Is this GHA, sea hare not eating it?

[Sarah1990]

I had a problem with GHA and got a sea hare who ate a load of the greener stuff but left this behind...is this some other form of algae? Please help me to ID this as its driving me nuts now. I even regularly use a toothbrush to scrub the rock but it doesnt come off

 

[GeoSquid]

Looks like GHA to me.

 

[The0wn4g3]

I have the same stuff growing on the back wall of my tank. Cerith and nerite snails haven't touched it. My Kole's tang nibbles but doesn't do any significant damage.

 

[hllb]

GHA won't easily brush off rock unless it's dying. I dosed vibrant twice a week for 5+ months and while it didn't kill it, it did make it weak enough that a toothbrush would work (on most at least, some spots were still well attached). I have tried nearly everything to get rid of it, and at best, the solutions have been temporary. I have now started a fuge (2 weeks ago) as the last thing I hadn't tried (and I've had the stuff to set it up for months, but Vibrant will kill chaeto, so I never set it up). It seems to be helping, though it's not close to being gone. I see it lightening in color, it seems like it's coming off the rock easier, and it seems to not be growing quickly anymore. I'm a little bit hopeful LOL.

For the record, I tried a sea hare and an urchin and neither helped with my GHA issue.

 

[hllb]

Do you have coral in your tank? If not, look into peroxide treatments (spot treatment). It worked well for me but my corals didn't like it (especially my hammer) so I won't dose it in tank anymore. If I had fish only, or soft corals, I would be using it.

 

[Sarah1990]

Do you have coral in your tank? If not, look into peroxide treatments (spot treatment). It worked well for me but my corals didn't like it (especially my hammer) so I won't dose it in tank anymore. If I had fish only, or soft corals, I would be using it.

I do have mixed corals so I'd best not do that then but thank you.
I assume of you found anything else that helped you would have mentioned it. I cant believe I've not had the tank set up for more than 8 months and I've already got this all over my rock work

 

[Sarah1990]

GHA won't easily brush off rock unless it's dying. I dosed vibrant twice a week for 5+ months and while it didn't kill it, it did make it weak enough that a toothbrush would work (on most at least, some spots were still well attached). I have tried nearly everything to get rid of it, and at best, the solutions have been temporary. I have now started a fuge (2 weeks ago) as the last thing I hadn't tried (and I've had the stuff to set it up for months, but Vibrant will kill chaeto, so I never set it up). It seems to be helping, though it's not close to being gone. I see it lightening in color, it seems like it's coming off the rock easier, and it seems to not be growing quickly anymore. I'm a little bit hopeful LOL.

For the record, I tried a sea hare and an urchin and neither helped with my GHA issue.

I'm not overly hopeful then, I already have a refuge with chaeto. I'm going to be putting a phosphate media in my sump but cant afford a reactor so I will have to keep an eye on that...I've read that phosphate causes algae to grow

 

[hllb]

I'm not overly hopeful then, I already have a refuge with chaeto. I'm going to be putting a phosphate media in my sump but cant afford a reactor so I will have to keep an eye on that...I've read that phosphate causes algae to grow

So, quick history of my tank (which turns a year old this month, 32g cube). When GHA developed, my nutrients were low - PO4 at .05 and nitrates at 2. So I didn't have a nutrient issue, yet GHA took over within a week and half. That was last November. My tank maintenance has always been a 15% WC each week. I used to vacuum my sand (what little didn't have a rock on it) every other week during the WC. I have enough coral on the sand bed now that it isn't practical. I stir up sections of it when I clean the class during WCs and I have 5 or 6 nassarius snails that do a pretty decent job keeping it clean. I run carbon and chemipure elite in my media rack, plus a skimmer.

Things I have tried and the result:
Reduced photo period (lights are on from 1:30 PM to 11 PM, with whites from about 3:45 to 8:30)
Sea hare (ate nothing that looked like GHA)
Urchin (ate coralline but no GHA)
Turbo snails and other CUC (they don't seem to eat it)
Reef Flux, multiple treatments (did absolutely nothing)
Vibrant - dosed twice a week for 5+ months: weakened the GHA well enough to scrub some of it off the rocks, but some always remained
Peroxide spot treatment in tank: worked very well, but can only do a small section of the rock at a time (3 ml per treatment) but it also really upset my coral (my hammer took 3+ months to recover)
Flux RX - same med as Reef flux but this worked very well. Killed almost all of it. Came back 2 weeks later, even though nutrients never really spiked after the GHA died (seriously my tank is just weird)
3 day black out - worked fairly well, but still came back

My tank isn't big enough for a tang. It is big enough for a lawnmower blenny but I have not tried one because I have no room left for more fish and it isn't a fish that I like LOL.

Taking your rock out and spot treating the GHA with peroxide may work if you can easily take your rock out. I have a giant piece in there that is filled with critters so I did not want to take it out. It is a better method for peroxide treatment though.

The last thing I know of that may help is the fuge. Other than that, I'm at a loss.

 

[Sarah1990]

So, quick history of my tank (which turns a year old this month, 32g cube). When GHA developed, my nutrients were low - PO4 at .05 and nitrates at 2. So I didn't have a nutrient issue, yet GHA took over within a week and half. That was last November. My tank maintenance has always been a 15% WC each week. I used to vacuum my sand (what little didn't have a rock on it) every other week during the WC. I have enough coral on the sand bed now that it isn't practical. I stir up sections of it when I clean the class during WCs and I have 5 or 6 nassarius snails that do a pretty decent job keeping it clean. I run carbon and chemipure elite in my media rack, plus a skimmer.

Things I have tried and the result:
Reduced photo period (lights are on from 1:30 PM to 11 PM, with whites from about 3:45 to 8:30)
Sea hare (ate nothing that looked like GHA)
Urchin (ate coralline but no GHA)
Turbo snails and other CUC (they don't seem to eat it)
Reef Flux, multiple treatments (did absolutely nothing)
Vibrant - dosed twice a week for 5+ months: weakened the GHA well enough to scrub some of it off the rocks, but some always remained
Peroxide spot treatment in tank: worked very well, but can only do a small section of the rock at a time (3 ml per treatment) but it also really upset my coral (my hammer took 3+ months to recover)
Flux RX - same med as Reef flux but this worked very well. Killed almost all of it. Came back 2 weeks later, even though nutrients never really spiked after the GHA died (seriously my tank is just weird)
3 day black out - worked fairly well, but still came back

My tank isn't big enough for a tang. It is big enough for a lawnmower blenny but I have not tried one because I have no room left for more fish and it isn't a fish that I like LOL.

Taking your rock out and spot treating the GHA with peroxide may work if you can easily take your rock out. I have a giant piece in there that is filled with critters so I did not want to take it out. It is a better method for peroxide treatment though.

The last thing I know of that may help is the fuge. Other than that, I'm at a loss.

Thank you. I can actually take my rock out I've got 2 smaller piece and one larger piece but with some help I could do them one at a time as I've not glued my corals down other than one pulsing xenia on a little rock.
How do you do the peroxide treatment please?

 

[hllb]

Thank you. I can actually take my rock out I've got 2 smaller piece and one larger piece but with some help I could do them one at a time as I've not glued my corals down other than one pulsing xenia on a little rock.
How do you do the peroxide treatment please?

Take the rock out and manually remove what you can. Put the rock in a bucket of saltwater. Then take a syringe filled with peroxide And slowly treat the areas affected with GHA. You will see the algae bubble in the water. Let it sit for a bit - maybe 15 minutes. Scrub the GHA again (I use a stiff toothbrush) and get as much off as you can. I would then dip in clean saltwater and put back in the tank.

 

[Bitcoin Reefer]

A lot of people say nutrients is cause of algae and I’m just not sure it’s true. For GHA for example, we have 0 nitrate and 0 phosphate, yet we have a MASSIVE forest of GHA lol.

We recently got bunch of tangs, and 3 sea hares, and they’re making progress which is great. We also have a tuxedo urchins. Red and blue ones
We have 300 gallon tank. I think Sea Hares are the best option for GHA. Tuxedo urchins good too, but they eat coralline algae which kind of sucks, and they smooth the rocks a bit with their crazy teeth lol. Really cool creatures though!

Tang Gang + Sea Hares is the answer I think. Nutrients don’t matter. Algae grows in the same favorable conditions as coral to an extent, so if you have good conditions for coral then algae will grow too.

 

[Dan_P]

I'm not overly hopeful then, I already have a refuge with chaeto. I'm going to be putting a phosphate media in my sump but cant afford a reactor so I will have to keep an eye on that...I've read that phosphate causes algae to grow

Nitrate (or ammonia) is required for algae growth too.