GHA battle

[mikebusc]

So about a month ago, I did some battling with GHA. Used reflux and scrubbed rocks and it seemed to be holding off pretty well. Now it looks like it’s coming back. All my numbers seemed fine although my phosphate was pretty high a couple weeks ago. Around .2. I have the phosphate down to .15 now but still going to bring it down more. Using PhosGuard. I am doing another regiment of reef flux. Put it in two days ago. My question is could I scrub the rocks now while it’s in there? Would that help or actually hurt the process?

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Do you have any CUC? Just be careful scrubbing rocks in a tank since that GHA will float around in the tank and eventually land somewhere there.

 

[Miami Reef]

Phosphates are not the problem because algae can grow in very low levels, low enough that coral will suffer.

My favorite way to manage algae is with foxface and tang fish. If your tank is too small for them, I would focus on smaller cleaners and manual removal.

 

[ChrisfromBrick]

how old is your tank? if young, it’s inevitable. Ride it out, clean up crew, and 10% wc weekly.

 

[exnisstech]

I feel your pain. I have a tank that I've been battling it for around 14 months after rescaping with dry rock. Did Flux then got cyano so in with the chemi clean. I quit the chems and ended up just riding it out. Things are turning around by doing manual removal and vacuuming the gha. This has always been a low nutrient system so I don't buy into the high nutrients cause gha that gets tossed around. I have a tank that runs N 10-15 and P 0.25-0.4 and I have no algae issues. I'll never have another tank too small for a tang or foxface. I get poor results from crabs urchins and snails. This was from cleaning the other night.

 

[mikebusc]

Do you have any CUC? Just be careful scrubbing rocks in a tank since that GHA will float around in the tank and eventually land somewhere there.

I have various snails and five tuxedo urchins. And three emerald crabs. Also a fighting conch. When I’m scrubbing, I put in a hanging canister filter and that really does a good job of getting the algae that’s floating. Then I just take it out and clean it. As well as replacing the filter socks.

 

[mikebusc]

Phosphates are not the problem because algae can grow in very low levels, low enough that coral will suffer.

My favorite way to manage algae is with foxface and tang fish. If your tank is too small for them, I would focus on smaller cleaners and manual removal.

I have one Salfin Tang. Tank is 125 gallons.

 

[mikebusc]

how old is your tank? if young, it’s inevitable. Ride it out, clean up crew, and 10% wc weekly.

Going on nine months now.

 

[mikebusc]

I feel your pain. I have a tank that I've been battling it for around 14 months after rescaping with dry rock. Did Flux then got cyano so in with the chemi clean. I quit the chems and ended up just riding it out. Things are turning around by doing manual removal and vacuuming the gha. This has always been a low nutrient system so I don't buy into the high nutrients cause gha that gets tossed around. I have a tank that runs N 10-15 and P 0.25-0.4 and I have no algae issues. I'll never have another tank too small for a tang or foxface. I get poor results from crabs urchins and snails. This was from cleaning the other night.

Thanks for the info!

 

[jfm3]

Heard that some have had success beating back GHA with high magnesium (1700-1800ppm). I’m about a week in to this mitigation approach and have noticed GHA turning gray and white.

I have a 50 cube loaded with 40+ RBTAs and 50+ rock flowers and 2 very happy gold stripe maroons.

The substantial CUC + algae reactor can’t keep up. No room for a tang and sea hares and/or urchins would have trouble maneuvering around the nems.

Fingers crossed that high mag and manual removal does the trick. Don’t want to return to chemical treatments which are always followed by cyano and then return of GHA.

 

[mikebusc]

Good to hear and let us know how you make out. I am still battling with mine. Trying another dosage of reef flux again. It seems like it’s dying down, but not quite and then it seems to bounce back again. And has a coincidence my magnesium levels were low so I’m in the middle of dosing that right now.

 

[Rappa]

Like @exnisstech I have been battling the GHA for about the same time frame. I believe it is due to the dry rock that we use to scape with now. I never had or saw so many others with so much GHA when we used to have easy access to Live-Rock directly from the ocean. My new tank is 18 months old. At one point, it was on 90% of every rock surface, and some of the back and side glass. Was growing on my powerhead wires too. I tried lots of stuff and chemicals, and even bottomed out my nutrients to zero. Then ended up with Cyanno, Dinos, etc... Then GHA always came back. I didn't make any progress until I just chilled out and chose to ride it out. Instead of trying to remove it daily or weekly, I started letting it grow out. I have mine almost beat (maybe 80%-90%), but it has been a long ride. I have been letting it grow out long, as it seems easier to vacuum off the rock, and pulls off almost completely when it grows long enough to be ready to drop and release on it's own. After a manual removal session, I change out filter socks, do a 40 gallon water change, and add some Tim's bacteria (forget which one at the moment). I have been slowly beating it back after every cleaning. I have raised my Mag to 1500-ish, and that definitely or coincidentally helped it stop coming back after removing. I also have a handful of Urchins that attack the rocks as soon as I do a manual removal session. They seem to love the leftovers of the GHA after it's been pulled off a rock, and they eat it right up. However, they won't really touch it when it's over a half inch long. Ride it out... it's challenging, but with patience it is beatable. Good luck.

 

[jfm3]

Heard that some have had success beating back GHA with high magnesium (1700-1800ppm). I’m about a week in to this mitigation approach and have noticed GHA turning gray and white.

I have a 50 cube loaded with 40+ RBTAs and 50+ rock flowers and 2 very happy gold stripe maroons.

The substantial CUC + algae reactor can’t keep up. No room for a tang and sea hares and/or urchins would have trouble maneuvering around the nems.

Fingers crossed that high mag and manual removal does the trick. Don’t want to return to chemical treatments which are always followed by cyano and then return of GHA.

I am approaching 2 weeks in of high magnesium and low phos. Although there was some lightening of the GHA, it continues to pop up in new areas. Sadly, I'll return to the proven Fluconazole treatment followed by ChemiClean with the cyano undoubtedly returns. Once "clean", I'll add a bunch of emerald crabs to combat the inevitable return of GHA, but this time I'll keep the high magnesium and low phos to see if I can work with the emeralds to slow GHA new growth.

 

[Rappa]

After you do a hard core cleaning, do a 1 or 2 day lights out period. It seems to help kill off what's left on the rocks so it simply doesn't just grow back in all of the same places. That's what I do anyways...