GHA and dosing nitrates

[Bitcoin Reefer]

Low enough nutrients will always stop algae growth, but it can starve corals too and may risk dinos.

The flip side that you observe is that sufficient algae (macroalgae or microalgae) can drop nutrients to low levels as it consumes them rapidly.

So if you have coral it’s not an option right?

 

[Bitcoin Reefer]

Don’t listen to this. Clearly there is already an issue with CUC survival. The sea hares likely wouldn’t make it. I had the same issue, lost snails and a seahare.

He says he has 3 turbo snails, but ya looking at his original post, he mentioned all CUC dying.
OP did you figure out why original CUC died, but these 3 turbo snails are ok it seems?

Sea Hares are about $20 from LFS or $45 online. They are crazy GHA eaters. I watch mine slurp long chunks of GHA like spaghetti, I’m not exaggerating lol. The guys are constantly eating and pooping all night while lights are out. I did have one die out of the 4 I bought so they do seem to be sensitive. One I ordered online came DOA also, but they gave

 

[mudbugmike]

I'm facing a similar (if not the same?) issue. My tank is 2 months old and I test extremely often. I've been to all 3 reputable LFS in my city and have discussed this in length with my aquarium group.

The most common suggestion I receive is to not let nitrate sit at 0. I have dosed up to 1-2ppm only to see it at 0 the next day, but with the accuracy of my checker, it could be 2, just reading 0 within the margin of error. I dosed up to 10ppm nitrate today with potassium nitrate. Will check again tomorrow to see where that's at.

I have a decent-sized cuc now, and a sea hare. My old cuc didn't eat this type of algae, but they are fortunately not dying, either. I can see the next day where my urchin has been because he eats the purple off of my life rock.

I've researched this about as much as I feel I can. Following along because there doesn't seem to be an easy fix for these types of problems.

Here's my tank at the moment, it's usually blue but I wanted to see the algae situation (left side you can see some white rock that's been cleaned by the urchin).

Feeling pretty defeated myself. I research until I'm blue in the face. Testing multiple times daily at times to try and figure this out. I've not dosed anything beyond potassium nitrate to try and raise the nitrates a bit.

Here's my tank. I usually scrape the glass every other day but.... what's the point.

 

[sixty_reefer]

I'm facing a similar (if not the same?) issue. My tank is 2 months old and I test extremely often. I've been to all 3 reputable LFS in my city and have discussed this in length with my aquarium group.

The most common suggestion I receive is to not let nitrate sit at 0. I have dosed up to 1-2ppm only to see it at 0 the next day, but with the accuracy of my checker, it could be 2, just reading 0 within the margin of error. I dosed up to 10ppm nitrate today with potassium nitrate. Will check again tomorrow to see where that's at.

I have a decent-sized cuc now, and a sea hare. My old cuc didn't eat this type of algae, but they are fortunately not dying, either. I can see the next day where my urchin has been because he eats the purple off of my life rock.

I've researched this about as much as I feel I can. Following along because there doesn't seem to be an easy fix for these types of problems.

Here's my tank at the moment, it's usually blue but I wanted to see the algae situation (left side you can see some white rock that's been cleaned by the urchin).

Feeling pretty defeated myself. I research until I'm blue in the face. Testing multiple times daily at times to try and figure this out. I've not dosed anything beyond potassium nitrate to try and raise the nitrates a bit.

Here's my tank. I usually scrape the glass every other day but.... what's the point.

You have green Cyanobacteria it’s not a algae, I would recommend a new thread for folks to be able to fully direct you on your options

 

[DannoOMG]

I'd say do a rip clean of your tank cause that is what I did with mine. Then I realized the size of your guys tanks. Muh nano is something I can tear down and clean where larger tanks not so easy. I did the rip clean about 2 weeks ago.

But I did pull rocks out of the water and scraped the algae off of the rocks with a dollar store paring knife.
I didn't get all of it off the rocks cause it is hard to see algae out of the water but it has been a little more manageable since I did it. So IF you can take some rocks out easily, have a spray bottle with saltwater in it and work on a rock every 30 minutes while spraying corals and then rinse it off in old tank water it could help you stomp the issue. Maybe try it on one rock and see how it goes?

I had GHA, dinos and cyano. Corals were closed up, some dying and was on the verge of throwing in the towel. It was recommended I do a rip clean before giving up.

Before:

After : As of this weekend.

Again, the size of the tank doesn't make this easy. I just figured scraping algae off of rocks might help. However the other things that were done to my tank were:

* Rinsing sand completely clear
* Scrubbing tank and equipment down with vinegar
* Housing corals and critters in a bucket with heater and pump while I cleaned things.

So I dunno, take with a grain of salt.

 

[rueric]

The last of my turbos are slowly dying I think. I've got one astrea and one margarita snail left.
A ripclean is sort of a last resort, I am considering but not excited about doing. Frankly, I'm not sure if it'll fix the underlying issue.
@DannoOMG - did the rip clean help after 2 months?

Since my last posting, I've tried running GFO, no help.
On my 3rd try at flux rx with double dosage, 2 weeks in now, no help.

I'm thinking of three things to try next..
- Sea hare (if I can find one that's already pre-quarantined)
- Phosphate-E.
- Vibrant (I've seen the algaecide posts.. I really don't want to go down this route but I'm not seeing many other choices left)

Date	Alk in PPM	Alk in DKH	Phosphate	Nitrate
5/9/2022	137	7.672	0.05
6/15	137	7.672	0.06	0
6/28/2022	133	7.448	0.29	0
7/7/2022	136	7.616	0.03	0
7/24	127	7.112	0.04	0
7/31/22		0
8/11/22	109	6.104	0.12	0
8/12/22

 

[DannoOMG]

The last of my turbos are slowly dying I think. I've got one astrea and one margarita snail left.
A ripclean is sort of a last resort, I am considering but not excited about doing. Frankly, I'm not sure if it'll fix the underlying issue.
@DannoOMG - did the rip clean help after 2 months?

Since my last posting, I've tried running GFO, no help.
On my 3rd try at flux rx with double dosage, 2 weeks in now, no help.

I'm thinking of three things to try next..
- Sea hare (if I can find one that's already pre-quarantined)
- Phosphate-E.
- Vibrant (I've seen the algaecide posts.. I really don't want to go down this route but I'm not seeing many other choices left)

Date	Alk in PPM	Alk in DKH	Phosphate	Nitrate
5/9/2022	137	7.672	0.05
6/15	137	7.672	0.06	0
6/28/2022	133	7.448	0.29	0
7/7/2022	136	7.616	0.03	0
7/24	127	7.112	0.04	0
7/31/22		0
8/11/22	109	6.104	0.12	0
8/12/22

I have not updated in a while so I apologize. I have not tested my tank since the rip clean. I kind of burnt myself out on that at the moment but when I get back from errands tonight I can test it for you to see how it is.

I still have to take rocks out and get stuff I missed. I don't feel like dosing any chemicals to remove the algae. However it was recommended to me that I scrape the rocks with a knife. I did that during the rip clean. However I am trying something a little different. I scrub the spots with a grout brush but then I drown the spots that had GHA in peroxide. So far that seems to help. The grout brush is a little faster to get it down to bare rock. I let the rock sit in the air (corals and all) for 5 minutes in the peroxide. Then I rinse it off in old tank water and throw back in the tank. I do a rock once a week. I find the knife sometimes doesn't cut it fast enough.

Just last week was the first time I started removing algae again. I wanted it to get big so I knew where to remove it and not miss stuff.

Are your corals angry and ticked off like mine? That's the only reason I did the rip clean cause there was something else besides algae messing with the tank. If they are healthy looking you might not have to do a total rip clean. Just take the rocks out during a water change, scrape/scrub algae and then treat algae spots with peroxide for 5 minutes in the are. (Try your best to not touch the corals with the peroxide)

It sucks but I wouldn't mess with chemicals to remove the stuff. Manual removal does seem to be the best removal.

I will post back later with some of my numbers.

 

[rueric]

I have not updated in a while so I apologize. I have not tested my tank since the rip clean. I kind of burnt myself out on that at the moment but when I get back from errands tonight I can test it for you to see how it is.

I still have to take rocks out and get stuff I missed. I don't feel like dosing any chemicals to remove the algae. However it was recommended to me that I scrape the rocks with a knife. I did that during the rip clean. However I am trying something a little different. I scrub the spots with a grout brush but then I drown the spots that had GHA in peroxide. So far that seems to help. The grout brush is a little faster to get it down to bare rock. I let the rock sit in the air (corals and all) for 5 minutes in the peroxide. Then I rinse it off in old tank water and throw back in the tank. I do a rock once a week. I find the knife sometimes doesn't cut it fast enough.

Just last week was the first time I started removing algae again. I wanted it to get big so I knew where to remove it and not miss stuff.

Are your corals angry and ticked off like mine? That's the only reason I did the rip clean cause there was something else besides algae messing with the tank. If they are healthy looking you might not have to do a total rip clean. Just take the rocks out during a water change, scrape/scrub algae and then treat algae spots with peroxide for 5 minutes in the are. (Try your best to not touch the corals with the peroxide)

It sucks but I wouldn't mess with chemicals to remove the stuff. Manual removal does seem to be the best removal.

I will post back later with some of my numbers.

Thanks for the update. I was hoping the rip clean solution would be a last resort so we wouldn’t have to go back to weekly peroxide scrubbing, it sounds like that is not the case.
some of my corals are ticked, a couple acans and a few zoas but I hit those with peroxide dips once it gets to that point.