Battling GHA? Turf? Green Cyano?

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

oh, that could be a problem lol

Then, if it was me, I would nuke the tank with some bottled magic. If some corals are lost then thats the price, or put the corals and fish into a temp tank if you have one. Otherwise it will take months to get rid of that. Bottled stuff wont outright kill all the algae, but it will kill most of it and give you a major head start, so that normal husbandry and CUC can finish the job.

 

[mudbugmike]

oh, that could be a problem lol

Then, if it was me, I would nuke the tank with some bottled magic. If some corals are lost then thats the price, or put the corals and fish into a temp tank if you have one. Otherwise it will take months to get rid of that. Bottled stuff wont outright kill all the algae, but it will kill most of it and give you a major head start, so that normal husbandry and CUC can finish the job.

That's kinda how I am feeling about it but not totally sure the flucan will kill this stuff

 

[Dan_P]

I could really use a bit of help. I had thought I'd been doing everything right up until this point. Cycling properly, testing my nutrients judiciously, stocking the tank slowly, etc. I let the algae just kind of go because I thought this was part of the ugly phase, so I was just sitting back and letting it do its thing while I keep the glass clean, and do my weekly 10% water changes.

My tank is 2 months old and I test extremely often. I've been to all 3 reputable LFS in my city and have discussed this in length with my aquarium group. The most common suggestion I receive is to not let nitrate sit at 0. I have dosed up to 1-2ppm only to see it at 0 the next day, but with the accuracy of my checker, it could be 2, just reading 0 within the margin of error. I dosed up to 10ppm nitrate today with potassium nitrate.

I have a decent-sized cuc now, and a sea hare. My params are for the most part stable, and the screenshots will not show if this was something I dosed before, or after. After I noticed my alk start moving I started dosing baking soda daily to keep it around 8.5. I've not dosed anything else because I have not seen the calcium move very much.

My regiment -
-Feed fish 1x per day.
-30mL phyto every other day
-swap sock every other day
-dose 1tsp reef roids on saturdays
-test on Saturdays (more often with the new problem)
-10% water change on Sundays.

Today I did not notice the alk move so I did not dose any baking soda. It had been dropping .5 dkh/day last week. I dosed potassium nitrate up to 10ppm via the calc commonly shared here.

Up until this point, I thought I had GHA/Turf/something else? @sixty_reefer has pointed out that this instead looks like green cyano. I.. just don't know what to do at this point. I really don't want to have to pull my rockwork out that is cemented in place.

I am truly at a loss and do not think it's for lack of trying. I am not certain where I went wrong to end up here. I will greatly be indebted to whomever can point me in the right direction of correcting this. I'd love to hear thoughts/opinions on what to do. I love(d) my tank, I wish I could bring the enjoyment back.

Ouch! This is a new project for you.

Because the algae growth has been allowed to grow this much ( reef aquaria are ideal for growing algae by the way), the algae clumps might now be very complex ecosystems that could include cyanobacteria. If they do, the clean up crew might not find the algae very palatable. They won’t touch the stuff. As you figured out already, the clean up looks difficult because of the coral are in the way of good scrubbing of the rocks. Personally, I would punt and just restart the aquarium.

 

[mudbugmike]

Ouch! This is a new project for you.

Because the algae growth has been allowed to grow this much ( reef aquaria are ideal for growing algae by the way), the algae clumps might now be very complex ecosystems that could include cyanobacteria. If they do, the clean up crew might not find the algae very palatable. They won’t touch the stuff. As you figured out already, the clean up looks difficult because of the coral are in the way of good scrubbing of the rocks. Personally, I would punt and just restart the aquarium.

heh, just thought this was part of the "ugly" phase. This is really unfortunate/discouraging. I couldn't restart the tank not even knowing what caused the problem. A lot of contradicting info/experiences out there. Kinda just wish I could rewind time and never have gotten into the hobby. The time/effort/research I've put in.. just kinda stinks.

 

[GarrettT]

I would restart as well. The good news is you already have the bacteria needed to seed the new rock. Many ways to go about that.

 

[ZombieEngineer]

That's kinda how I am feeling about it but not totally sure the flucan will kill this stuff

I had similar stuff and fluconozole kills it without effecting corals in like 1-2 weeks.

 

[GarrettT]

A lot of contradicting info/experiences out there. Kinda just wish I could rewind time and never have gotten into the hobby. The time/effort/research I've put in.. just kinda stinks.

Dont dose phyto and reef roids. Very easy to control, but harder if you let it get out of hand. It looks like you may have a good amount of turf algae, at least from what I’m seeing. I’d get a bunch of variegated urchins. They should take care of it. Best to get them at a LFS if you can. Once gone, bring them back to the store, but keep a few to continue managing. Is the algae easily removed by hand or impossible?

 

[mudbugmike]

Dont dose phyto and reef roids. Very easy to control, but harder if you let it get out of hand. It looks like you may have a good amount of turf algae, at least from what I’m seeing. I’d get a bunch of variegated urchins. They should take care of it. Best to get them at a LFS if you can. Once gone, bring them back to the store, but keep a few to continue managing. Is the algae easily removed by hand or impossible?

I went back to LFS again to discuss with their reef dude. Picked up 3 more urchins at his recommendation actually. He said if I need more I can just bring them all back.

I had similar stuff and fluconozole kills it without effecting corals in like 1-2 weeks.

I have some arriving today.

 

[ZombieEngineer]

I have some arriving today.

Use just a little more than what is stated on the bottle. When I used it, I used 8 capsules on my main tank (65g) and the other 2 capsules in my water change storage barrel (about 20g full at the time)

No carbon during treatment. Skimmer off first 24 hours. I leave it in for 1 week past seeing all bryopsis melt away, which for me was a little shy of 2 weeks to clean tank and 3 weeks total treatment.

 

[GarrettT]

Fluconozole didn’t do anything for my GHA or Turf. It’s much better suited towards bryopsis imho. Cleared that up for me in no time.

 

[old salt reefer]

The real winner with GHA and the uglies is TIME. Time for the tank to mature. I have fought the fight your just starting and won with time. I am fighting it in one of my newer tanks right now(tank is about 1,5 years old). Here is are some pictures of one of my tanks from 2 years ago and now(tank coming up on 3 years old). There is not any seeable algae in it now, it's still there but the clean up crew can keep up with it as fast as it grows. And these are just some pictures I posted here on the forum as I'm at work and my pictures are on my home computer. This tank looked like yours at one point. I spent hours every Friday night picking out GHA. I've used Fluconazole and it does work but- all the nitrate and PO4 in the GHA will just end up in your tank water when it dies and if you don't remove it the algae just grows back after you stop using Fluconazole. As it dies pick it out, pick it out, pick it out. Do large water changes to remove nitrate and PO4 that gets into your water too from die off. I don't want to get into the debate but going bare bottom really really helped win the fight(my "gravel" is in the sump in bags now).
Side note: Look at how much some of the corals have grown. Oh and I don't dose anything just 10% water change every week.

 

[mudbugmike]

The real winner with GHA and the uglies is TIME. Time for the tank to mature. I have fought the fight your just starting and won with time. I am fighting it in one of my newer tanks right now(tank is about 1,5 years old). Here is are some pictures of one of my tanks from 2 years ago and now(tank coming up on 3 years old). There is not any seeable algae in it now, it's still there but the clean up crew can keep up with it as fast as it grows.
Side note: Look at how much some of the corals have grown.

Gorgeous tank. Great work. I agree, my tank needs to mature. As long as the algae doesn't progress I'm happy.

 

[old salt reefer]

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but it's going to get worse before it gets better. But it will get better. There is a light at the end of the tunnel.

 

[mudbugmike]

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but it's going to get worse before it gets better. But it will get better. There is a light at the end of the tunnel.

It seems to have somewhat stalled, but I certainly believe you. What causes it to die back?

 

[mudbugmike]

So as an update it’s clearing up really nicely. What did I do? 3 urchins and a sea hare. Although I would consider the sea hare hype to be overstated. The urchins put in a lot of the work.

But really the algae just started to turn brown and die. I pulled the chunks out as they came off but let the cuc eat most of the dead matter.

I never stopped feeding phyto or reef roids. In fact I did the opposite and started making what I called “phyto bombs” of phyto, reef roids, oyster feast, and Red Sea ab+. I had to dose this a couple times to maintain my nitrate around 8 and my phosphate around .03.

My thinking is that the problems that come from low nutrients are likely more difficult to fix than this despite having being recommended that I “start over” by more than one member.

I still remain unsure of what caused this or even what cured it. I am pretty studious despite being new to the hobby. I test frequently and water change on a regular schedule.

My best guess is that my tank is new and gained whatever it needed to fight this algae.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

My best guess is that my tank is new and gained whatever it needed to fight this algae.

Or perhaps it lost a needed trace element that is required at higher levels for this algae to thrive.

 

[mudbugmike]

Or perhaps it lost a needed trace element that is required at higher levels for this algae to thrive.

Any ideas what it could have been? or where it came from?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Any ideas what it could have been? or where it came from?

You mean which trace element? No. There are many it could be, iron, manganese, etc. looking for a source is not useful, typically, and most often it’s not best for coral health for them to be too low anyway.