GHA keeps coming back

[saullman]

So it's been about 2 weeks since I last removed the GHA in my JBJ 45 AIO. I thought it might be the light from a distant window so I didn't open the blinds for 2 weeks, but that didn't help. I tested all my parameters and this is where they were at.

Ammonia 0
phosphate 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 10-20 ppm
PH 7.8-8.0
Salinity 1.022
Temp 78.3

I did slow down on the water changes. I usually do them every other week and this time I waited a month before I did one. Also I buy my water from my lfs. This time I did a 20% water change.

I have an AI Prime HD that I run for 8 hours a day. All blues with 3 hours of whites.

My clean up crew is light because my snails keep dying. I only have a couple snails left and thats it for my CUC.

I am not running any chemicals in my tank, but I do have nopox on standby as a last minute resort.

Just lost a lawnmower blenny and my hammer coral is not opening like it used to. Something is going on, but I can't figure out what it is? Help.

 

[ScottR]

So it's been about 2 weeks since I last removed the GHA in my JBJ 45 AIO. I thought it might be the light from a distant window so I didn't open the blinds for 2 weeks, but that didn't help. I tested all my parameters and this is where they were at.

Ammonia 0
phosphate 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 10-20 ppm
PH 7.8-8.0
Salinity 1.022
Temp 78.3

I did slow down on the water changes. I usually do them every other week and this time I waited a month before I did one. Also I buy my water from my lfs. This time I did a 20% water change.

I have an AI Prime HD that I run for 8 hours a day. All blues with 3 hours of whites.

My clean up crew is light because my snails keep dying. I only have a couple snails left and thats it for my CUC.

I am not running any chemicals in my tank, but I do have nopox on standby as a last minute resort.

Just lost a lawnmower blenny and my hammer coral is not opening like it used to. Something is going on, but I can't figure out what it is? Help.

Your salinity of 1.022 is really low for a reef tank. Since you buy from a LFS, they are selling you water for fish only tanks. LPS reef tanks need 1.025 to thrive.

Also, I’d make your own water. It’s really quite simple and I can guarantee that it will almost end your problems. Your LFS most likely doesn’t use RODI to make their water which adds all kinds of contaminants.

 

[Hitman]

How old is your tank? Your PO4 level is a false zero in my opinion. What I mean by that is the gha is consuming it which gives your test kit a false 0.00
There’s gotta be something off in your water if your clean up crew is not surviving with all that gha.
I would keep up with the water changes to get you nitrate down to between 5 - 10 ppm though.
Also raise your salinity up to 1.025

 

[ScottR]

How old is your tank? Your PO4 level is a false zero in my opinion. What I mean by that is the gha is consuming it which gives your test kit a false 0.00
There’s gotta be something off in your water if your clean up crew is not surviving with all that gha.
I would keep up with the water changes to get you nitrate down to between 5 - 10 ppm though.
Also raise your salinity up to 1.025

+1 on PO4. Knowing how much phosphate is in our water is impossible to know. I’d only be alarmed if it was really high.

And to add to the OP using LFS water, if they’re using tap water to make their water, phosphates are probably entering through their water. Algae will consume phosphates like crazy so even though you test zero for them, your algae got to them first and it was a feast.

 

[RJinPV]

+1 on the salinity and phosphate. If the nitrates are 20 ppm then that is too high too. The GHA is coming back because the nutrients are still there. Nutrients also come in through the food. What are you feeding your fish? Pellet food is especially dense in nutrients. Another possible problem is nutrient export. Is there any filter medium that collects detritus that you regularly clean and replace? Do you have a skimmer? When you do water changes do you siphon detritus from the sand? Sand can be a nutrient storage source.

 

[saullman]

Your salinity of 1.022 is really low for a reef tank. Since you buy from a LFS, they are selling you water for fish only tanks. LPS reef tanks need 1.025 to thrive.

Also, I’d make your own water. It’s really quite simple and I can guarantee that it will almost end your problems. Your LFS most likely doesn’t use RODI to make their water which adds all kinds of contaminants.

I usually buy my water from WWC. The last time I tested my salinity it was at 1.023 which was on 4-5-19.

 

[saullman]

How old is your tank? Your PO4 level is a false zero in my opinion. What I mean by that is the gha is consuming it which gives your test kit a false 0.00
There’s gotta be something off in your water if your clean up crew is not surviving with all that gha.
I would keep up with the water changes to get you nitrate down to between 5 - 10 ppm though.
Also raise your salinity up to 1.025

My tank is a little shy of 2 years old.
So your saying I should go back to doing water changes every other week? I was still having the same issue when I was doing water changes every other week.

Let me ask you a question. When I buy salt water from my lfs sometimes I don't use it for a week or 2. Could that cause any issues?

 

[ScottR]

I usually buy my water from WWC. The last time I tested my salinity it was at 1.023 which was on 4-5-19.

WWC sells low salinity water? Do you get to choose what salinity you get? Again, 1.023 even, is too low for corals. And if your salinity dropped to 1.022, perhaps you have an ATO issue. Typically as water evaporates, salinity goes up.

 

[saullman]

+1 on the salinity and phosphate. If the nitrates are 20 ppm then that is too high too. The GHA is coming back because the nutrients are still there. Nutrients also come in through the food. What are you feeding your fish? Pellet food is especially dense in nutrients. Another possible problem is nutrient export. Is there any filter medium that collects detritus that you regularly clean and replace? Do you have a skimmer? When you do water changes do you siphon detritus from the sand? Sand can be a nutrient storage source.

It's hard to tell exactly what the nitrates are at with my api test kit. I can't afford to get anything better right now.
In terms of filter medium I use filter floss on one end of the tank and a sock on the other end which gets cleaned out every 3-4 days. I also use a Tunze skimmer and I do siphon the sand. Not everytime I do a water change but pretty frequently.

 

[Hitman]

My tank is a little shy of 2 years old.
So your saying I should go back to doing water changes every other week? I was still having the same issue when I was doing water changes every other week.

Let me ask you a question. When I buy salt water from my lfs sometimes I don't use it for a week or 2. Could that cause any issues?

Yes I would not stop doing water changes. As for storage of your water, as long as your keeping it in a good bin line a brute garbage can, or any other food safe container your good. BRS just did a group of videos on storing water and up to 4 weeks where they ended testing saltwater was still perfectly good to use.

 

[RJinPV]

It's hard to tell exactly what the nitrates are at with my api test kit. I can't afford to get anything better right now.
In terms of filter medium I use filter floss on one end of the tank and a sock on the other end which gets cleaned out every 3-4 days. I also use a Tunze skimmer and I do siphon the sand. Not everytime I do a water change but pretty frequently.

I did not like the API kit for that reason. It looks to me to be closer to 10 ppm than 20 ppm. But then again the accuracy of the kit is not great. It sounds like you are doing the right things on the export side. What about the food? My first break out of GHA was after a 2 week vacation and the pet sitter feeding the tank pellet food.

 

[GeauxLSU]

Your statement, “have nopox On standby” has me thinking: Are you dosing the nopox and then stopping when the GHA clears?

 

[saullman]

Yes I would not stop doing water changes. As for storage of your water, as long as your keeping it in a good bin line a brute garbage can, or any other food safe container your good. BRS just did a group of videos on storing water and up to 4 weeks where they ended testing saltwater was still perfectly good to use.

Ok. Thanks for the helpful info.

 

[saullman]

Your statement, “have nopox On standby” has me thinking: Are you dosing the nopox and then stopping when the GHA clears?

No, it is still brand new in the box. I've never used it before.

 

[saullman]

Your salinity of 1.022 is really low for a reef tank. Since you buy from a LFS, they are selling you water for fish only tanks. LPS reef tanks need 1.025 to thrive.

Also, I’d make your own water. It’s really quite simple and I can guarantee that it will almost end your problems. Your LFS most likely doesn’t use RODI to make their water which adds all kinds of contaminants.

How would I bring up the salinity? Just stop topping off with RODI and use saltwater instead until it gets to the desired salinity.

 

[Hitman]

How would I bring up the salinity? Just stop topping off with RODI and use saltwater instead until it gets to the desired salinity.

Yep

 

[JCOLE]

Do you have a refugium with Chaeto, etc? If not you might consider adding one if possible. The Chaeto will help compete with the GHA on nutrient export. As the Chaeto grows it will consume more and help starve out the algae in your display tank.

It will not happen over night. It will take about a month or so once the Fuge is in.

Once I added a fuge I have been pretty much algae free in my DT and now I have to dose Nitrates nightly.

 

[ScottR]

How would I bring up the salinity? Just stop topping off with RODI and use saltwater instead until it gets to the desired salinity.

Stop buying your water and make your own is the best advice I can give you. Get a bucket of salt, RODI (or at least a water filter) and a refractometer. I know this hobby isn’t cheap but taking short cuts it what causes these problems.

 

[klesel]

#1 if your using api test kit stop ! Buy a better test kit Redsea or salifert yes they cost more but they are worth every penny especially when you run into problems and you cant trust your results that cheap test kit costing you so much more ! You need accurate test results to get to the root of the problem. Your phosphate cant be 0 and nitrates are high , you most likely need more water flow more skimming less feeding. You can try physically try remove as much as you can as well if you can remove the rock with no coral you can buy some hydrogen peroxide and apply it to the alage for a min or 2 and put back in the tank by the next day most will be gone . But this is a temporary fix !! You must figure out your root of the problem.

 

[SamsReef]

Lots of good advise above. I will add a few about clean up crew.

Hermits and snails are not good algae eaters. Fishes are!!!! I repeat, no tanks should have Hermits and Snails except maybe one each to show them to kids....during tank tour. They are not very good algae eaters or cyano eaters and or diatom eaters...as some vendors might claim.

The only snail I like in my tank is stomatella snail, which comes as hitch hiker. Look it up online. Friends might give a few for free.

Blennies are pretty good for nano tanks, tangs are my single source of algae destruction in my tank which is 340 gallon and I have 0 algae in my tank.
The only snail I like in my tank is stomatella snail, which comes as hitch hiker.

It’s difficult to control once it has already taken over the tank though. You might have to go some other route or combination...
1) control your nutrient export and improve water chemistry
2) pull as many as you can
3) You can squirt diluted H2O2 over the area and it just magically vanished over 2-3 days. Close all pumps and flow before going this. You can do one area a a time and not whole tank. There are instructions online

Other than that, shrimps (cleaner and red blood) are good scavenger but can get aggressive in Small tank.
Other than that, pincushion urchins are good as well. You need to make sure water quality is before bringing a pincushion.

Please do not rely on vendor sites who are trying to sell cleanup crew. The worst of all are the big turbo snails. They knock everything around, make a big mess when they die...and make no dent on algae.

Okay, I surpassed my self imposed limit on a thread.

Sam