GHA - Blackout strategy

[Klyph]

GHA - Blackout strategy

So I’ve been struggling with green hair algae for a few months now. I’m on my fifth week of vibrant dosing. I continue to hit trouble spots with hydrogen peroxide.

I’ve turned lighting down significantly.

My latest attempt at addressing the problem was a five day blackout. I know most people refer to three day blackouts, so I figured I’d try to make sure it worked by going 5.

Just took off the black plastic wrap, and what do you know…. It’s all still there. I tried to pull a couple tufts of it, and it’s still attached, strong as ever. Below are a few pics immediately after the blackout.

Any other ideas? I’ve move most of my coral to the refugium so I can keep them lit. My fish and rock flower anemones stayed in the main tank, and the RFA look a little weakened by the blackout.

I’m considering going another 5 days of blackout. Could that do permanent harm to the fish?

any other ideas?

 

[Duffer]

black out will help, but i would get to the root problem which is your phosphates are high and the gha is consuming them., basically you are feeding the gha with phosphates. I had a similar problem, which i manually removed as much as possible, lowered phosphates gradually and got a urchin to take out the rest.

 

[Klyph]

I understand phosphate control. I have a well running refugium with chaeto growing like crazy, and phosphates super low (.01 range)

this stuff is just super stubborn.

Has anyone else dealt with something like this?

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

IME blackout does nothing against green hair algae, it will keep coming back. I agree with Duffer, you have to figure out what is feeding the algae like that

 

[Duffer]

I understand phosphate control. I have a well running refugium with chaeto growing like crazy, and phosphates super low (.01 range)

this stuff is just super stubborn.

Has anyone else dealt with something like this?

that reading is a false reading..your phosphates are probably must higher than that.

 

[SlugSnorter]

GHA - Blackout strategy

So I’ve been struggling with green hair algae for a few months now. I’m on my fifth week of vibrant dosing. I continue to hit trouble spots with hydrogen peroxide.

I’ve turned lighting down significantly.

My latest attempt at addressing the problem was a five day blackout. I know most people refer to three day blackouts, so I figured I’d try to make sure it worked by going 5.

Just took off the black plastic wrap, and what do you know…. It’s all still there. I tried to pull a couple tufts of it, and it’s still attached, strong as ever. Below are a few pics immediately after the blackout.

Any other ideas? I’ve move most of my coral to the refugium so I can keep them lit. My fish and rock flower anemones stayed in the main tank, and the RFA look a little weakened by the blackout.

I’m considering going another 5 days of blackout. Could that do permanent harm to the fish?

any other ideas?

might be turf algae, looks like it from the pics. What CUC do you have? Fish are fine, corals and nems NEED light, so repeated week long black outs is very stressing to them. What CUC do you have? and how old is the tank? you can try biological control.

 

[Bucs20fan]

Are you running GFO or Phosguard per chance? I ran Phosguard and bought 4 big turbos and after manual removal they decimated what was left and it hasnt returned. After 2 weeks of changing out the phosguard every 4 days ive never seen it again. I didnt even attempt a blackout period thought.