Green Hair Algae Disaster

[Kenzie Jeanine]

This is probably the worst case of gha any of you have seen and I am so ashamed of it.... When my tank was cycling, I let the algae stay because I thought the movement was pretty and liked having some color, but five months later, I definitely do not feel the same. Does anyone have tips for getting rid of it?

 

[Jose Mayo]

Read this topic, it may help you.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/bryopsis-cure-my-battle-with-bryopsis-using-fluconazole.285096/

Best regards

 

[Dogtown]

Jose’s article about fluconazole is all you need to whipe our that GHA. It will be a reset, if you will. It won’t last forever though so look into your nutrient situation for long term success. GL!

 

[Kenzie Jeanine]

Read this topic, it may help you.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/bryopsis-cure-my-battle-with-bryopsis-using-fluconazole.285096/

Best regards

Thank you!

 

[brandon429]

I want to beat it much faster than fluc if you change your mind. Fluc w likely work, agreed. The reason id offer our way that nano reefers use instead is because that way will cure every rooted invader known, and fluc is only indicated for bryopsis and some GHA, limited genera

to use a medication there robs you of precious practice. fluc will work though, not downing it. am saying you have the ability to practice something that w change the way you reef though, and its manual gardening not any fluc. we can make that algae free by tonite.

the nano way involves cleaning your entire system and the sandbed too, all at once. 99% w choose fluc bc its a no work situation and I agree w likely kill that algae. everything said above still holds though, that easy kill comes at an adaptive price. being able to trust that you can access every core of your reef without loss is worth one million dollars meme.

 

[brandon429]

lemme show you a comparative reef real quick, see if our method looks like how your tank started:

from Seabass, nano-reef.com, master algae destroyer:

 

[Bouncingsoul39]

Or you can use the natural method using good old elbow grease. We can this simply: manual removal. Rip as much off as you can with your hands and then get a wire brush and get scrubbing! Scrub in a bucket outside the tank, scrub till its clean, rinse and repeat. Done. What would happen if you hit this tank with fluco whatever, all those nutrients of dead plants have to go somewhere.

 

[brandon429]

agreed. that is precisely 99% of our method. the other 1% is the cheat that we put on scraped elbows


you mentioned the nutrients, yep. Cant get any nutrients out of a fully clean sandbed, and rocks debrided of growth, and free to let their pores open up.

elbow grease is indeed the method. that and one super critical cheat heh.

if you rinse your whole sandbed out using careful steps, you put back in a zero nitrate sink. While the rocks are out, use a steak knife to score off that algae like a dentist does, be rough. the knife and salt water rinsing makes that algae gone, or a metal brush agreed. metal is metal. plastic is wimpy

after you have earned your vital space back, like a parrotfish does, then hit the cleaned areas with a rinse of peroxide before putting back together a spotless clean reef. read the sand rinse thread before delving.

now that is reefing. pills are for large tankers.

some people do not want to be free of an invasion unless they can earn it through water-only actions, that is not a problem and in fact its a much higher bar to attain to be algae free. our way is only for those who simply do not want to be invaded, and have no issues working to get there by tonite in fact. there are some things in reefing done fast that turn out just fine, tank restores in nano reefs are def some of those things.

 

[Kenzie Jeanine]

agreed. that is precisely 99% of our method. the other 1% is the cheat that we put on scraped elbows


you mentioned the nutrients, yep. Cant get any nutrients out of a fully clean sandbed, and rocks debrided of growth, and free to let their pores open up.

elbow grease is indeed the method. that and one super critical cheat heh.

if you rinse your whole sandbed out using careful steps, you put back in a zero nitrate sink. While the rocks are out, use a steak knife to score off that algae like a dentist does, be rough. the knife and salt water rinsing makes that algae gone, or a metal brush agreed. metal is metal. plastic is wimpy

after you have earned your vital space back, like a parrotfish does, then hit the cleaned areas with a rinse of peroxide before putting back together a spotless clean reef. read the sand rinse thread before delving.

now that is reefing. pills are for large tankers.

some people do not want to be free of an invasion unless they can earn it through water-only actions, that is not a problem and in fact its a much higher bar to attain to be algae free. our way is only for those who simply do not want to be invaded, and have no issues working to get there by tonite in fact. there are some things in reefing done fast that turn out just fine, tank restores in nano reefs are def some of those things.

Do you have any tips on how to make sure all of my cuc is off/out of the rocks before I remove them to clean? I went ahead and ordered some of the fluc, but I'd like to give your method a try first.

 

[brandon429]

We're doing a twin run here so I'll post

This is the pre assessment step, not a huge commitment but it really reveals how well your system will respond. Not sure on hidden animals, will have to see how they fare on your testing runs. After testing if you like the test area looks, we do the whole tank and replace or clean all the sand too

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/what-is-this-plant.341089/page-2#post-4291478

 

[brandon429]

Your system is much easier because it's pre coralline. Do all your rocks at once if you want. To replace your sand when you are ready we handle that carefully, the rock clearing will be easy and low risk.

Take us pics along the way we need these before and after threads and pics to show others how to opt out of an invasion.

 

[brandon429]

Your particular restore based on pics ideally is this:

House fish if applicable in separate container of tank water you drained out. Any loose corals keep there too while we work the tank.

With fish and coral isolated, take out your rocks and set on a towel or in the sink. Scrape and peroxide and rinse using saltwater till they're clean.

Take out all the sand and clean your tank walls off with a wet paper towel and peroxide as needed.

Rinse your sand until it cannot cloud, rinse rinse rinse rinse rinse till it cannot cloud in another container.

Put the cloudless sand back in tank and refill with all new water. Nothing clouds bc of your rinse. Refill as harshly as you want. If it clouds, you didn't rinse rinse, do it till that sand cannot cloud. Clean out any filters.

Now you have a clean tank and filter and water and sand, and it's all cloudless.


When it's cloudless and only then (clouding is your risk of loss and recycle, cloudless means no recycle) you put your cleaned rocks back in on top of pure sand.

Reacclimate the fish back to the new water. Corals don't need ac, just put em back.
The peroxide is a critical step that kills algae and greatly reduces growback


The tank is restored. We have over a thousand examples of these restores. The threads on Google are called pest algae challenge threads.

 

[brandon429]

You don't have to use salt water to rinse your sand. Use salt water as the final rinse, so that when you put it back it's just grains and clean saltwater. Can use drinking water, I use hot tap water, doesn't matter

Hold clean up crews with the fish too while working

Not one step so far is lacking mass elbow grease, hence we are on the right true path to non invaded. I view this method as the sole method for making a tank algae free. I view all other myriad approaches to algae as preventative, not removers. In that blend I claim any nano reef can be permanently free of algae forever. Whenever delicate prevention approaches let us down, rasping will never let you down it’s just work intensive.


Here’s a bunch of tanks with similar challenges
Seabass’ work came from here
https://www.nano-reef.com/forums/topic/268706-peroxide-saves-my-tank-with-pics-to-prove-it/?page=65

 

[djwasimani]

Manual removal is the best option.

 

[Paleozoic_reefer]

+1 on manual removal...I had a GHA out break as well and did a combo of manual labor, reduced feeding (also stopped using pellet food), and installed a GFO reactor and now I’m 100% GHA free after about 4 months...