Is this GHA?

[liamelias]

I’ve been battling this really bad algae for a few months. I beat cyano and dinos a few months ago then this cotton like algae started taking over. The ends look red and brownish but under a white light the actual algae is green. I can’t seem to get rid of it.
Tank has been setup for 1.2 years. Started with dry rock/bottled bacteria. Added a big piece of live rock 6 months after for biodiversity.
Haven’t registered Nitrates for a year. Phosphates are 0.03
Any solutions? Wait it out?

 

[Reefing_addiction]

It definitely looks like it. You need to manually remove as much as possible. Test nitrates and phosphates - although the numbers may be skewed because that stuff eats it up.

How often do you feed?
How often do you do water changes?
What kind of clean up crew do you have.

Again manually remove as much as possible.
You Gould remove the rocks (I am assuming there are no corals) and scrub them to remove the GHA. Rinse in salt water afterwards. Don’t use tap or even RODI - don’t want to kill the good bacteria

Tank looks rather small - is it an AIO? Or do you have a sump? How long has the tank been up?

 

[Manpeckz]

+1 manual scrub

I like to do mine halfway through a water change in my bad water bucket. Currently going through this all the time myself.

Dry rock here too.. never again?

 

[liamelias]

+1 manual scrub

I like to do mine halfway through a water change in my bad water bucket. Currently going through this all the time myself.

Dry rock here too.. never again?

Hahaha it’s so tough.. ive been manually cleaning too but it’s beat me this time. It grew so fast in just a week. So hard to keep up since I dont have a sump to dump the water into using a filter sock. Buckets upon buckets lol

 

[Manpeckz]

I am in the same situation. Careful placement of bucket dumped water lol

I have a 5G bucket to mix and one to put bad water in so that is about my limit during a routine change. I had a problem where it was on every rock so I just decided I would do two a week during my changes. It has come back on nearly every rock but is much shorter.

I have larger substrate so I've managed to get some spots focused with algae in my dead areas, by just simplying leaving those pieces that are coated with hair algae there.. That way it has somewhere to grow but I can remove it during a water change easier. Remove some, not all I guess is where I've decided is okay with me. Some rocks are maturing on their own where the hair isn't growing now. I think the succession that we are looking for with dry rock actually takes a really long time to accomplish. So this might be something that you and I just have to deal with until it matures and can deal with it on its own.

Best of luck moving forward!

 

[Reefing_addiction]

@tbrown

Marco!

 

[tbrown]

Any rust? I had a very similar experience when my magnetic glass cleaner rusted in the tank. As soon as I removed it the algae started disappearing. Just a thought.

 

[liamelias]

It definitely looks like it. You need to manually remove as much as possible. Test nitrates and phosphates - although the numbers may be skewed because that stuff eats it up.

How often do you feed?
How often do you do water changes?
What kind of clean up crew do you have.

Again manually remove as much as possible.
You Gould remove the rocks (I am assuming there are no corals) and scrub them to remove the GHA. Rinse in salt water afterwards. Don’t use tap or even RODI - don’t want to kill the good bacteria

Tank looks rather small - is it an AIO? Or do you have a sump? How long has the tank been up?

Thanks for the insight! I feed once a day, 10-15 pellets per clown. I have 2. I do waterchanges every 3 weeks. I have 2 nessarius and a conch. My tuxedo just died…
Unfortunately two of my zoas are attached to the rocks. I also see lotssss of worms on my rocks like several inches long . Tank is an AIO, no sump. It’s been up for a year and 4 months. Nitrates have been 0 for a year. Guess the algae is consuming it all. Phosphates are 0.03

 

[liamelias]

Any rust? I had a very similar experience when my magnetic glass cleaner rusted in the tank. As soon as I removed it the algae started disappearing. Just a thought.

Mmm good point. Dont think so. But i will double check tho. Will check my thermometer too but dont think that has any metal, it’s plastic

 

[Reefing_addiction]

Thanks for the insight! I feed once a day, 10-15 pellets per clown. I have 2. I do waterchanges every 3 weeks. I have 2 nessarius and a conch. My tuxedo just died…
Unfortunately two of my zoas are attached to the rocks. I also see lotssss of worms on my rocks like several inches long . Tank is an AIO, no sump. It’s been up for a year and 4 months. Nitrates have been 0 for a year. Guess the algae is consuming it all. Phosphates are 0.03

I mean as long as you don’t scrub super hard the zoas would be fine


Is it all one big rock?
Does it come apart?
If you can remove parts of it you could do a 5 min soak in hydrogen peroxide. (It wont kill zoas). Dont rinse and put it back in the tank.

If it doesn’t come apart you could scrub it and dip part of it in hydrogen peroxide.

Don’t rinse after dipping.

Stop feeding everyday

Maybe every 3 rd day
Reduce the amount you feed? Fish should consume all food within a couple of minutes (unless your like me and need the nitrates to go up and don’t have an algae problem!)

Those worms may be bristle worms
They are not bad for the tank
But be careful because the bristles HURT and can cause inflammation at the site they get stuck and a pain and other things I’m sure …so where gloves if you pull the rock out