GHA advice

[Pascalereefer]

Hello! I have GHA for a couple of months. First steps were adding gfo and protein skimmer, also manual removal with biweekly water changes. Nitrate and phosphates are at 0 or negligible. Do folks have experience with blackout treatment (recommended by LFS) or with spot treating with hydrogen peroxide (recommended by BRS)? Tank is 8 months old. GHA only appeared around month 5...

 

[brrdawg]

I have it as well. Just showed up about 4 months ago. I have also taken a toothbrush and tried to get it off while my son siphons it into a filter sock in the sump. Could be something to try and get on top of it.

 

[EricR]

Be careful with 0 phosphate/nitrate -- could lead to worse issues.
*I'm sure I'm not alone in saying that

For GHA, I vote keep up on the manual removal and you'll eventually get through it.
Good luck...

 

[Pascalereefer]

Good morning! It's been a few months and my GHA 'war' has continued . My recent attempt is using Microbacter Clean. I removed the Chaeto from my refugium and started dosing MBC according to directions. The GHA seems less 'hearty' (I can remove it very easily) but.... it grows back within a couple of days. I added a tuxedo urchin and lawnmower blenny. I remove as much as I can manually with water changes, then scrub rocks with a brush; and leave a polishing filter in the aquarium for a day until the water is clear (changing floss 2-3 times). I'm curious what long-term expectations should be. Should I continue dosing MBC? My 40 gallon breeder is a little small for a tang (plus they're not available locally). The tank is 1 year old at this point. I check nitrate and phosphate weekly and they are at zero. alkalinity is 9, calcium ~ 430, PH 8.24, magnesium 1340. I do have 10 'half grown' saltwater mollies (born in salt water) that I can add to the tank as well - anyone had luck with mollies eating GHA?

 

[exnisstech]

Good morning! It's been a few months and my GHA 'war' has continued . My recent attempt is using Microbacter Clean. I removed the Chaeto from my refugium and started dosing MBC according to directions. The GHA seems less 'hearty' (I can remove it very easily) but.... it grows back within a couple of days. I added a tuxedo urchin and lawnmower blenny. I remove as much as I can manually with water changes, then scrub rocks with a brush; and leave a polishing filter in the aquarium for a day until the water is clear (changing floss 2-3 times). I'm curious what long-term expectations should be. Should I continue dosing MBC? My 40 gallon breeder is a little small for a tang (plus they're not available locally). The tank is 1 year old at this point. I check nitrate and phosphate weekly and they are at zero. alkalinity is 9, calcium ~ 430, PH 8.24, magnesium 1340. I do have 10 'half grown' saltwater mollies (born in salt water) that I can add to the tank as well - anyone had luck with mollies eating GHA?

IMO the first thing I would do is get nitrates and phos in line. Zeros are not good. Get a robust cuc including a bunch of snails to start. One urchin isn't going to be nearly enough for a 40g. My lawnmower blenny eats everything but algae. My mollies pick at algae but they are to small to consume a lot. You could do a bristle tooth tang in a 40g breeder.
Look at reef cleaners or somewhere and buy or build a cleaner package with 40 or more snails. I would avoid the dwarf cirith. For me they aren't worth the hassle as they get into powerheads to easily and make vacuuming a hassle as they get sucked up to easily.
Good cuc, manual removal and patience. I've have always skimped on my cuc because the recommendations always sounded like way too many snails. Follow recommendations even if it sounds like to many. A lot of people like hermits. I have some but they seem to spend more time fighting each other and killing snails than they do eating algae.
A picture of the tank may help with recommendations.

EDIT. Many people use chemicals to remove gha. Personally I am apposed and prefer a more natural approach for long term control. I have used fluconazole and the gha was eradicated but the cyano that followed was much worse than the gha.

 

[Pascalereefer]

 

[Pascalereefer]

That pic is before a water change. I siphon top layer of gravel with water change to get rid of all algae in gravel, and as indicated I manually remove as much GHA from rockwork as possible. I won't be able to get nitrates/phosphates > 0 until after I finish with Microbacter Clean. Thanks for the advice on CUC!

 

[Pascalereefer]

That pic is before a water change. I siphon top layer of gravel with water change to get rid of all algae in gravel, and as indicated I manually remove as much GHA from rockwork as possible. I won't be able to get nitrates/phosphates > 0 until after I finish with Microbacter Clean. Thanks for the advice on CUC!

Happy to say that GHA is GONE as of about a month ago. I got 3 mexican turbo snails that cleaned rockwork. Then it seemed since raising magnesium to 1400 it no longer grows on the gravel bed. Here's a pic of tank now. Feeling excited again!