At what point do you start the GFO?

[revhtree Verified Admin]

As some of you know I battled a major hair algae outbreak that took months and a lot of money and lost corals to beat in my 400g.

Just recently I noticed some green, hair like, algae starting to form on my back and side walls. To be honest I’m afraid!

I’m thinking about heading it off before it gets bad and was thinking of some GFO. Of course I’ll need to test my water for phosphates first but was wondering how and when do you use your GFO?

 

[Uncle99]

I employ GFO when phosphate increases to .10.
I remove when phosphate is back at trace.....say 0.02-0.05.
You have big water, so using an LC like phosphate x or agent green may be cheaper
If you have any visible spots, pull out as much as possible.

When possible, reduce any red/green light or replace old T5/MH if running more than 12 months.

About 6 months ago, I started Chaeto in my sump with an aggressive blue/red light.
This has worked wonders for me, brought nitrate down from 20, to 2ppm and phosphate from .15 to 0.02ppm

 

[ohlero]

I was going to say the same thing as Uncle99 but you might not register much phosphate because the algae is pulling it out.

 

[MichaelReefer]

I would run more GFO than you think, that Algae is probably sucking up a lot of your Phosphate. Maybe an extra scoop?

 

[joe0813]

My fiancé's tank is starting to get decent sized patches of what looks like green hair algae

 

[Suohhen]

I wouldn't run GFO as I believe the issue is that it is very hard to eradicate algae from being a part of your tank's biosphere. Everyone associates GHA with nutrients but while that may be the reason it got a hold in the first place, it isn't necessarily what is keeping it there. There just simply are no reliable herbivores for getting deep onto the rocks where the GHA is rooted so it is up to us to promote the growth of other algaes and subsequent consumption of those we don't want to keep until pest algae has been thoroughly cut out of the picture.
At least that is my opinion and I could certainly be wrong, or my thinking might not apply to your tank. But I am currently in the same boat, I am 8 months into rebooting and the algae is mostly gone but there are always problem spots that make my heart wrench. So I say keep up the good fight, Say No to GFO!
Or go in all the way like Michael said because algae ain't messing around.

 

[Kryptonian]

Started running gfo because my nitrates were having problems after coral feeds and AB+. Dropped my phosphates to 0.0000 so quickly had to start dosing phosphate. I feel like I’m over feeding and nitrates bounce between 2-30 but phosphate is zip. Need to figure something out because gfo isn’t the end game solution.

sump has plenty of gha but lights out for 3 days gets rid of it. Then it comes back...

it did take care of the nitrates tho.. sitting at 5 after coral feeds..