Does a skimmer helps with GHA when nutrients are low?

[KonradTO]

Hi all,
As mentioned in the title I am considering to get a small skimmer for my 32g system (15g sump+fuge).
Despite I have low nutrient levels (2ppm NO3, 0.03ppm PO4, tested with Hanna and confirmed with ICP test) I still get GHA growing.
I undestood from previous threads that the main help will come from increasining my CUC size at this point, but having said this do you think a skimmer would help with reducing GHA or I should invest more on getting a bigger CUC population?
Until now I controlled nutrients with macros, but since the GHA problem I lowered nutrient levels and macros now are getting covered in GHA instead of growing. Basically nutrients are too low for them I guess.
So, now I am not sure how to proceed. At the moment I could get:

an urchin + 1 emerald crab AND a skimmer
OR
several snails (20?), 2 emerald crabs and 2 urchins

RN my CUC is composed by:
5 bumblebee snails
2 Trochus snails
2 Ceriths
2 Nassarius
6 Hermits

The tank is very lightly stocked (1 bicolor blenny, 1 chromis, 1 sixline and 1 YWG)

Do you have suggestions regarding CUC and CUC vs skimmer?

 

[Spare time]

You need more cuc. Nitrate or phosphate any lower will lead to issues

 

[Spare time]

Keep in mind that a healthy reef tank should bring able to grow algae. But, you get things to eat it so it doesn't proliferate

 

[SlugSnorter]

+1 to what spare time said.

Manual removal of the long stuff, extra cuc to get the rest. Drop your nutrients too low, and you'll be dealing with Dinos

What livestock do you have? (cuc, corals, nems included)

 

[Lavey29]

You need more cuc. Nitrate or phosphate any lower will lead to issues

I agree with this. Your nitrates and phosphate need to come up a bit if you have corals. More cleaner crew too. I had a GHA jungle covering the tank. 3 urchins and 2 turbos wiped it out in 3 weeks. I also have 8 trochus. Bunch of ceriths, emerald crab, etc... no chemicals needed just natural cleaners.

 

[SlugSnorter]

I agree with this. Your nitrates and phosphate need to come up a bit if you have corals. More cleaner crew too. I had a GHA jungle covering the tank. 3 urchins and 2 turbos wiped it out in 3 weeks. I also have 8 trochus. Bunch of ceriths, emerald crab, etc... no chemicals needed just natural cleaners.

manual removal too! nothing really eats the long stuff.

 

[SlugSnorter]

Hi all,
As mentioned in the title I am considering to get a small skimmer for my 32g system (15g sump+fuge).
Despite I have low nutrient levels (2ppm NO3, 0.03ppm PO4, tested with Hanna and confirmed with ICP test) I still get GHA growing.
I undestood from previous threads that the main help will come from increasining my CUC size at this point, but having said this do you think a skimmer would help with reducing GHA or I should invest more on getting a bigger CUC population?
Until now I controlled nutrients with macros, but since the GHA problem I lowered nutrient levels and macros now are getting covered in GHA instead of growing. Basically nutrients are too low for them I guess.
So, now I am not sure how to proceed. At the moment I could get:

an urchin + 1 emerald crab AND a skimmer
OR
several snails (20?), 2 emerald crabs and 2 urchins

RN my CUC is composed by:
5 bumblebee snails
2 Trochus snails
2 Ceriths
2 Nassarius
6 Hermits

The tank is very lightly stocked (1 bicolor blenny, 1 chromis, 1 sixline and 1 YWG)

Do you have suggestions regarding CUC and CUC vs skimmer?

careful to very quickly flip fallen snails or the bumbles will eat them.

get 2 more of the same species of trochus.

5 Florida ceriths

1 Pitho crab.

 

[KonradTO]

+1 to what spare time said.

Manual removal of the long stuff, extra cuc to get the rest. Drop your nutrients too low, and you'll be dealing with Dinos

What livestock do you have? (cuc, corals, nems included)

Thanks for the reply to everyone!
ATM I have
1 bicolor blenny, 1 chromis, 1 sixline and 1 YWG
5 bumblebee snails,2 Trochus snails,2 Ceriths,2 Nassarius,6 Hermits
1 ricordea, few zoas (maybe 10), and an half dead leptastra. Nothing more for now, I lost something like 10 frags in 2 months so I am going very slow with stocking corals. No nems, too dangerous for now.

 

[KonradTO]

manual removal too! nothing really eats the long stuff.

I see. This is very annoying, how people keep those crazy stocked tanks without taking all rocks out every week for brushing? in my case I can do it still because I have no corals yet, the few frags I have are not glued to the rocks so I can remove them, but if I decide to stock properly it would start to be very difficult

 

[SlugSnorter]

I see. This is very annoying, how people keep those crazy stocked tanks without taking all rocks out every week for brushing? in my case I can do it still because I have no corals yet, the few frags I have are not glued to the rocks so I can remove them, but if I decide to stock properly it would start to be very difficult

well you can, idk why every week. If you cannot remove rocks. use a new toothbrush (clean in in rodi water first) to scrub inside the tank, and use some sort of siphon to suck up what you scrub off.

 

[KonradTO]

well you can, idk why every week. If you cannot remove rocks. use a new toothbrush (clean in in rodi water first) to scrub inside the tank, and use some sort of siphon to suck up what you scrub off.

Lol my self-sufficient small ecosystem dream is finally crushed. May I ask how often do you clean GHA from your rocks? I start to think that if I had more corals covering rocks they would have prevented GHA to grow. Does this make sense?

 

[SlugSnorter]

Lol my self-sufficient small ecosystem dream is finally crushed. May I ask how often do you clean GHA from your rocks? I start to think that if I had more corals covering rocks they would have prevented GHA to grow. Does this make sense?

every day. I'm in a 15 gallon and cannot move my rocks. Killed my dinos, caused a massive GHA bloom, which dropped nutrients and caused dinos to return.

ehh... sorta? but that also means more corals to care for and more nutrients needed. What you need is time. Naturally as your tank progresses it will gain more biodiversity ("good" bacteria and algae (stuff like coraline) ) which can compete with the GHA.

 

[KonradTO]

Thanks everyone for the feedback, that was fast XD
I will gather some ideas about the CUC and start increasing.
I think I will start with more trochus, ceriths, 2 emeralds (cannot find pitho here) and 1 urchin (M. globulus).
Any other I should get?

 

[ScubaFish802]

manual removal too! nothing really eats the long stuff.

This. I battled this for a few months at least this past year. Getting in there and ripping out the long stuff is definitely part of the answer. I found that if you rip it up consistently after a while it's 'grip' significantly lessens and it comes back much slower. I finally have it down to one small patch on just one corner rock island that is in a dark corner. I stopped fighting and let it have that tiny rock in hopes it would just grow there So far it has been working well

 

[SlugSnorter]

This. I battled this for a few months at least this past year. Getting in there and ripping out the long stuff is definitely part of the answer. I found that if you rip it up consistently after a while it's 'grip' significantly lessens and it comes back much slower. I finally have it down to one small patch on just one corner rock island that is in a dark corner. I stopped fighting and let it have that tiny rock in hopes it would just grow there So far it has been working well

keep going, once its been reduced to tiny bits your cuc can finish it off

 

[KonradTO]

every day. I'm in a 15 gallon and cannot move my rocks. Killed my dinos, caused a massive GHA bloom, which dropped nutrients and caused dinos to return.

ehh... sorta? but that also means more corals to care for and more nutrients needed. What you need is time. Naturally as your tank progresses it will gain more biodiversity ("good" bacteria and algae (stuff like coraline) ) which can compete with the GHA.

That sounds like a nightmare. I love aquaristic (coming from freshwater) but I definitely have no time for daily cleaning. Every sunday I spend 2-3 hrs to deal with it but the rest of my time available is for feeding and enjoying it (basically sitting in front of the glass and relaxing).

I had dino bloom right at the beginning (ostreopsis), fortunately I got rid of it very quickly.

 

[Lavey29]

manual removal too! nothing really eats the long stuff.

For sure, did a lot of that but my crew plowed 2 inch GHA also. I think because I raised my magnesium to 1500 which weakened the GHA and made it easy for them to munch it off.

 

[SlugSnorter]

That sounds like a nightmare. I love aquaristic (coming from freshwater) but I definitely have no time for daily cleaning. Every sunday I spend 2-3 hrs to deal with it but the rest of my time available is for feeding and enjoying it (basically sitting in front of the glass and relaxing).

I had dino bloom right at the beginning (ostreopsis), fortunately I got rid of it very quickly.

Got a bad start on this tank, so have been fighting an uphill battle. Its hard, but eventually I hope I will win.

 

[KonradTO]

For sure, did a lot of that but my crew plowed 2 inch GHA also. I think because I raised my magnesium to 1500 which weakened the GHA and made it easy for them to munch it off.

I must have a super-version of it, since I always had Mg around 1550 in my tank (red reef coral pro)

 

[Lavey29]

I must have a super-version of it, since I always had Mg around 1550 in my tank (red reef coral pro)

Maybe briopsis not GHA?