GHA taking over after vacation

[teethdoctor23]

Hey all, Ive just returned from a 1 week vacation to find GHA has completely taken over. I’m running 5% whites and 50-60% blues for 10 hours each day. Nitrates are 10 and phosphate is .12 as of today. I run Chemipure in my sump and have a protein skimmer that’s collecting thick skimmate. I feed 1/3 cube of mysis/brine shrimp daily. Tank is 5 months old. Pictures below.

Please help me beat GHA. My current plan is manual removal tomorrow with as much as I can, reducing feeding to every other day, and then getting a Refugium/algae scrubber. Any thoughts?

 

[Lavey29]

Pretty normal for a 5 month old tank. Numbers don't look bad. Cut lights to 6 hours with blue and uv only no whites. Raise magnesium to 1500. Get diverse cleaner crew with urchins and turbos. Lots of manual removal daily. You will be fine.

 

[bnord]

Sorry bud and I think all of us have had this happen one time or the other. One smaller tank I had I ended up taking rocks out and scrubbing them. When you put the rocks back in make sure the cleanup crew is ready to go. Not much is gonna eat that long stringy stuff except maybe sea slugs. Best of luck

 

[teethdoctor23]

Pretty normal for a 5 month old tank. Numbers don't look bad. Cut lights to 6 hours with blue and uv only no whites. Raise magnesium to 1500. Get diverse cleaner crew with urchins and turbos. Lots of manual removal daily. You will be fine.

Mag is at 1550, have 1 tuxedo urchin, 1 fighting conch, 4 astrea at the moment. Any suggestions otherwise?

 

[Lavey29]

Mag is at 1550, have 1 tuxedo urchin, 1 fighting conch, 4 astrea at the moment. Any suggestions otherwise?

What size tank? Suggestions already listed above

 

[Lavey29]

And you need to realize this is not an overnight battle. This is like a 1 month, 2 month. 3 month battle but it is just part of the maturing phase of your 5 month tank

 

[teethdoctor23]

What size tank? Suggestions already listed above

40 gallon, and absolutely I know it’s going to be something I’ll have to battle with over the next few months.

 

[Lavey29]

40 gallon, and absolutely I know it’s going to be something I’ll have to battle with over the next few months.

It's not that bad. Add another urchin 2 turbo snails and a few trochus. Hand place the urchins and turbos where you want them to eat. Lots of manual removal. Focus on good parameters.

 

[Ironwill723]

Mag is at 1550, have 1 tuxedo urchin, 1 fighting conch, 4 astrea at the moment. Any suggestions otherwise?

Emerald crabs should help.

 

[Lavey29]

Emerald crabs should help.

I found them to be useless with GHA.

 

[teethdoctor23]

I found them to be useless with GHA.

Any thoughts on getting a seahare?

 

[Lavey29]

Any thoughts on getting a seahare?

They do work hard but if they die in a 40 with their toxins it won't be good. Not needed.

 

[djf91]

Any thoughts on getting a seahare?

Most of them don’t make it. Don’t listen to people who recommend them. Best left in the ocean.

 

[Ironwill723]

I found them to be useless with GHA.

Yes, sorry I was thinking of bubble algae.

 

[JoJosReef]

Most of them don’t make it. Don’t listen to people who recommend them. Best left in the ocean.

Struggling with my seahare currently--have two recent posts about it. I find if I pick it up and put it on a rock covered in GHA, it looks like it starts to eat a bit but then falls off and is basically either sitting in yoga poses or climbs up to the intake... I understand now they are more complicated than made out to be.