Gha has won tank breakdown

[AngryOwl]

I'm no expert... but I think it's really strange you have a stable thriving tank and then get completely plagued by GHA. The numbers you were maintaining don't jump off the page as OMG he will have issues! I understand what was mentioned above about the rocks absorbing some PO4 and then leaching but then I would ask what about the tanks with extremely high PO4 that are running long term tanks with no issues.

I find it a little worrisome and discouraging this can happen even when you are doing the correct things. I think you were doing everything right. Some changes I think you may have jumped to, too quickly but you corrected it. I have been looking into a product called Vibrant but I do not have any particular reason to use it. It may be worth looking into as many have had reported success.

You have a nice looking tank full of acros though, even with the GHA.

 

[Reef Hammer]

Have you tried Vibrant?

 

[Ling_Thing]

Have you tried Vibrant?

I tried it for a couple weeks and didn’t see a difference should I continue with it?

 

[Ling_Thing]

This video is from December 6 before the gha outbreak


And here is a pic from December 15

Small patches starting to pop up that’s when I should have went all out manual cleaning but I sat back and bought more cuc how dumb....

 

[gtrider]

what is your water source? If you have an RO/DI, when did you start using it and when was the last time you changed the media?

 

[gtrider]

The reason i ask is- i started my new tank about the same time you did, added sps and lps around the same time too. i started to get some GHA around 8-9 months, swapped out my RO/DI filter media / resin and the problem went away after a few scheduled water changes.

 

[reeflife3]

I found using Kent Tech M (mag) and getting mag level to 1500 for a month eliminated GHA

Agreed I have found that mag around 1500 will get rid of GHA and turf alage

 

[patrsnracn]

only 2cents worth

Have to say it.

For me, ten months is a very YOUNG tank, I started 4-1/2 yrs ago in this hobby, now run 4 separate tanks, started one about every six months, ALL the tanks went through Dinos, cyro and GHA , they all look great now, never really did (dosed) anything (a' lil phosguard when over feeding is a problem and before started rinsing all frozen food).

Its' just me? , but I won't put ANY coral type (stony creatures) in my tanks until they are a least one year mature

BTW cooking some new dry rock ~ 60lbs for the 75g w/ sump thats' going up next to replace (combine, she thinks, hehe) two 40g breeders. Will culture the rock for ~ two months (at least) before I will ever put water in the tank ,

Just saying there is more than one way around the barn

 

[Reef Hammer]

I tried it for a couple weeks and didn’t see a difference should I continue with it?

Might take 4-6 weeks but I had good success with it.

 

[IslandLifeReef]

Sorry I didn't see this earlier, but here is my $.02.

First, the GHA infestation doesn't seem that bad. I wouldn't break down the whole tank and start over, but I did have a little experience with GHA on one rock that was worse than yours and I made some mistakes and ultimately had success.

Here's what I did.

I used Vibrant. It wasn't working as fast as I thought, so I went for a double dose twice a week. It's bacteria, so it's fine, right? Wrong. Things start taking a turn for the worst in my tank. So here is what I did. I pulled all of my rock out of my tank and vacuumed my sand until it was clean. I could move as much of it as I wanted without any cloud at all. I could do this with the rock in my tank, but as soon as I removed the rock, it was unbelievable the amount of detritus under the rock.

Then I pulled as much algae off the rock as I could working around my corals. I even had a bucket of saltwater at the correct temp so I could scrub areas with a toothbrush in the bucket to keep it out of my tank. I then added 3 turbo snails to my tank and placed them on the rocks with the worst of the algae. After that, I would blow off the rocks daily with a turkey baster and remove as much algae and cyano as I could. After a week, things started looking much better, and I wasn't getting nearly as much algae and cyano out of the tank.

I has been about a month, and I feel like my tank has recovered. I dosed a half dose of Vibrant last week and plan on doing this every other week because I am still sucking up dead algae daily. I think that the Vibrant was eating and killing a lot of unseen algae in the rocks, and since I am still blowing daily with a baster, it is mostly gone. My NO3 and PO4 are very low, but my corals look happy and are going again. I am dosing more ALK and Calcium than ever trying to keep up with the demand.

I hope this helps. I think in my tank, the algae was feeding on more than just excess NO3 and PO4. IMO, it was all of the unseen detritus. Don't give up yet. @brandon429 has some interesting threads on clean tanks and algae infestations.

 

[Ling_Thing]

what is your water source? If you have an RO/DI, when did you start using it and when was the last time you changed the media?

I use the aquatic life Rodi with double di resins and I change them out every 3-4 weeks and I always have 0 tds always.

 

[Ling_Thing]

Thanks for all the help guys I really appreciate it. My ats yo seems to be really taking off all of a sudden it’s 2 weeks today actually. I still scrub with a toooth brush usually daily and turkey blast them nightly as well and just use a fish net to catch all the free floating algae when I’m done cleaning. Seems to be slowing the growth down but only time will tell. Anyone every used razor marine from Brightwell?

 

[Gonebad395]

Man sorry about your problems and the video of your tank is stunning really nice looking tank. I’ve fought gha and I used fluconazole and in 4 days nothing. But the difference is I know what my gha problem came from. Mine came from months of summer and tank neglect. I know do a 4 gallon water change every 2 weeks and change my filter floss every 5 days. I don’t feed a lot at all now this is in a 29 gallon biocube but I’ve owned a lot larger tanks also. I saw someone saying K.I.S.S I couldn’t agree more you seem to be trying things then moving on the next this and then the next thing. Slow is smooth and smooth is fast. Go back to the basics man it will work trust me.

 

[Skynyrd Fish]

QUOTE="IslandLifeReef, post: 5647162, member: 85814"]Sorry I didn't see this earlier, but here is my $.02.

First, the GHA infestation doesn't seem that bad. I wouldn't break down the whole tank and start over, but I did have a little experience with GHA on one rock that was worse than yours and I made some mistakes and ultimately had success.

Here's what I did.

I used Vibrant. It wasn't working as fast as I thought, so I went for a double dose twice a week. It's bacteria, so it's fine, right? Wrong. Things start taking a turn for the worst in my tank. So here is what I did. I pulled all of my rock out of my tank and vacuumed my sand until it was clean. I could move as much of it as I wanted without any cloud at all. I could do this with the rock in my tank, but as soon as I removed the rock, it was unbelievable the amount of detritus under the rock.

Then I pulled as much algae off the rock as I could working around my corals. I even had a bucket of saltwater at the correct temp so I could scrub areas with a toothbrush in the bucket to keep it out of my tank. I then added 3 turbo snails to my tank and placed them on the rocks with the worst of the algae. After that, I would blow off the rocks daily with a turkey baster and remove as much algae and cyano as I could. After a week, things started looking much better, and I wasn't getting nearly as much algae and cyano out of the tank.

I has been about a month, and I feel like my tank has recovered. I dosed a half dose of Vibrant last week and plan on doing this every other week because I am still sucking up dead algae daily. I think that the Vibrant was eating and killing a lot of unseen algae in the rocks, and since I am still blowing daily with a baster, it is mostly gone. My NO3 and PO4 are very low, but my corals look happy and are going again. I am dosing more ALK and Calcium than ever trying to keep up with the demand.

I hope this helps. I think in my tank, the algae was feeding on more than just excess NO3 and PO4. IMO, it was all of the unseen detritus. Don't give up yet. @brandon429 has some interesting threads on clean tanks and algae infestations.[/QUOTE]

I just took half my rock out and scrubbed with a brush in a bucket of salt water. Then I siphoned my gravel into a filter sock. This worked great. I will do the other half of the tank in two weeks. The water from scrubbing the rocks was disgusting a dark coffe color. I could not believe the detris from under my rock work. I siphon my gravel on a regular basis.


I have old school live rock (real). Some is 27 years old in captivity. Excuse the rock layout, I need to spend some time redoing it with a saw and some epoxy. The back and sides of the tank are coralline.

 

[NS Mike D]

If I had to do it all over again, I would drill holes in my rocks for frag plugs, so WHEN GHA arrived and started to take hold. I could remove the frags and dip and scrub the rock in H2O2 solution. I would also go no sand.

IMO, a new tank and a mature tank have very different ecosystems. Very low to no nutrients for a new tank, very light feeding and maybe some light dosing of amino acids, fats etc (the stuff the corals need in addition to NO3 and PO4). As the tank matures, the bacteria colonies (and not just the ones that convert NH3) and rest of the micro fauna develop then gradually induce coral reefing and encouraging them to encrust.

After a tank crash (electrical short starting a chain of events) GHA, dinos and cyano over ran my rock work. I scrubbed the rock ran extra filtration and dosed H2O2 but the dinos etc would reform within hours. Last week and pulled a number or rocks to dip and scrub in H2O2 and rinse in RODI. stormed the heck out of the sand bed hooked up extra filters and shock treated with a larger does of H2O2. 99% of the dinos are gone, 80% of the GHA and just one or two light spots of a dusting of cyano - my tank has not looked this good in more than a year.

Last night I caught my emerald crab front and center, fully exposed working the rocks. He/She has never had to wander in the open to pick at alage before. This made me smile until he/she knocked over a frogspawn.


I concur about @brandon429 . his posts served as inspiration for me to take apart and drastically treat my rock work and wash my sand. Aside from one coral that accidently got an OD of H2O2 (it will recover) I was impressed how fast the corals over came the disturbance. They even look happier.

 

[hart24601]

I didn’t see that many cuc in the pic. Imo urchins are important. They are the primary algae control in many parts of the ocean.

I also think this is good thread for people to see when dosing nutrients. I have found most of the time phosphate isn’t needed due to the amount added from food. I always suggest dosing only nitrates at least for a month to see if that improves color before phosphates (unless have Dino’s) because how calcium binds phosphate it can end up with what you have. I have had many systems with great color and 0 phosphate (but tank is fed of course) but it’s when nitrates bottom out color loss happens to me.

Some good advise here and I personally would add urchins (tux or pincushion) and run a fuge while keeping nitrate detectable.

 

[DirtDiggler2823]

Could it be briopsys (sp)?

 

[pirate2876]

I've used flucanazole in the past and it worked.

 

[davocean]

Do I have to use Kent tech m to raise my
Mag or can I just use my Red Sea magnesium that I daily dose in my dosing pump??

In the past it was only tech M that worked, and that was mainly for bryopsis.

Now kent has changed their formula, but brightwell took over that formula recently

 

[davocean]

I've used flucanazole in the past and it worked.

OP states he already tried fluconazole and did not work, to my surprise, because that stuff wiped out a heavy amount of both bryopsis and HA in my tank that was probably the worst I've ever had.

I think sometimes people get rock that was just heavily bound in phos to the level of really having needed an acid wash when HA just seems to never go away.