Who here beat GHA? How’d you do it.

[knowen87]

I had GHA a few years ago in my 150. It was because I had neglected the tank for too long. I Used a biopellet reactor to bring down my levels and did several water changes over a few months. I think that it was about 20% per week. Every time I did a water change I removed all the algae that I could. I did not scrub the rock or remove anything. I had tangs in the tank as well but now I am doing great.

 

[happysalt]

Just get 3-4 small tangs and you will be fine!

 

[John3]

Beat mine with a very small hungry yellow tang. My rock never looked so clean. That tang had to move on but the GHA never came back. I think gha is just a stage a tank goes through as it matures.

 

[ZoWhat]

Beat mine with a very small hungry yellow tang. My rock never looked so clean. That tang had to move on but the GHA never came back. I think gha is just a stage a tank goes through as it matures.

But oh my young Jedi..... not all GHA is appetizing to Tangs.

 

[User1]

So many variables and no two tanks are the same. What worked for me chances are high they won't work for you. A lot of it comes down to patience, tank maturity, and self control. Not trying to be vague just how it worked for me over the years.

Recently I used Vibrant, moderate population of snails, water changes to export what Vibrant removed, bag of carbon, skimmer, and once that showed a positive effect I then introduced a scopus and lavender tang. In my case tank upgrade in 2018 with 150 lbs of Dry Pukani and so was working to find the balance of nutrients.

Finally it is holding steady at no visible traces but then again the turbo snails and scopus/lavender tangs eat any and all forms of algae which is nice. Stay on top of it, manual remove what you can, control the rest.

Above all resist the urge for a quick cure. There really isn't one.

 

[blue.flyzz]

A surefire way to beat GHA everytime

Just trying to be funny.....

I have a 180g and I've tried:

* 3-5 day blackouts (no results, well it does save electric and that's about it)

*25% weekly WCs (at 280g total water volume, really not looking to spend $1000 in salt a year)

* wet skimmer (intermediate success) I'm sure if it wasn't for my skimmer my tank would be lime green. Lol. I just wished I would have bought a skimmer for 500gals...twice my water volume to skim the crap out of my water column, literally. I think there is real POWER in having a skimmer rated TWICE your actual water volume

* adding filter socks (mild/intermediate success) teamed up with wet skimming it does slow down new GHA from forming. BRStv Investigates did a series on filter socks and socks changed out every 3 days reduced NO3/PO4 by 40%

* manual removal and scrub (only returns if other methodology are not applied)

* feeding fish less (mild success) theres only two sources being INPUTTED into your tank: SW and food.... if your RODI is not detecting PO4 then the only other logical SOURCE is coming from your food

* chaeto (mild success) but it tends to die off if my other methodology takes off successfully for a few weeks. Very hit n miss... also a PITA bc you have to flip the stuff, swish the stuff as debris builds up on it if its laying stagnant, acting like a filter catching brown debris

* algae scrubber (never used one) interested in looking more into DIY youtube videos. But hard to imagine that 95% of the algae would only grow on the scrubber and not on the LR. I dont think GHA would discriminate choosing to only grow on a scrubber...but I could be wrong

* adding FOUR urchins (mild success)....they tend to find to easiest algae to eat which is flat areas like glass. They prefer thin algae film. If algae is thick turf like, they ignore it and go for the thin algae in easy places while cracks in LR grow thick turf

* dosing an entire bottle of Dr Tim's WasteAway at the first of every month (mild success) using the product alone wont di much. It only introduces good bacteria that needs to be fed with vodka/vinegar to keep it going

* dosing NoPox or Vibrant. I can DIY that stuff myself. NoPox is 1part vinegar to 1/2part vodka to 1part RODI. Sorry RedSea your recipe is out on the streets. Vibrant is the same as NoPox just with live bacteria added to the recipe.

* dosing vodka/vinegar 1part:1part (intermediate success if done as a daily regiment). But vodkas expensive at $14 a bottle and last 3 weeks...thats $200 a year in vodka. Vodka Vinegar doesn't eliminate GHA...It WILL NOT remove existing algae. Existing stuff has to be scrubbed or manually removed. It WILL slow down NEW growth)

* I'm debating on getting a SeaHare. Wondering how well it will do in eating GHA in small cracks that urchins ignore. I'm also concerned if the SeaHare dies, read that they release a poison when they die that will wipes out your livestock

I'll follow up on a separated post if all my methods PLUS adding a SeaHare is of any value



.

I got a SeaHare and with a tank full of GHA, it starved to death. The scrubber does work. I followed this guide minus the suction cups. I just lean it against the side panel of my sump and on the outside panel I use the small marineland LED light on a timer, it runs for 10 hours per day. For the box I went to staples, bought one of those small blue recycle trash bins and cut out the bottom. I get so much algae on it I have to take it out every two weeks and scrub it clean and siphon out the algae all over the glass during my water change.

 

[Beefyreefy]

Nocked it way back to almost gone with fluconazole, them started vodka dosing to lower nutrients down to low levels. Totally gone now. It all started when I had my daughters 15 year old friend watch the tank while we went on vacation. When we came home I had a small outbreak of gha. I tried manual removal with a brush and lots of water changes but within a few months I had a plague, the tank was relatively mature at 2.5 years running. I did a tank rip apart and sand rinse with peroxide on the worst spots. Stayed pretty clean for a month and it came back. Stayed on top of it with manual removal and kept it under control. Discovered fluconazole and first round knocked out 95% of the gha but it started coming back. Did a second round of fluconazole and halfway through the treatment started vodka dosing and got my nutrients very low but not zero. When the treatment was up I started modest weekly water changes and eventually the gha totally disappeared. Now I’m just running a small maintence dose of vodka and so far so good! What a pain though, lol!

 

[Rich Klein]

Took a lot of effort and learning. The 1st 2 times I lowered NO3 and PO4, and restricted feeding to battle the uglies I got dino for my effort. I was in too much of a hurry to get that display tank that I dreamed of. I then purposely dosed Nitrate and Phosphorous to encourage all types of algae and out-compete the dino. I then decided to take things real slowly. I added snails PODs worms, snails, Ucrhins (biodiversity that my dry rock was lacking). I established a Chaeto refugium with a good fuge light (AI Prime Fuge) and dosed Iron and Manganese to fuel its growth. I then started to hand remove the GHA, first pulling chunks and then using a tooth brush on sections at a time (165 gallon tank with a lot of area to cover). As the Chaeto took off, I balanced my system at ~ .05 PO4 (Hanna ULR) and 5.0 Nitrates ****very slowly. This happened over ~ 6 months. My tank is now 2.5 years old and the GHA is finally under control. I swear that I caused almost 2 years of my own problems.

 

[Lorenzo Angotti]

Yes I agree with ZaneTer, a sea hare is the way to go, it helped with my GHA second time around, because the first time my cleaner shrimp killed it by rectal probing, because these sea hares are eating machines and poop out from the anal which is visible this is why the cleaner shrimp goes for it, so the way around it is to place the cleaner shrimp in the sump until the sea hare done it’s job. Once the GHA had gone you simple take it back to your marine store and get a little exchange for it. This is like hiring it out until it’s done it’s job as that all they eat and would die if there was no more GHA to be had.

 

[Tastee]

Since I battled this for over 12 months myself I find this an interesting thread. I have managed to ‘beat’ GHA, at least for now, so for what it is worth here is my journey.

I setup my tank (65g RSR 250) in Sep 17 and started to have GHA growing in Apr 18. For the next 10 months I tried many things. Firstly lots of manual removal. Fingers in the tank ripping it out into a net, taking rocks out and scrubbing them weekly in tank water with a toothbrush, scrubbing with a toothbrush in the tank, emptying the socks daily. Then I tried reducing Phosphate with Phosguard and later LC. Then switching to NoPoX. I quickly got to 0 measurable PO4 and NO3. All that did was kill corals. GHA was completely undisturbed - grew back as quickly as I took it out. I already had a Lawnmower Blennie and Yellow Tang as well as a couple of Turbo snails. No good.

In Feb this year I did a few things. Firstly dosed Reef Flux. Second stopped NoPoX dosing and let NO3 and PO4 rise. Third adding 4 Money Cowries. The combination of this worked a treat. The fluc knocked the GHA off quite quickly, and I changed filter socks every couple of days for a few weeks to prevent a nutrient jump. The Money Cowries then ate what was left over the space of the next month and have not stopped grazing ever since. The rise in nutrients let my Corals pick up and they all look better than they ever had. In my very inexperienced opinion they are now out competing the GHA for nutrients which they were not doing before. NO3 sits at 0.25 ppm and PO4 currently at 0.08 ppm. I am now happier with where my tank is than I have been for a long time and are intentionally feeding heavy to get and keep nutrients up.

 

[Rich Klein]

Yes I agree with ZaneTer, a sea hare is the way to go, it helped with my GHA second time around, because the first time my cleaner shrimp killed it by rectal probing, because these sea hares are eating machines and poop out from the anal which is visible this is why the cleaner shrimp goes for it, so the way around it is to place the cleaner shrimp in the sump until the sea hare done it’s job. Once the GHA had gone you simple take it back to your marine store and get a little exchange for it. This is like hiring it out until it’s done it’s job as that all they eat and would die if there was no more GHA to be had.

I had the same issue with my Cleaner Shrimp and Sea Hare

 

[MRB]

I beat it with stability

 

[dmh41532]

I had a sever outbreak several years ago, so bad i almost gave up after trying everything you read about online; then i noticed alot of detritus building up on the rock and GHA, it dawned on my that i had nothing to catch it. I added a filter sock, and within two weeks, it was gone in the display. No changes at first, then one day it just started to disappear. I also made some changes to the flow, and once a week, use a turkey baster to blow crap off the rocks right before a water change.

 

[Daniel@R2R]

I had a sever outbreak several years ago, so bad i almost gave up after trying everything you read about online; then i noticed alot of detritus building up on the rock and GHA, it dawned on my that i had nothing to catch it. I added a filter sock, and within two weeks, it was gone in the display. No changes at first, then one day it just started to disappear. I also made some changes to the flow, and once a week, use a turkey baster to blow crap off the rocks right before a water change.

Yep. Cutting off the source is the most crucial part of this battle.