo reactor which I will continue until one day I don't need anymore if that is possible. I'm also running high capacity in which you can re-use to cut down on cost. I tried manual removal and a turf scrubber, built it to recommendation and spec but made no difference for me. I believe the leaching po4 from die off from moving was the major cause. I will be doing the sump liverock in the near future once I believe the newly cleaned dead rock is re-seaded.

djbetterly · Jan 2, 2016

@melev 50 gallon display, 20 gallon sump. Not sure on the snail count to be honest, but I know as of middle of December I'm do for a refill according to reefcleaners. Any suggestion on what I should buy? I had intentions of ordering this week.

melev · Jan 2, 2016

djbetterly said:
50 gallon display, 20 gallon sump. Not sure on the snail count to be honest, but I know as of middle of December I'm do for a refill according to reefcleaners. Any suggestion on what I should buy? I had intentions of ordering this week.

You didn't post a picture of the situation, but getting 50 critters would be my choice especially if you are buying in bulk online. I like astreas, ceriths, trochus and nassarius. 12 of each would do well.

But you need to be plucking it off by hand, dipping your fingers in a bowl of freshwater after every pinch. This manual removal method, while not fun, works very well. The snails will devour what little bit you've left behind, now that is in manageable levels.

djbetterly · Jan 2, 2016

I'll try and get some pictures tomorrow. The amount of growth in seven days is pretty incredible.

I plan on ordering CUC on Monday. What are your feelings on Scarlett hermit crabs?

Justiful · Jan 3, 2016

Things to try that may not have been considered.
1. Seahare -- Nothing consumes anywhere near the volume as this monster. I have seen them feeding in pet store, it would take dozens of snails working together to even compare. It's primary food source is hair algae.

2. Blame your light source. It may be putting off spectrum's fueling the outbreak. I recommend this as a personal choice after recently buying a new light to combat the starting of cyano and hair algae in my tank.

3. Try Astarea snails, when they are in stock in a few months. Supposedly they are the best consumers of hair algae, and eat the entire structure of it. I heard mexican turbo snails also do a good job, and they are in season now. I ordered some, as my tank is only 46 gallon and not really big enough for a Seahare.(though I may get one anyway and give it back to pet store if it doesn't work out, or eats it all)

I have a variety of hermit crabs in my tank. I have yet to see any of them eat hair algae, but I only have two scarlet hermits. (in answer to your question)

melev · Jan 3, 2016

djbetterly said:
I'll try and get some pictures tomorrow. The amount of growth in seven days is pretty incredible.

I plan on ordering CUC on Monday. What are your feelings on Scarlett hermit crabs?

I like them a lot. I don't like blue legs because they tend to be aggressive, often killing snails for their shells & their meat no doubt.

The suggestion of a Sea Hare is a good one, but make sure all powerheads are covered with a sponge material to prevent injury to the animal. And once your tank is nearly clean -- it won't get every last bit -- take it back to the LFS or pass it on to the next person dealing with GHA so it doesn't starve to death in your system. We had one in our club that moved from tank to tank. He had a fun nickname, but I can't recall it now. Something like Reboot... but that's not it.

2xal · Jan 3, 2016

I second the scarlett hermits for the clean up crew- I just recently (a few weeks ago) removed 90% of my live rock after finally waving the white flag on a GHA outbreak that was moving on to year 2. I'm currently curing some rock in my basement that will be part of my 'reset' once its cured in a little bit. We had a seahare that got passed around, I had it for a couple months, it definitely helped but like was mentioned it will never get 100% and as soon as I passed it on the algae started fighting back. New bulbs are on the way. I ran GFO, did frequent water changes, lights out, experimented with different levels, etc. Good luck fighting the good fight.

djbetterly · Jan 4, 2016

I have a feeling I have nitrates leaching from my sand bed as there is a fair amount of GHA growing on the bed. I've dipped a few of the pieces in peroxide and they stay clean for a while then eventually start to get GHA growing on them again.

Thinking I need to remove some of the sand and probably peroxide dip as much of the rock work as I can.

BlacknBlue2 · Jan 4, 2016

Get a GFO Reactor, also look into emerald crabs to eat the GHA, also might consider a rose urchin. They love algae.

PS. The Rose Urchin is most Likely a Pincushion Urchin, just knew it as a rose urchin through a friend who sold it to me. It ate bubble algae and scoured my rocks till it was white, but it did the job.

djbetterly · Jan 4, 2016

I actually have two reactors running GFO at the moment. Have one emerald crab but it doesn't seem to touch any of the algae. Never heard of a rose urchin. I'll check it out.

TheEngineer · Jan 4, 2016

The problem, in my opinion, with buying a critter of one form or another to battle the algae is the end result is typically one of two choices:

1) The critter doesn't eat what you want or doesn't eat it fast enough. The added bioload compounds the problem.
2) The critters eats everything you want it to and grows as a result of the large quantity of available food. The critter dies from starvation, the algae comes back.

BlacknBlue2 · Jan 4, 2016

True, but with an urchin it will do its job which is eating algae, the rocks, glass/acrylic, even frag plugs all will get cleaned off. Plus the pincushion urchin will not hurt if you touch it or pick it up as opposed to a long spined urchin. My kids loved the urchin we had and pet it so to speak almost daily.

twilliard · Jan 4, 2016

djbetterly said:
I have a feeling I have nitrates leaching from my sand bed as there is a fair amount of GHA growing on the bed. I've dipped a few of the pieces in peroxide and they stay clean for a while then eventually start to get GHA growing on them again.

Thinking I need to remove some of the sand and probably peroxide dip as much of the rock work as I can.

Now when you are saying peroxide dip.. is this a diluted ratio?
Or 100%

kevindo123 · Jan 4, 2016

Mexican turbo will eat the GHA. They will go at it once all the other algae are gone. Make sure you get the correct turbo, the other type of turbo will starve than eat the GHA.

kevindo123 · Jan 4, 2016

I do on some occassions get GHA on the low flow area of my tank. But usually disappears within a week. To combat this I think you need the right mix of CUC. The GHA I see most people have are on all their rock work, which is tough to get rid of. I think this will require manual removal, turning off the lights for a few days and let the CUC do the work. Reducing phosphate will also help. so, put a fresh bag of chemipure elite or GFO.