GHA- Is there anything else I can do???

[LesPoissons]

Light, undetectable phosphate from fish/fish food etc, nitrate, ammonia. our test kits arent perfect. A 0 on a test kit doesnt mean there is 0 of that nutrient in the water, but there is no way to attain an absolute 0. Gha can survive in super low nutrient environments once it has taken hold, and even as low as we can test, those nutrients are still available to organisms designed to absorb them. Basically vibrant bacteria out competes gha for those nutrients where additional macro algaes havent been able too in my tank. Had I never let my nutrients spike up and kept them low, I dont think I would have ever had this problem (as I didnt for years). Since I let nutrients spike for a prolonged period and didnt recognize gha for the huge inconvenience it could become, I probably could have killed it off by bringing the nutrients down hard. Unfortunately, I allowed it to grow thinking I could fix it easily, it took hold well, and then adapted as nutrients were slowly depleted.

 

[Hermie]

Congrats Maya! Have you noticed any ill effects of the Vibrant ?

I'm also following 40B Knasty's @40B Knasty videos on his use of Vibrant starting in the past few weeks... it's a route that I am considering, and longer term I will increase my clean up crew

I think you are right that there are phases to GHA infestation, mine is at the point where it "captures" it's own nutrients in fish waste and I have to manually flush with a turkey baster to prevent those nutrients from reaching the algae

 

[ZoWhat]

Congrats Maya! Have you noticed any ill effects of the Vibrant ?

I'm also following 40B Knasty's @40B Knasty videos on his use of Vibrant starting in the past few weeks... it's a route that I am considering, and longer term I will increase my clean up crew

I've never tried Vibrant ....but I'll use Dr Tim's WasteAway every 1-2mos....then daily dose 20ml 80proof vodka. My NO3 ranges btwn 0-2ppm. But my vodka dosing does LITTLE to change PO4. For PO4 I have to rely on Lanthanum dosing

 

[KINGROWLAND1217]

VIBRANT! I had horrible gha, did everything u jus mentioned. More cuc, backouts, tangs and foxface. Gave up, tried vibrant. Had 0 sideeffects with coral,fish,or cuc. Dosed weekly, did wc 3 days after, and blew off rock every other week. Complete game changer for my tank. My tank was covered, 3 months ago i started vibrant. Jus stick with it.

 

[LesPoissons]

My PO4 is currently testing at 0 due to gfo reactor while Im trying to beat gha. Im trying to keep multiple variables to a minimum so i dont dose anything but vibrant. my nitrates are around 2.5

 

[LesPoissons]

VIBRANT! I had horrible gha, did everything u jus mentioned. More cuc, backouts, tangs and foxface. Gave up, tried vibrant. Had 0 sideeffects with coral,fish,or cuc. Dosed weekly, did wc 3 days after, and blew off rock every other week. Complete game changer for my tank. My tank was covered, 3 months ago i started vibrant. Jus stick with it.

looks great! what do you keep your PO4 and nitrates now?

 

[LesPoissons]

Congrats Maya! Have you noticed any ill effects of the Vibrant ?

I'm also following 40B Knasty's @40B Knasty videos on his use of Vibrant starting in the past few weeks... it's a route that I am considering, and longer term I will increase my clean up crew

I think you are right that there are phases to GHA infestation, mine is at the point where it "captures" it's own nutrients in fish waste and I have to manually flush with a turkey baster to prevent those nutrients from reaching the algae

So far nothing negative from the vibrant!

 

[KINGROWLAND1217]

looks great! what do you keep your PO4 and nitrates now?

I havent even tested in a few months since i started using vibrant. I tried to get them to 0 but my corals were dull. As soon as i stopped using phos remover and chemi pure blue my corals got much brighter. Im a believer that some nitrates and phos are good.

 

[LovesDogs_CatsRokay]

My PO4 is currently testing at 0 due to gfo reactor while Im trying to beat gha. Im trying to keep multiple variables to a minimum so i dont dose anything but vibrant. my nitrates are around 2.5

How often are you dosing the vibrant?

 

[Skynyrd Fish]

I beat it by scrubbing rocks in a bucket of tank water. Cleaning all sand. And urchins, a tuxedo and long spine. I still have a few tufts here and there, but right now it’s manageable. The urchins have done an awesome job. I also have some chemipure running, and feel it has helped. If you don’t have urchins I would try.

 

[LesPoissons]

I have 5 urchins, they didnt make a dent. I was dosing 1x a week for 2 weeks. Didnt see a change, so I dosed a 2x a week the last 2 weeks and everything started melting away.

 

[Rilo]

Reef Flux (Pretty much Fluconazole) worked for my GHA and bryposis. I Overdosed by a little bit (I used 2 capsules in a 20L). I kept the skimmer on and my tank over the course of the first week was COVERED in diatoms. Towards the middle of the second week the diatoms subsided and towards the end of the second week the hair algae started receding. By the third week it was gone.

I have a protein skimmer rated for 60g so whatever die off occured while the fluconazole was taking effect was skimmed out. I did a 5g water change weekly after the third week and everything seems fine.

I found lots of other methods while researching and the cost of some methods was adding up... I'm glad fluconazole worked for me.

 

[LesPoissons]

I tried it, it didnt work for me.

 

[brandon429]

You've done a good job being thorough and trying the various options. Resolve, not chemistry beats gha you merely have to find what works for your gallon size/volume/accessibility. You'll win

 

[LesPoissons]

Just an update- I stopped using Vibrant over a month ago. I have not done a water change in 5 weeks. I stopped my gfo. I increased feedings to 3x a day. To date. I have 0 gha, 0 other algae issues, no problems with the tank. Nitrates are 5, phos is still 0 to 0.05. I only wish I had know about it sooner- it would have saved me months and months of frustration and hard work and loss of some corals due to constant rock moving and peroxide scrubbing. Thank you all for your insights and following along on this harrowing journey with me!!!

 

[ceruleanspiral]

Just an update- I stopped using Vibrant over a month ago. I have not done a water change in 5 weeks. I stopped my gfo. I increased feedings to 3x a day. To date. I have 0 gha, 0 other algae issues, no problems with the tank. Nitrates are 5, phos is still 0 to 0.05. I only wish I had know about it sooner- it would have saved me months and months of frustration and hard work and loss of some corals due to constant rock moving and peroxide scrubbing. Thank you all for your insights and following along on this harrowing journey with me!!!

I am having a time.

I have a ton of hermits (more than I planned) & snails, a tuxedo urchin (unplanned), a lawnmower blenny (unplanned), bought 3 astrea snails (also unplanned) despite not really wanting huge snails (2 died- found a site that said they are used to cold water most of the year and die in home aquariums because we run them too warm for them), cut my feeding (from 2x day to 1x day with about 1/2 the food I had before, cut out pellets which I had been feeding 1-2 at a time so none hit the ground), cut my lights, bought a reactor for Rowaphos, weekly water changes, bought carbon filter pads and changed that weekly with water change, changed my filter floss 2-3x/wk, tested my top-off water and switched to one with 0 tds instead of 4tds, bought 2 new powerheads, I was reaching in to yank it and brush 2-3x week plus taking individual rocks out to give peroxide scrub/rinses (risky with zoas, ugh)... and my tank is just loaded with algae. It's only 32gal Biocube so I can't get tangs even if I wanted them. Nitrate sits at 5, always. I freakin' love my fish and corals... but the algae is enough to make me want to cry some days.

I am so glad this thread was here for me to read. I just did my 2nd dose of Vibrant yesterday. I think some of my algae is turf algae, since it is short/thick and doesn't come off even with pulling with my fingers or scrubbing with a toothbrush (though the peroxide worked for a bit), so I am going to go to 2x week on the Vibrant (as they recommend for turf algae) and see what happens.

I had chaeto and a light in my back compartment for months 2- 6, but the chaeto dies. Turns brown/black and melts entirely. I tried 2 different bunches from 2 different suppliers and gave up on that 4 months ago.

 

[LesPoissons]

I am having a time.

I have a ton of hermits (more than I planned) & snails, a tuxedo urchin (unplanned), a lawnmower blenny (unplanned), bought 3 astrea snails (also unplanned) despite not really wanting huge snails (2 died- found a site that said they are used to cold water most of the year and die in home aquariums because we run them too warm for them), cut my feeding (from 2x day to 1x day with about 1/2 the food I had before, cut out pellets which I had been feeding 1-2 at a time so none hit the ground), cut my lights, bought a reactor for Rowaphos, weekly water changes, bought carbon filter pads and changed that weekly with water change, changed my filter floss 2-3x/wk, tested my top-off water and switched to one with 0 tds instead of 4tds, bought 2 new powerheads, I was reaching in to yank it and brush 2-3x week plus taking individual rocks out to give peroxide scrub/rinses (risky with zoas, ugh)... and my tank is just loaded with algae. It's only 32gal Biocube so I can't get tangs even if I wanted them. Nitrate sits at 5, always. I freakin' love my fish and corals... but the algae is enough to make me want to cry some days.

I am so glad this thread was here for me to read. I just did my 2nd dose of Vibrant yesterday. I think some of my algae is turf algae, since it is short/thick and doesn't come off even with pulling with my fingers or scrubbing with a toothbrush (though the peroxide worked for a bit), so I am going to go to 2x week on the Vibrant (as they recommend for turf algae) and see what happens.

I had chaeto and a light in my back compartment for months 2- 6, but the chaeto dies. Turns brown/black and melts entirely. I tried 2 different bunches from 2 different suppliers and gave up on that 4 months ago.

Wow, sounds a lot like my situation! Good luck. I didn’t start to see results until I increased to 2x a week w the Vibrant. And don’t stress on the tangs. I ended up with 3 and they didn’t do anything.