Does a skimmer helps with GHA when nutrients are low?

[Lavey29]

I think this is GHA, definitely not feathery looking.

Can't tell from the picture. Take close up of strands under white light.

 

[KonradTO]

is there bubbles in it?

No fortunately not. It is definitely not dino/cyano

 

[sixty_reefer]

I think this is GHA, definitely not feathery looking.

Can I see a full tank shot?

 

[KonradTO]

Can I see a full tank shot?

This is from 2 weeks ago. Now I took the macros out of the dt and changed the white light on the right with a blue light, hoping that it helps. I also added few more kgs of LR in the position where the macros where.

 

[KonradTO]

Just a quick follow up:

I added 4 more ceriths, 2 mexican turbos (this time they seems doing well, probably they died last time because of salinity issues), 1 emerald crab, 1 tuxedo urchin.
I also decided to give it a go with some more cheap frag:
1 toadstool coral (I will start using activated carbon in the filter section I guess)
1 duncan (5 heads, really beautiful)
2 sps, one s. caliendrum, another one that looks like stylophora milka but is supposed to be seriatopora. I know it is risky right now but the caliendrum was cheap and I received as a gift from the lfs the other one.
Hopefully this time GHA will be kept at bay and frags will thrive..

Also I have another question:
Should I keep also some CUC in the SUMP? I already put some hermits there, hopefully they will keep it clean. I am wondering whether I should get also some snails or crabs for that.

 

[KonradTO]

Just a quick update.
After decreasing light intensity in the dt and increasing in the fuge to slow down gha I think I fueled a tiny bit of dino. Before it gets out of control I decided to go for a blackout +uv again. I also dosed some nitrates. This will also temporarily kill some gha as well. I will keep monitoring nitrates if they spike up I will do some wc, otherwise I will keep dosing until I reach something like 5-10 ppm. In the meanwhile I will keep fuge lights on. It is a bit risky with the dinos but I want to export as many nutrients possible from the dt and keep them in the fuge. If things go well I should have a bit less gha, no dinos and maybe a bit higher nutrient levels in a week. Keep you posted. Next month I will get another tuxedo urchin, more trochus snails and I am considering trying with a black molly. Mexican turbo snails keep dying in my tank so I give up with them.

 

[rueric]

Have the same tank, also dealing with GHA.. any luck?

 

[KonradTO]

Have the same tank, also dealing with GHA.. any luck?

Just a quick update.
After decreasing light intensity in the dt and increasing in the fuge to slow down gha I think I fueled a tiny bit of dino. Before it gets out of control I decided to go for a blackout +uv again. I also dosed some nitrates. This will also temporarily kill some gha as well. I will keep monitoring nitrates if they spike up I will do some wc, otherwise I will keep dosing until I reach something like 5-10 ppm. In the meanwhile I will keep fuge lights on. It is a bit risky with the dinos but I want to export as many nutrients possible from the dt and keep them in the fuge. If things go well I should have a bit less gha, no dinos and maybe a bit higher nutrient levels in a week. Keep you posted. Next month I will get another tuxedo urchin, more trochus snails and I am considering trying with a black molly. Mexican turbo snails keep dying in my tank so I give up with them.

Hey, I forgot to update the thread.
In the end as others warned about, I ended up with dinos (Amphidinium). The "good thing" is that becauss of this GHA slowed down a lot and for most of the tank the cuc seems doing its job. Fortunately Amphidinium is not very toxic so I have lost only the feather duster so far ( ).
Now it's all another story.
@rueric
After failing myself with this what I can suggest is raise your nutrients. You need good nitrates and phosphate test kits, there is no way around that unfortunately.
Also boost your pods and cuc. What I noticed is that despite my sump/fuge runs with whites 10h/24 I get no much algae there because amphipods eat GHA before it grows. Also once your rocks will be covered by corals it will be more difficult for the GHA to grow, so its just matter of time. I think that those people who invest thousands in frags the first months of the tank are having a slightly better success rate agaist algae because they get to cover quickly all the rocks. Corals suck up nutrients and compete against algae so in the end the small patches that grow get devoured by an hungry cuc.

 

[rueric]

Very good point there, I've been considering dosing nitrate as well since I know any tests I run right now will probably just show 0/0 for nitrate and phosphate.