Controlling GHA in a macro algae display

[dputt88]

so my system is 375 gal and part of that is a 60 cube which i am trying to keep as a seahorse/pipefish tank with decorative macro algae. i used to keep on back in the day but i dont remember it being this difficult to keep GHA down.

any advice on how to manage GHA in a way that wont negatively affect my display algae?

 

[Ranjib]

dang. this will be hard.. I dont know anything that will selectively nuke GHA without harming macros :-(
#reefsquad

 

[JoshH]

Chemical wise, hard to do without killing your macro. CUC wise, a couple of turbos abolished my GHA in a few weeks. I went this route after my peroxide nuked my cheato. Now it's just in my experience as not all snails are the same but mine ate GHA that was an inch + long. If I'm not mistaken Mexican turbos do better in cooler waters which would be ideal in your case.

 

[kwan8911]

I have one turbo snail in my chaeto fuge, he keep GHA to a minimum. But you do need to manually remove the long GHA at first, turbo snail will take care of the rest

 

[reefwiser]

Try some blue leg hermit crabs.
https://www.reefcleaners.org/aquarium-store/blue-leg-hermit-crab
They love GHA I had a couple of thousand of them for sale one year at MACNA and they cleaned off GHA off live rock like nothing else.
The issue in this case is also that the algae in the display is growing too slow. An GHA is out completing the Display algae. So you need to use fertilizers NO# and PO$ and FE to make those algae's grow.

 

[Diesel]

Fish will eat the GHA but will be hard if you already have GHA present in the tank.
I had GHA on purpose in my fragtanks and if I sold frags I placed the fragplugs in my DT and my gems went after it.
No kidding but less than 3 hours later the frags were clean of GHA.

 

[Brew12]

A Dolabella Sea Hare might be a good option for you, also.

What types of macro algae are you trying to keep?

 

[Dennis Cartier]

I have one turbo snail in my chaeto fuge, he keep GHA to a minimum. But you do need to manually remove the long GHA at first, turbo snail will take care of the rest

This is what I did as well. I have an external 20 G brute fuge, and during cycling (of the fuge), the sides of the barrel became overgrown with GHA. I put in a few turbos and they mowed down the GHA while the chaeto became established. I still have 2 turbos in there and the sides are only covered with film algae now.

Dennis

 

[dputt88]

im keeping quite a few and the collection will grow. Dragons Breath, red bush, red razor, the red branching graciliaria, codium, blue hypnea. will add neomeris, mermaids fan, barbata, red grape.

any of these sound like something that a turbo would eat?

 

[Brew12]

im keeping quite a few and the collection will grow. Dragons Breath, red bush, red razor, the red branching graciliaria, codium, blue hypnea. will add neomeris, mermaids fan, barbata, red grape.

any of these sound like something that a turbo would eat?

I believe so. That will be a challenge.

Maybe we can get @Tomoko Schum to weigh in and see if she has any ideas.