Continual battle with GHA

Wick · May 3, 2022

djf91 said:
I have one. Went to town on the first wave of GHA in the 2nd month of the tank and cleared literally all of it. Won’t touch this second wave of GHA though.

must be on a diet. lol

jakeb · May 4, 2022

Coolnesscomplex said:
My theory is that you’ve misidentified it like I did and it is actually bryopsis. Look very very closely and if there is any branching at all in the algae it’s bryopsis.

It’s a pain to remove your chaeto, but treat it again with Reef Flux, maybe multiple times over the next few months. I spent a year of my life thinking that I sucked at reefing because my nutrients weren’t that high but the green hair algae seemed unbeatable. Then I realized to my dismay that I never even had green hair algae!

Here are some close up photos (I turned the lights to 100% white for the photo). Am I right in thinking it is GHA?

Gedxin · May 4, 2022

Sure looks like GHA to me. Exactly how mine appears. Also have had a problem with my invertebrates dying too. I'd say about 80% of whatever I add dies in 1-3 weeks. I know I have Ostreopsis dinos though, so that's an obvious problem and toxic for inverts. I don't see any dinos in your tank though, so that's even stranger that yours perish.

damaneice · May 19, 2022

I was battling bad GHA. But once I got made an ATS it was gone in 2 or 3 weeks.

jakeb · May 19, 2022

I'm still cleaning the rocks every 2 or 3 weeks, and I'm waiting for an order of phyto and magnesium. My wife has told me it's growing back slower, but that might be to stop me moaning about it.

damaneice said:
I was battling bad GHA. But once I got made an ATS it was gone in 2 or 3 weeks.

ATS's don't seemed to be used much in the UK. I've been reading up on making them, and I've found a decent guide on a UK forum. I just don't have the time to commit to making one at the minute - hopefully that will change in a month or two.

Until I have time to make one, a media reactor with rowaphos will have to do.

jakeb · May 19, 2022

damaneice said:
I was battling bad GHA. But once I got made an ATS it was gone in 2 or 3 weeks.

And I've had a look at your ATS on one of your posts. It looks really good!

jakeb · May 19, 2022

Gedxin said:
Sure looks like GHA to me. Exactly how mine appears. Also have had a problem with my invertebrates dying too. I'd say about 80% of whatever I add dies in 1-3 weeks. I know I have Ostreopsis dinos though, so that's an obvious problem and toxic for inverts. I don't see any dinos in your tank though, so that's even stranger that yours perish.

I'm sorry to hear you're having

What nutrient export are you using?

Gedxin · May 19, 2022

jakeb said:
I'm sorry to hear you're having What nutrient export are you using?

Filter floss and a skimmer.

jakeb · May 20, 2022

Gedxin said:
Filter floss and a skimmer.

I've just had a look at your build thread. You still have a nice looking tank, even with the algae issues. But maybe I am used to looking at tanks with algae problems.

damaneice · May 20, 2022

jakeb said:
And I've had a look at your ATS on one of your posts. It looks really good!

Thanks! I ended up making another version out of acrylic.

jakeb · Aug 1, 2022

jakeb said:
I believe it is GHA as I haven't noticed any branching, but it's very possible that I have misidentified it. I will upload a close up photo when the lights come on tomorrow.

It seems like I have had a similar experience losing inverts as @djf91 and @Chrisv. (although I haven't dosed vibrant). I've tried to tell the difference between lyngbya and GHA in the past, but haven't been able to. Is there an easy way to tell the difference between the two?

Thank you all for the help with this, if anyone has any more ideas, please let me know Assuming I haven't misidentified bryopsis or lyngbya as GHA, I think I will do the following:

Keep cleaning rocks with a toothbrush and siphon. Keep removing smaller rocks to clean, but start using hydrogen peroxide (avoiding corals).

Raise magnesium to 1500

Dose live phyto

If magnesium and phyto helps, great. If it doesn't, I will look at using FluxRX and/or hydrogen peroxide again. And look at a DIY ATS and/or UV.

It's been a few months since my last message and despite trying various things, I'm more less in the same situation.

Cleaning rock with a toothbrush and siphon (roughly once a month) - it helps, but algae come back quickly.
Hydrogen peroxide on rocks. I ran a few tests on different rocks and had the following results. It was a bit pointless to be honest, as I can't remove 80% of my rock work.
- Removed algae and peroxide on rock for 5 minutes - algae was slower to come back, but only by around a week
- Peroxide on algae for 10 minutes (no algae removal) - very similar to algae removal
- Removed algae (no peroxide) - very similar to peroxide
- Left rock alone
Raised magnesium to 1500 - no impact
Dosing live phyto - no impact
Added algae scrubber - has been running for 1.5 months now - growing algae but no difference in display tank (probably needs longer)

I bought another sea hare two weeks ago, and it died today

All fish and corals are all healthy, so I don't think it is a water quality issue.

I'm a bit stuck now, I'm really not sure what I can try next...

Lavey29 · Aug 1, 2022

jakeb said:
It's been a few months since my last message and despite trying various things, I'm more less in the same situation.

Cleaning rock with a toothbrush and siphon (roughly once a month) - it helps, but algae come back quickly.

Hydrogen peroxide on rocks. I ran a few tests on different rocks and had the following results. It was a bit pointless to be honest, as I can't remove 80% of my rock work.

Removed algae and peroxide on rock for 5 minutes - algae was slower to come back, but only by around a week

Peroxide on algae for 10 minutes (no algae removal) - very similar to algae removal

Removed algae (no peroxide) - very similar to peroxide

Left rock alone

Raised magnesium to 1500 - no impact

Dosing live phyto - no impact

Added algae scrubber - has been running for 1.5 months now - growing algae but no difference in display tank (probably needs longer)

I bought another sea hare two weeks ago, and it died today All fish and corals are all healthy, so I don't think it is a water quality issue.

I'm a bit stuck now, I'm really not sure what I can try next...

Manual cleaning once a month isn't going to cut it no pun intended. I was pulling clumps out daily. Did you add some turbos and tuxedo urchins?

jakeb · Aug 1, 2022

I have a tuxedo urchin that picks at some of it, but not loads. It seems more interested in trying to find some coralline (which doesn't really bother me). Any snails and inverts eat the algae well for a few weeks, and then start slowing down to the point they stop moving and die.

It seems like a water quality issue, but fish and corals are fine, and past ICP tests are fine.

I wish I had the time to clean it more

It takes hours to properly clean, and with work and a young family it's a struggle to get a solid few hours to clean it.

Lavey29 · Aug 1, 2022

jakeb said:
I have a tuxedo urchin that picks at some of it, but not loads. It seems more interested in trying to find some coralline (which doesn't really bother me). Any snails and inverts eat the algae well for a few weeks, and then start slowing down to the point they stop moving and die.

It seems like a water quality issue, but fish and corals are fine, and past ICP tests are fine.

I wish I had the time to clean it more It takes hours to properly clean, and with work and a young family it's a struggle to get a solid few hours to clean it.

I used to hand place my urchins in the middle of the jungle and force them to eat their way out.

MartinM · Aug 1, 2022

I know it may seem irrelevant but check out this amazing series by Eric Birneman which may help: http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-07/eb/index.htm

jakeb · Aug 1, 2022

Lavey29 said:
I used to hand place my urchins in the middle of the jungle and force them to eat their way out.

Haha, I like it! I'd find it difficult to put mine in a place without algae!

It is an odd animal though. It will crawl over tonnes of algae, to go eat identical looking algae on the over side of the tank.

Lavey29 · Aug 1, 2022

jakeb said:
Haha, I like it! I'd find it difficult to put mine in a place without algae! It is an odd animal though. It will crawl over tonnes of algae, to go eat identical looking algae on the over side of the tank.

I used 3 urchins and 2 turbos as my primary cleaners but had trochus and cerith too. You need to try and do 5 or 10 minutes of manual pull out daily. Just grab out the big easy to reach clumps.

paintman · Aug 1, 2022

Once again it looks like another hobbyist being led down the CUC rabbit hole. Please stop killing these creatures. You are your own best CUC! All you need is a toothbrush, turkey baster, conviction, and most impotantly a power filter. And when I say conviction I don't mean once a month. I mean 2-3 times a week!

jakeb · Aug 1, 2022

paintman said:
Once again it looks like another hobbyist being led down the CUC rabbit hole. Please stop killing these creatures. You are your own best CUC! All you need is a toothbrush, turkey baster, conviction, and most impotantly a power filter. And when I say conviction I don't mean once a month. I mean 2-3 times a week!

Don't worry, other than my recent failure at keeping a sea hare, I haven't bought any new CUC since March (I think - I only started keeping notes on dates of new additions in March).

I have previously cleaned it weekly (for several months), with no more success. Unfortunately I am not able to spend 2 or 3 hours cleaning rock multiple times a week, do my part looking after two young children and have a busy job - I know what two of these three I will choose.

I usually siphon it in to my filter socks and clean it afterwards. I hadn't heard of power filters before, but I can see how they would help. I'll have a bit of a read tonight. Thanks

Lavey29 said:
Manual cleaning once a month isn't going to cut it no pun intended. I was pulling clumps out daily. Did you add some turbos and tuxedo urchins?

I might have do another proper clean and then try to spend a small amount of time each day removing algae instead.

MartinM said:
I know it may seem irrelevant but check out this amazing series by Eric Birneman which may help: http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-07/eb/index.htm

Seems like an interesting article. I'll have a read tonight.