Who here beat GHA? How’d you do it.

[drawman]

Using fluconazole did it for me

Did it ever come back?

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Did it ever come back?

Nope. Gone forever. That was over 12 months ago

 

[McFly]

The trick is to let your rock mature. This process can take years. All the rock I originally started with about 4 years ago does not grow GHA. All the rock I added last summer is still growing GHA, but some spots are starting to clear up. You can try to manage the growth with tangs, clean up crews, manual clean up, however its going to grow until the rock is mature.

When starting a tank try to find the oldest live rock you can to avoid the maturation process, or spend time 'cooking' your dry rock to speed up the process.

 

[roberthu526]

lower your NO3 and PO4.
make sure you have accurate tester so you know whats your actual level.
if levels are high:
use good activated carbon
use PO4 remover like rowphs
add good CUC like snails and urchins
weekly water change
good husbandry and mindful feeding
skim wet during the times you trying to bring down nutrients.

that's all, if you follow these steps you will beat it.

if you need more help please post your system details (age, parameters, filtration, some pics will help)

All good suggestion but in reality it rarely works. GHA is the toughest to beat.

 

[roberthu526]

if what you dealing with is GHA indeed, low nutrients have to take care of it. GHA cannot survive in zero PO4/NO3 environments (not that am saying target zero values rather making a point).
double check your test kits
double check your ID and make sure its GHA not something like bryopsis..etc

Okay lowering nutrient to the level you are pointing at mostly will cause major issues with corals. I have first hand experience and it’s proven that GHA survives in extreme low nutrient environment. I used HANNA ULR checker to measure phosphors at less than 10 ppb and GHP lived just fine for months. Meanwhile I lost 90% of my corals including some supposedly easy to keep LPS like hammer and frogspawn. BRS also did videos regarding nutrient levels in reef tank. Dropping nitrate and phosphate level at extreme low is a very risky move for most reefers.

 

[road_runner]

Okay lowering nutrient to the level you are pointing at mostly will cause major issues with corals. I have first hand experience and it’s proven that GHA survives in extreme low nutrient environment. I used HANNA ULR checker to measure phosphors at less than 10 ppb and GHP lived just fine for months. Meanwhile I lost 90% of my corals including some supposedly easy to keep LPS like hammer and frogspawn. BRS also did videos regarding nutrient levels in reef tank. Dropping nitrate and phosphate level at extreme low is a very risky move for most reefers.

What is the level I am pointing out in your eyes?

 

[road_runner]

...

 

[roberthu526]

What is the level I am pointing out in your eyes?

You didn’t specifically point out. However you did say GHA can not survive under zero nitrate and phosphate and that is not true. Which is why I replied to your post. Good husbandry is good but when under GHA outbreak good husbandry I usually isn’t enough.

 

[road_runner]

..

 

[Roush427R]

- Installed a Turbo Aquatics algae scrubber.
- No lights for a week.
- Increased my cuc.
- Added a half dose of Dr. Tim's Aquatics Eco-Balance.

I added the scrubber about a month before the extra cuc and the Eco-balance. The lights were off for about a week after that. The day after I added the cuc and Eco-Balance, the algae was gone....overnight...I couldn't believe it. My sand is still white and no algae going over a month now (fingers crossed).

 

[roberthu526]

I NEVER ever would say zero..I am against zero nutrients big time. If you follow up with me you see me saying that all the time...zero paramaters are aweful and bring loads of issues like cyano and dino..
Unless if I said it in context of, without nutrients algae cannot grow(which means problem for coral as well, what is coral other than algae in calcified structure)..but would never recommend zeroing any element..

I apologize if I misinterpreted. What level are you suggesting then since you recommended lower nutrients?

 

[road_runner]

..

 

[road_runner]

...

 

[vetteguy53081]

CUC, red sea NoPOX and vibrant liquid

 

[blue.flyzz]

I upgraded from a 75 FOWLR to a 125 SPS dominant mixed reef 5 years ago. The last 2 months i neglected the 75, transferred all the rocks some of which had gha. Within a year I was battling it everywhere in the 125. I tried so many different things. What works best is pulling it out manually then scrubbing it with a toothbrush. That good rid of most of it but it grew back eventually. What finally got rid of it for good was adding a GFO reactor and a DIY algae scrubber in my sump. Been GHA free for 3+ years.

 

[Danj]

I battled GHA and bryopsis for a few months after upgrading from a 40 to a 120. I have a massive fuge that grows chaeto like crazy, so it was easy to get my NO3/PO4 levels in check (<2ppm, 0.08ppm respectively), but still the GHA/bryopsis persisted. I think my nitrates bottomed out at some point, so I had to dose some nitrate to balance things out and allow phosphate to go down. Then I got heavier with the feedings and tuned the fuge lighting down a bit. Anyways, ultimately what seemed to do it in was:

• Mechanical removal using a ~3/8 vinyl hose siphon, and the tip of my finger. I think this is an often overlooked requirement. If you want it gone, remove it from the system completely and take steps to ensure it doesn't come back
• Time. My guess is that after a few mechanical removal cycles, that gave the rest of the bioload a chance to catch up. Maybe even gave the rocks a chance to get coated with other things, so the undesirables couldn't get a foothold

 

[sarcophytonIndy]

There are tons of threads of people in progress fighting gha but who here has beat GHA. How’d you do it.

So far I’m planning on scrubbing the algae off. Then doing a large water change and putting an urchin to help followed by a 72 hour black out period.

How did you beat gha?

I beat it with a 600 Watt horticulture grow light over my fuge full of chaeto. It quickly brought my nitrates and phosphates down to zero, after harvesting the dense chaeto a few times.

 

[Hermie]

well I could definitely upgrade my refugium light... I have a 30Watt LED now (blue/red) but I could go up to 70 watt

 

[Danj]

well I could definitely upgrade my refugium light... I have a 30Watt LED now (blue/red) but I could go up to 70 watt

Yeah, for sure. I forget how many watts I have but the PAR at the surface of the clump is 500-600par. Try to think of it like this: you want the fuge to outcompete your display lights for excess "nutrients", so you gotta give it a fighting chance.

 

[sarcophytonIndy]

well I could definitely upgrade my refugium light... I have a 30Watt LED now (blue/red) but I could go up to 70 watt

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B079DNFLB2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1