Still battling GHA

[landlubber]

I had the exact same experience as you TWICE. Started 2 systems with dry rock and fought my buns off for 2 entire years before i decided enough was enough. if you want to go back to enjoying your reef again yard your chaeto for now and go get some vibrant.
use a full strength dose for the next couple of months and play it by ear after that.

 

[MohrReefs]

I had the exact same experience as you TWICE. Started 2 systems with dry rock and fought my buns off for 2 entire years before i decided enough was enough. if you want to go back to enjoying your reef again yard your chaeto for now and go get some vibrant.
use a full strength dose for the next couple of months and play it by ear after that.

Throw it in a jar? Where do I store chaeto and keep it alive?

 

[schuby]

A Sea Hare is a real option, but something is very out-of-balance for the GHA to keep growing so well. Just like you didn't want to go the flux route again, don't make any knee-jerk choices that may endanger the rest of your tank.

Have you had time to get some white-light pics yet?

 

[MohrReefs]

I just finished pulling out all of the algae I could by hand and a 25 ish % water change. Going to take a break and then take a picture.

A Sea Hare is a real option, but something is very out-of-balance for the GHA to keep growing so well. Just like you didn't want to go the flux route again, don't make any knee-jerk choices that may endanger the rest of your tank.

Have you had time to get some white-light pics yet?

 

[MohrReefs]

A Sea Hare is a real option, but something is very out-of-balance for the GHA to keep growing so well. Just like you didn't want to go the flux route again, don't make any knee-jerk choices that may endanger the rest of your tank.

Have you had time to get some white-light pics yet?

Also agree on the sea hare, I really want that to be last resort. I'm going to start with more frequent water changes and just keep at removal more frequently.

 

[MohrReefs]

Found the likely cause. My skimmers intake was clogged with chaeto and wasn't skimming. Removed the chaeto and now it's skimming. Should help export the nutrients out now.

 

[BiggestE222]

Okay so I have a 44gal tank that's a year and a half old, used dry rock. Current stock (1 perc clown, 1 diamond goby, 1 starry blenny, 1 leopard wrasse, 1 target mandarin) . I was using a canister filter before and was having algae issues (pulling by hand and coming back with vengeance within days) so I changed to a 10 gallon sump with skimmer and chaeto.

Still having gha issues. Still can't remove it by hand fast enough.

So I start reducing feeding to half cube of frozen every other day instead of daily.

Still having gha issues.

So I cut down the white lights to almost nothing after reading on the forums.

STILL GHA.

Turbo snails don't touch it. Hermits don't touch it. Starry blenny won't touch it. Everything prefers the film algae that's supposed to eat the gha.

At this point I'm thinking my LFS has bad water, I need to switch to weekly water changes or invest in a larger grazer even though I know my options there are extremely limited.

I'm due for a water change tonight. I'll post params later, but the gha has officially sucked the fun out of my tank.

Thoughts besides replacing all of the rock with live rock with coraline already on it? Should I just yank all of the rocks out and scrub in tubs? Do I need to feed even less?
Literally anything would help at this point.

TYIA

On the plus side, my fish are fat and corals are all thriving. Rocks just ugly.

Astrea snails are an option. Strange that turbo snails won’t eat. May need a better skimmer and/or correct water level in sump to get wetter skimmate.

 

[BiggestE222]

Avoid feeding your tank for a week. I was having crazy gha and couldn’t get rid of it. I left for vacation for a week and didn’t feed during that time and when I came back it was all gone.

Starve the fish. Sounds like an excellent choice.

 

[MohrReefs]

Astrea snails are an option. Strange that turbo snails won’t eat. May need a better skimmer and/or correct water level in sump to get wetter skimmate.

The skimmer intake was clogged with chaeto, probably the culprit.

 

[elcapitan1993]

I know this is a little older post but I was having the same issue and just now kind of getting it resolved, I used reefflux and it helped kill it and your hermits WILL eat it when it’s dying but only if it’s dying, I’m not sure why you aren’t making your own water but I would put money on it that that’s probably at least 50% of your problem right there, I suggest getting your own RO/DI unit and make your own saltwater, do a round of reefflux and keep your nitrate and phosphate levels low with Red Sea n03 p04 x or some other way

 

[Theulli]

Okay so I have a 44gal tank that's a year and a half old, used dry rock. Current stock (1 perc clown, 1 diamond goby, 1 starry blenny, 1 leopard wrasse, 1 target mandarin) . I was using a canister filter before and was having algae issues (pulling by hand and coming back with vengeance within days) so I changed to a 10 gallon sump with skimmer and chaeto.

Still having gha issues. Still can't remove it by hand fast enough.

So I start reducing feeding to half cube of frozen every other day instead of daily.

Still having gha issues.

So I cut down the white lights to almost nothing after reading on the forums.

STILL GHA.

Turbo snails don't touch it. Hermits don't touch it. Starry blenny won't touch it. Everything prefers the film algae that's supposed to eat the gha.

At this point I'm thinking my LFS has bad water, I need to switch to weekly water changes or invest in a larger grazer even though I know my options there are extremely limited.

I'm due for a water change tonight. I'll post params later, but the gha has officially sucked the fun out of my tank.

Thoughts besides replacing all of the rock with live rock with coraline already on it? Should I just yank all of the rocks out and scrub in tubs? Do I need to feed even less?
Literally anything would help at this point.

TYIA

On the plus side, my fish are fat and corals are all thriving. Rocks just ugly.

see if you can buy some gammarid amphipods. I have seen them for sale online on occasion, and every time there is even a speck of GHA in my tank they wait until nighttime and go nuts on it. I credit a healthy gammarid population for my total lack of GHA

 

[Rocketfish]

I started seeing Green Hair Algae shortly after dosing Red Sea AB+. I started dosing nopox and it controlled it but it wouldn't go away. I tried vibrant, microbacter 7, elevated magnesium and various other things to no avail. Even reef flux did nothing to make it go away, even after I stopped dosing an+ and pulling way back on feeding.

Until I got a sea hare! The first one I had was strange. He would eat it, but he would blister up like he was allergic to it or something. He knocked down probably 95% of it and crawled into a crevice in the rock somewhere and died. I was concerned that I would lose everything in the tank, but alas nothing happened.

Fast forward 3 months... I was manually dealing with the GHA while going back to AB+ and nopox, and the corals looked great. I decided to get another small sea hare and supplement his feeding. All went well for several months. He didn't swell like the first one and seemed to eat more of the GHA faster. I put him in my second tank and he did well in there for a month or so, then he died in that tank, but I pulled him out as he was visible.

6 months later I went to get another one but none were available for a couple months, so I ordered one through a lfs. The one I got was HUGE! He cleaned out the tank in 36 hours! I now put out nori for him every night and he devours it and appears happy, but heck what do I know about sea hare happiness! I have failed on the other 2 eventually, but this is the first one that eats the nori I put in as well as GHA.

Now, all the corals are happy and colorful, and the sea hare is doing his job with supplemental feeding. Being so large I hope he doesn't starve! This supplement and sea hare combo has been the best I have had for growing coral and keeping algae at bay.

If anyone needs a large sea hare for a GHA cleanup in a short time in the DFW area and doesn't mind passing it back and forth periodically, perhaps sharing this critter could work?