Am I losing control of GHA?

[KonradTO]

I have had a GHA outbreak for the past 3 weeks. NO3 and PO4 peaked at some point one week ago ( 30-40 ppm and 0.5 ppm), so I started to increase frequency and amount of water changes (now I am doing half gallon/day on 30g tank). Also I set up a small fuge in one of the filter chambers with caulerpa.
I have no sump and no skimmer, as filtration and nitrate extraction method I use sand (5-10cm deep), a canister filter and some biomedia in the filter chamber of my AIO. I also have a good amount of macro.

Now, it seems that NO3 and PO4 are getting better with water changes, but GHA are growing everywhere.
I am not sure what I should do, wait and keep rollin with WC or do something to avoid it to spread further?
I red so much about macro reactors, fuges, scrubbers, hob skimmers, bottled bacteria etc. but I am not sure if any of those would help as for each person that says it worked there's 2 saying it didn't.
As cuc I have turbo snails, nassarius and a lettuce slug.

Params now:
NO3 10ppm
PO4 0.5 ppm last week, now I need new test
KH 9.5, stable
Cal, Mag under control at normal ranges

 

[Reef and Dive]

I have had a GHA outbreak for the past 3 weeks. NO3 and PO4 peaked at some point one week ago ( 30-40 ppm and 0.5 ppm), so I started to increase frequency and amount of water changes (now I am doing half gallon/day on 30g tank). Also I set up a small fuge in one of the filter chambers with caulerpa.
I have no sump and no skimmer, as filtration and nitrate extraction method I use sand (5-10cm deep), a canister filter and some biomedia in the filter chamber of my AIO. I also have a good amount of macro.

Now, it seems that NO3 and PO4 are getting better with water changes, but GHA are growing everywhere.
I am not sure what I should do, wait and keep rollin with WC or do something to avoid it to spread further?
I red so much about macro reactors, fuges, scrubbers, hob skimmers, bottled bacteria etc. but I am not sure if any of those would help as for each person that says it worked there's 2 saying it didn't.
As cuc I have turbo snails, nassarius and a lettuce slug.

Params now:
NO3 10ppm
PO4 0.5 ppm last week, now I need new test
KH 9.5, stable
Cal, Mag under control at normal ranges

That’s a tiny amount of macro to keep nutrients under control: you want strong lights over them and maximum growth. You might need some carbon dosing and maybe GFO.
I would totally use fluconazole as well.

 

[KonradTO]

That’s a tiny amount of macro to keep nutrients under control: you want strong lights over them and maximum growth.

problem is that without a fuge I cant let caulerpa grow more or it will overgrow the corals. I am considering a fuge above the dt or a hob overflow but in both cases I am bit scared of flooding my kitchen. Also I read about many nano tanks without skimmer and sump. How do they export nutrients aside from WC?

You might need some carbon dosing and maybe GFO.
I would totally use fluconazole as well.

Wouldn't fluconazole kill also the macro algae?

 

[KonradTO]

I was also considering a 3 days blackout. Anyone tried with that and succeeded? For me worked like a charm with dino (coupled with UV) but I am not sure if that would work with GHA as well

 

[OutColdCRNA]

I have used fluconazole with cheato in my five and didn’t have any effect. Don’t know what it would do to caleurpa

 

[Lavey29]

Stay the course, add a couple urchins, manually remove what you can. Get parameters in check. Just an evolution in your tanks maturing process.

 

[Spare time]

I have used fluconazole with cheato in my five and didn’t have any effect. Don’t know what it would do to caleurpa

I am pretty sure a marine depot video mentioned it is not safe with caulerpa

 

[Spare time]

Much of that looks like it could be wiped off and siphoned out.


Keep in mind that a canister filter can actually make the problem worse if food and crud is able to rot in there. A lot fo people clean them out too infrequently which is why I mention it.

 

[KonradTO]

Much of that looks like it could be wiped off and siphoned out.

I am keeping the ones on the back wall since I don't mind them and better there than elsewhere. The ones on the rockwork are a bit tricky as it is very porous with many crevices, I tried with a brush but it seemed to make things only worse.

Keep in mind that a canister filter can actually make the problem worse if food and crud is able to rot in there. A lot fo people clean them out too infrequently which is why I mention it.

I am quite careful with it. I clean it every 2 weeks and it looks always pretty clean. It runs from the inside of my filter chamber so it actually acts more as a biological filter

 

[KonradTO]

Stay the course, add a couple urchins, manually remove what you can. Get parameters in check. Just an evolution in your tanks maturing process.

I'd love urchins. Here in my area shops don't have the small ones, and I need them pretty small as many areas of the rockwork are only a couple of cm away from the glass unfortunately. When I started this tank it was my first reef tank so I did not consider many aspects..like a sump

 

[mikedgrok]

I'd love urchins. Here in my area shops don't have the small ones, and I need them pretty small as many areas of the rockwork are only a couple of cm away from the glass unfortunately. When I started this tank it was my first reef tank so I did not consider many aspects..like a sump

are you liking that fluval flex tank overall in terms of tank shape, size/layout of the sump areas, etc.? any issues with debris pooling at the "underside" of the curve on the front glass?

sorry ... wanted to get that tank as my starter last year but chickened out and got the evo 13.5

 

[Lavey29]

I'd love urchins. Here in my area shops don't have the small ones, and I need them pretty small as many areas of the rockwork are only a couple of cm away from the glass unfortunately. When I started this tank it was my first reef tank so I did not consider many aspects..like a sump

You can do a couple urchins and an emerald crab for the small areas. I'd avoid dumping chemicals in that's a bandaid fix and will cause other problems typically.

 

[KonradTO]

are you liking that fluval flex tank overall in terms of tank shape, size/layout of the sump areas, etc.? any issues with debris pooling at the "underside" of the curve on the front glass?

sorry ... wanted to get that tank as my starter last year but chickened out and got the evo 13.5

No problem, I am happy to share my small experience I made so far. The tank is nice looking for sure. I think there are some issues though with the front glass. Firstly it's very hard to take decent pictures from the front glass because it will mess up with the focus of the camera. Smartphones seems to have less of a problem. It might seem secondary but when you want to take a picture of something for sharing it here in the forum it gets tricky. Also light seems to get magnified and concentrated in the first couple of cm of the bottom, which look a bit weird, it's like having a bright line on the front. A lot of particles accumulate on the low portion of the glass so you need to clean it quite often or run the wavemaker near the front glass.
If I could go back now I would get an eheim 100l tank, make it drilled, set a sump and prepare everything, cabinet included, before even filling 1 mm of water.

 

[Spare time]

I am keeping the ones on the back wall since I don't mind them and better there than elsewhere. The ones on the rockwork are a bit tricky as it is very porous with many crevices, I tried with a brush but it seemed to make things only worse.

I am quite careful with it. I clean it every 2 weeks and it looks always pretty clean. It runs from the inside of my filter chamber so it actually acts more as a biological filter

Maybe consider some giant turbo snails. Mine devour hair algae.

 

[KonradTO]

You can do a couple urchins and an emerald crab for the small areas. I'd avoid dumping chemicals in that's a bandaid fix and will cause other problems typically.

I also don't like chemical fixes because I care more about inverts and diversity than corals and fish. Don't get me wrong, I care a lot about my fish pets and corals but my main interest is within the stuff I find which I didn't know about (and that decreased already a lot when I added fish).
My first inhabitant is an hermit which travelled with me 3000km from Mediterranean to home. I would rather have gha everywhere than risk it.

I considered also an emerald but the guy from the lfs told me they can be hit or miss and if I am unlucky it will start to kill my fish and inverts

 

[KonradTO]

Maybe consider some giant turbo snails. Mine devour hair algae.

Are normal turbos as good? I have 4 but they don't seem to care much about GHA (Tectus fenestratus)

 

[Lavey29]

Snails won't get GHA if it gets to long. They like short stuff. That's why urchins knock out the big stuff and to some degree emerald crabs to. I have 3 emerald crabs in 65g DT and they eat algae 24/7 along with my snail crew.

 

[Spare time]

Are normal turbos as good? I have 4 but they don't seem to care much about GHA (Tectus fenestratus)

I think its the mexican turbos. The ones I have devour the hair algae that can grow in my sump

 

[mottomegl]

You can do a couple urchins and an emerald crab for the small areas. I'd avoid dumping chemicals in that's a bandaid fix and will cause other problems typically.

I agree i put 1 urchin in a 90 gallon tank full of hair algae it cleaned it up and then got other stuff in line that was almost 3 years ago still have the urchin now in my new 200 gallon still cleaning everything they do a great job and quick found they worked the best

 

[Duncan62]

problem is that without a fuge I cant let caulerpa grow more or it will overgrow the corals. I am considering a fuge above the dt or a hob overflow but in both cases I am bit scared of flooding my kitchen. Also I read about many nano tanks without skimmer and sump. How do they export nutrients aside from WC?

Wouldn't fluconazole kill also the macro algae?

Manually remove all you can. The hair algea can uptake nutrients faster than the macro. Get an urchin or 2. They will scour the rocks. Glue corals down. They won't hurt the macro but might grab a piece occasionally. They prefer the hair. I still think you could add

You can do a couple urchins and an emerald crab for the small areas. I'd avoid dumping chemicals in that's a bandaid fix and will cause other problems typically.

You need 5 crabs