GHA Has Destroyed My Passion for the Hobby

[D3DPrintedThingz]

I generally like trochus, tuxedo urchins, and female emerald crabs depending.

I’ve got 2 tuxedo and 4 trochus, maybe just need to beef it up? No way am I putting in a 3rd urchin…. Those guys really are mischievous

 

[brandon429]

Fluconazole is one of the best gha killers I've ever seen which is what makes it so ironic I would never use it as the first tool in the bin

If gha starts to whisker up after a truly thorough rip clean, applying some as a half dose to stop growback isn't bad

I like that it has low toxicity to corals and animals, it's a real legit tool. For nanos nothing beats a rip clean though for sure. I like to try and collect best of the best rinse examples for that thread so I'm hoping the plant of that link will take root

 

[chipmunkofdoom2]

Good MACNA talk from Rich Ross (@Thales) on this exact subject:

 

[brandon429]

I have a beef with that heh


Because it's not a link to him fixing algae in twenty reef tanks not his own.

Recent jobs from last month for example

Of course he's a reef sage, correct in assertion it seems (he's a professional marine biologist that's a given) but I'm telling you if folks don't correct work in live time threads and make a log of outcomes that show how they handle non compliant tanks, no formal talk or article takes the place of a work thread


His talk is great, I agree with it. We're just missing one factor: he puts up a thirty page link of outbound jobs done

That reflection needs to be on the next discussion ideally. I'm glad you posted it, I haven't seen it till just now and it's a really really good talk. Glad to have seen it.

 

[Pntbll687]

What kind of CUC? I am struggling with dead algae after a fluconazole treatment

I would go with water changes, and adding in something that picks at algae like an emerald crab.

If you have dead, or dying algae on the rocks, I would manually remove as much as possible with a tooth brush and do water changes. You could even use a filter sock on a bucket and catch all the algae, dump the water back in, and keep going for as long as you want. This is what I did on my 180 when gha get out of hand, except I was using a 32g brute and a pump to get the water back in.

 

[MECOMI]

The rip clean process has been the only thing that has controlled/resolved my GHA/Bryopsis trouble. I went almost 2.5 years doing the natural route, water changes, stability, urchins, nudibranchs with no change. So i tried chemical, carbon dosing (no progress), fluconizal (looked better for a month and algae returned in force). My fish were always fine through these processes but i was frustrated.

Due to the amount of rock i have in my Biocube 32 i had to do it in stages. And once it was knocked down i pulled out all the rock in one session, sprayed down with hydrogen peroxide, scrubbed, dipped in just removed saltwater, and returned.

I may have to do it again since it was infested all the way to the back chambers but the proof is in the puddin'

I even took out the rock with the Gorgonian sprayed the base/rock with hydrogen peroxide and have had no poor effects.

Good luck!

B-Kind

 

[Tamberav]

The rip clean process has been the only thing that has controlled/resolved my GHA/Bryopsis trouble. I went almost 2.5 years doing the natural route, water changes, stability, urchins, nudibranchs with no change. So i tried chemical, carbon dosing (no progress), fluconizal (looked better for a month and algae returned in force). My fish were always fine through these processes but i was frustrated.

Due to the amount of rock i have in my Biocube 32 i had to do it in stages. And once it was knocked down i pulled out all the rock in one session, sprayed down with hydrogen peroxide, scrubbed, dipped in just removed saltwater, and returned.

I may have to do it again since it was infested all the way to the back chambers but the proof is in the puddin'

I even took out the rock with the Gorgonian sprayed the base/rock with hydrogen peroxide and have had no poor effects.

Good luck!

B-Kind

woot woot another peroxide user.

 

[Thales]

Good MACNA talk from Rich Ross (@Thales) on this exact subject:

Thanks so much for sharing that!

 

[D3DPrintedThingz]

woot woot another peroxide user.

h2o2 is by far the most overlooked but best treatment for algae. I have ran zoas in a 75/25 solution, with peroxide being the 75. always 3% peroxide. it never fails and always works.

problem is when your entire rock structure is 2-4 pieces of 50 lbs plus, you're not getting those out of the tank.

I have resorted to turning off all the flow, and squirting 10-15 mL of peroxide directly into the mass of algae, or directly on to the zoa plug that is the issue, and as long as you are right on top of the algae (or in the algae) , the peroxide works about the same to kill algae. really neat to watch, just bubbles and eventually floats to the top

 

[Tamberav]

Ya I will never glue my scape together or put boulders in... it is a huge blockade to removing a pest or catching a fish. I hate when beginners do it since they tend to need to make changes more often.

Ofc a grown in SPS tank is also a huge blockade as they encrust rocks together and are fragile and break but generally grown in tanks are healthy systems that do not need to be fiddled with as much.

 

[Reefer Matt Verified Media Partner]

I don't see any snails.

 

[brandon429]

add in snails after the rip clean, as growback preventers, don't use them for removal or you'll get some translocated GHA put down as waste pellets into the sand, thousands of them cumulatively, the sand here already needs rip cleaning to remove waste feeding GHA.


**I suspect your lighting can be much lower intensity, bluer, and still grow those corals. It's why light re ramping is what we do in clean tanks, most folks drive algae by simply reaching for the PAR levels some other reefer is doing well with

big turbo snails probably do attack hair algae whiskers very well

I think the biggest change reefers can do to separate from what the masses do/begets invasions/is to take the removal options we read about and do them only in a tank we forced back to clean, as growback prevention.

never do things to a reef tank with clear stands of algae wrecking the place, only do things to a tank we made 100% not invaded and 100% free of waste, reposition those efforts to deal in much less mass for the win.



*don't think I haven't seen folks with 12 year old systems who never need to rip clean. Bob Ross could paint realism landscapes with a broken stick too he he

rip cleans are for the everyman until that magic held by the few can become communicable.

 

[FlowGod]

Is peroxide safe with bta's?

 

[Super Fly]

I also recently had to deal w GHA outbreak on my 6 yr old 93 cube, massive WC and manual removal didn't help.

In my case I believe the following factors lead to the GHA outbreak;
(1) my giant serpent star fish (appx 10") that I had for 6 yrs went rogue and ate up most of CUC in the DT... Prob my fault due to inconsistent manual feeding of it.
(2) discovered my large Devil's Hand was dying in the back of tank that I wasn't aware of, releasing toxins into tank.
(3) inconsistent WC.
(4) the tank had tons of PODS before GHA outbreak and were completely wiped out when GHA took over. I believe the dying Devil's Hand + GHA outbreak lead to their deaths making it harder to keep tank clean.

IMO, the following actions have helped turn the tide and now GHA finally is retreating;
(1) I treated tank w half the dosage of PO4 RX to weaken GHA, then few days later did massive WC's while manually removing/siphoning as much GHA as possible including pulling out rocks/corals and scrubbing them w a toothbrush in a brute container of tank water that was just removed during WC. carried out at least 4 massive WC.
(2) cleaned out the refugium of all GHA.
(3) ramped up refugium light to 24/7 to help chaeto out compete GHA in the DT. Afterwards the chaeto started growing much faster than previously and doubled in size in less than a week.
(4) removed and traded the the serpent star fish for snails
(5) After cleaning tank of GHA, I went and added 4 dozen snails (Trochus, Astrea and Nassarius) + 2 fighting conchs. snails have already made visible difference on the sand and rocks.
(6) ordered some PODS.

GL

 

[Cthulukelele]

Everyone will think I am crazy but I would just remove the corals and clowns to the frag tank, scrub the rocks, clean the sand then do a peroxide + tank water dip (enough to bubble) for 8 min on the affected rocks.

Be sure to have an appropriate CUC to eat the dying algae from the peroxide after.

The peroxide dip WILL kill starfish, pods, and bristleworms.... though surprisingly, my hitchhiker sponges were fine. Coralline algae took a hit but recovered. I had no problems with a cycle or bacteria. Stuff returns to normal fairly quickly.

I am sure everyone will think I am crazy but this acro is on a rock that had bryopsis on it... I left the acro just on the top above my bubble bath of peroxide. The acro was totally fine afterwards.

Bryopsis never returned. Reeflux was hit or miss... seemed like it would return 6-9 months later.

I do not play around. I don't have time to play around and want the problem fixed in one go.

That's some dedication

 

[brandon429]

Peroxide is tolerated by BTA's but not loved. when we dose peroxide into the water (not recommended here) it causes BTA's to curl up but I've never seen one die.

in the mode offered so far, external surgical work, we'd be rasping off algae from the surrounding area of BTA's as they set limp like a lump of snot on a rock sitting on the counter. we'd apply peroxide to the surrounding rock areas we scraped clean, it would never actually touch the bta or any coral.

the reason I recommend pre-removal of algae before treating it is because in our best-of-the-best work thread/the example offered here, that's what we did and it pre removes the algae ahead of time vs letting it rot in the tank. actually scraping the holdfast rock areas with steel/a knife tip/ debrides those surfaces and really helps prevent growback. topical kill only is for the common means, there's no best-of-the-best using topical only kills.

I wanted the single best proven method for someone hating reefing due to GHA< with no room for error in outcome.

 

[PigDaddyF15E]

problem is when your entire rock structure is 2-4 pieces of 50 lbs plus, you're not getting those out of the tank.

I think quite a few people are in this category. Some might just be reluctant to moving some "bigger" pieces up / out of the tank for fear of an accident and breaking their glass. I built mine in three heavy pieces then mortared them together once in the tank (MY BAD).

Maybe some are encrusted (as was posted above IIRC).

I think...all things aside...people would like a solution that doesn't involve taking all the rock out. Are people being lazy...I supposed you could argue that. Perhaps people don't have the time/resources.

 

[brandon429]

agreed

the first thing we do if we want to reef and never have to remove rocks is have no sandbed.

make a throughput system vs a storage/sink up waste system. and set the rocks on plastic lifts don't even put them on the bottom of the tank. this doesn't guarantee a perfect system never invaded, it just gives one the chance about 98% better than a tank with a diaper in it




right now, someone who has had a 15 year perfect reef tank with eight inches of self-maintaining sand, perfect rocks and corals and zero maintenance thinks this is a crazy mans thread, the stuff we're recommending sounds loco


it will never dawn on that reader they're Bob Ross, we're simply art students in class lucky to make an average drawing if we try really really hard. no matter how passionately that excellent aquarist relays oceanic models to us, things they did to the tank while skipping all disease preps and never getting disease and how they make a self-balancing reef, it's not something the masses do as easily.

if the masses want off the rip clean train, quit using reef sand~

I'm not having to rip clean anyone's bare bottom reef.

 

[spsick]

Have you ever tried going barebottom? Not that it’s a silver bullet but I’ve never seen a barebottom tank with gha.

 

[Tamberav]

I built mine in three heavy pieces then mortared them together once in the tank (MY BAD).