Gha removal

[Uncle99]

The tank today lol. making RODI right now and salt. So should be able to do a water change by tonight or tomorrow.

That green has to be scrubbed off.
You have no sand so missing a lot of surface area, will take much much longer to mature up.
I’d kill the lights.

 

[Devan Patel]

Nah, this is supposed to happen. Natural progression when using dry rock.

My tank being over 5 years now never gets algae. I don't bother testing anymore and do water changes 2 or 3 times a year.

Well the tank isn’t brand new either. It was the food there’s no way everything was live rock, then I put this food in, and then instant chaoes

 

[Devan Patel]

That green has to be scrubbed off.
You have no sand so missing a lot of surface area, will take much much longer to mature up.
I’d kill the lights.

I have a grout brush eletric so it’s pretty easy. Should I take each individual rock out and scrub it in the used tank water after, then put back?

 

[Uncle99]

I have a grout brush eletric so it’s pretty easy. Should I take each individual rock out and scrub it in the used tank water after, then put back?

Yup. May have to do it down the road as well, but let’s see what we get when chemistry is in check.
Take it off, lower light, put parameters in range, and then make them stable.
I might do a daily dose of phytoplankton and add some live pods just once.

 

[Devan Patel]

Yup

Will the monti be ok? And how long should I kill the lights?

 

[Devan Patel]

I just got bored and scrubbed some bits off haha. Probsbly not the best idea.

Also my plan of action was to stop the lights, and then take each individual rock ou t and scrub it down completely. Then do a 25% water change for 4 days like someone had recommended, then get some Microbacteria 7 or some sort of bacteria and just overdose everything on it. And check parameters after 24 hours of the 4th water change.


Do you recommend a certain bacteria too use For it I can buy off Amazon?

 

[Uncle99]

All are good.
Dr. Tim’s is very popular.
Microbacter 7 as well.

Seems lush green, must be fueled by high phosphate.
If you have corals, I’d leave the light be, but reduce any whites especially red or outside if you can.

How long did it take to get that way?

 

[Jekyl]

Well the tank isn’t brand new either. It was the food there’s no way everything was live rock, then I put this food in, and then instant chaoes

How old is the tank? In my case I didn't see any real algae for the first 6 months or so.

 

[Roatan Reef]

Still just don't think this warrants any issue. Everyone goes through the uglies. Manage, not eradicate, should be the course of action

Yep, get Yoself a Toothbrush and get to work! Siphon your sand, do water changes....profit!

 

[Devan Patel]

All are good.
Dr. Tim’s is very popular.
Microbacter 7 as well.

Seems lush green, must be fueled by high phosphate.
If you have corals, I’d leave the light be, but reduce any whites especially red or outside if you can.

How long did it take to get that way?

With all the gha within a day, I think a couple hours I came home and it was like that. With having a couple tiny spots of gha into that.

All there is a monti which I was using as a tester Coral when I got everything under control.

And during cool white lights only the rocks would green like that, but during a normal schedule you couldn’t tell or see a thing

 

[Devan Patel]

All are good.
Dr. Tim’s is very popular.
Microbacter 7 as well.

Seems lush green, must be fueled by high phosphate.
If you have corals, I’d leave the light be, but reduce any whites especially red or outside if you can.

How long did it take to get that way?

which one should I get?

 

[MartinM]

Fluconazole 5mg/L for about a week, remove the carbon. It'll all be gone. There's a huge thread about it somewhere here which is how I learned of it.

but yes, IMO never use dry rock. I always use 100% fresh live rock.

 

[Uncle99]

With all the gha within a day, I think a couple hours I came home and it was like that. With having a couple tiny spots of gha into that.

All there is a monti which I was using as a tester Coral when I got everything under control.

And during cool white lights only the rocks would green like that, but during a normal schedule you couldn’t tell or see a thing

In a day? What?
I can see strands of GHA!
Wow! Looks like week of super bad water chemistry and lots of red light.
Keep in mind you have no sand.
Bare bottom tanks are much harder to start because they lack surface area for your processors to develop.

 

[Uncle99]

which one should I get?

For establishing bacteria, Microbacter 7
You may need to go with @MartinM suggestion above to treat those rocks, very infested.

 

[Devan Patel]

In a day? What?
I can see strands of GHA!
Wow! Looks like week of super bad water chemistry and lots of red light.
Keep in mind you have no sand.
Bare bottom tanks are much harder to start because they lack surface area for your processors to develop.

Pretty much in a day. There were always little strands and small spots of it but when I came home that night that’s exactly how it was I promise you. And my chemistry was perfect orher than the 50vppm nitrates. And red lights were 10%

 

[Devan Patel]

Fluconazole 5mg/L for about a week, remove the carbon. It'll all be gone. There's a huge thread about it somewhere here which is how I learned of it.

but yes, IMO never use dry rock. I always use 100% fresh live rock.

I just didn’t want to use it again I used it awhile ago. And I thought it would just melt the corals and hurt the bio load.

I tried to get away from chemical and go with biological haha. But doesn’t seem to be working yet

 

[Devan Patel]

For establishing bacteria, Microbacter 7
You may need to go with @MartinM suggestion above to treat those rocks, very infested.

U can’t over dose on Microbacteria 7 can you? Cause I was just going to order a 2L bottle and dump it all in haha

 

[Jekyl]

Good read on this subject

How I would start a new tank

It's a shame when new hobbiests first start up a tank and see a little cyano, hair algae or diatoms they panic and come on these forums for advice and almost always are hit with a plethora of suggestions as to what chemicals or animals they should add to remedy something that is a natural...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[fish farmer]

Hi, so I ran out of the normal mysis I feed and was forced to feee really heavy phosphate food. And my nutrients went through the roof and there is gha everywhere. So I’m wondering what is the best way to take the gha off the rocks? And I’m doing a 20% water change on a waterbox 50.3 aio later on today?

1. Scrub the rocks while they’re in the tank? (But will these release more phosphate/nitrate in the tank?)
2. TSKE each individual rock out and put it in the dirty water when I take it out, and scrub each rock in the bucket?

I used to use reefflux but I don’t want to go through the medication route, I would like to focus on the more biological route. Also I’m still working on getting my clean up crew since my died awhile back when I had a crash.

I’ll attach pics before the crash then when I got it under control and how it is now.

I always did have a high nutrient system my nitrates just never went down they always stayed at 50 even with water changes and skimmer

So I pulled up the OPs first post.

This is not a new tank. This is a tank that crashed and the OP is reusing the rock.

I bet that rock is full of phosphate and with elevated nitrates....GHA.

I had a similar situation with recycled rock, would grow algae like mad, even when it looked clean. It eventually went away when I got my nitrates and phosphates down using WC, manual pulling, CUC and chaeto.

 

[Devan Patel]

So I pulled up the OPs first post.

This is not a new tank. This is a tank that crashed and the OP is reusing the rock.

I bet that rock is full of phosphate and with elevated nitrates....GHA.

I had a similar situation with recycled rock, would grow algae like mad, even when it looked clean. It eventually went away when I got my nitrates and phosphates down using WC, manual pulling, CUC and chaeto.

Do you think I can just order one of those fish breeder boxes that hang inside of the tank and just put Chaeto in there? Because I have an aio system and there’s no space to put it.