Is this lyngbya or GHA?

[SaltyDadDog]

So I have been battling this issue for a good bit now. I have been manually removing it for the better part of a few months. The pics were taken right before I ripped a bunch out again.

my question is, does this look like lyngbya or GHA?

I have dosed Reef Flux and Flux RX multiple times and have seen no change at all. It looks brown while in the tank but if you look at the picture of it in the container, it is definitely green looking.

I’ll take any advice that is giving. No I don’t have the phos/nitrates right now but I’ll post a picture of my other numbers. If it is determined that dosing peroxide is the way to go, what is safe what is not? I have some pricey items in the tank and also don’t want to kill my invertebrates.

 

[MBruun]

It's not Lyngbya bacteria but I can't see if it's Bryopsis or GHA

 

[blaxsun]

It looks like both, so honestly I'm not sure either. Maybe one of the resident algae experts can weigh-in?

 

[SaltyDadDog]

I’m definitely puzzled by it. I run gfo and did have high phos in the last but still can’t kill this stuff and man does it grow back fast!

 

[blaxsun]

I’m definitely puzzled by it. I run gfo and did have high phos in the last but still can’t kill this stuff and man does it grow back fast!

I never get any of the "cool stuff" ( ) everyone on R2R seems to have to deal with (at least not in my new tank), so I have to live vicariously through all of your experiences. By any chance so you run a UV?

 

[sixty_reefer]

It seem to be GHA, you could slightly cut on feeding depending were your nutrients are now, you don’t want them too low and definitely not zero. Cutting feeding is mainly to reduce free ammonia in the tank.
in addition you could look into adding some more predators to help with the removal of the algae. Sea hares are very effective at removing GHA and wend they finished cleaning the tank they are easily passed on to other members or returned to LFS.

 

[CoralB]

Sea hares , tuxedo urchins , Mexican turbos , and constant manual pulling . But unless you figure out what your phosphate and nitrates are now and how you got to this point you could be chasing your tail . So aside from what I just stated my advice is to constantly keep parameters in positive realm plus right now knowing and checking where your phosphates and nitrates are is always crucial . As you said you’ve been battling this for a good while now know that it may take a little bit to make it go away I would never use products to add or delete a problem without testing as too high or too low phosphates and or nitrates probably got you here . Adding GFO to bring down phosphates without testing especially while your using it you will never know if it zeros it out , which is bad . Patience is needed . You can beat this .

 

[SaltyDadDog]

I never get any of the "cool stuff" ( ) everyone on R2R seems to have to deal with (at least not in my new tank), so I have to live vicariously through all of your experiences. By any chance so you run a UV?

no, i dont have a uv. i wouldnt want to live with this stuff haha youre lucky or either on top of your tank!!

 

[BanjoBandito]

You don't have a phosphate issue, you have a herbivore issue. Also, you are the best CUC. You can dip those zoas in H202 with no issues and it'll clean em off.

 

[SaltyDadDog]

@sixty_reefer & @CoralB, Thanks for the input. I have looked into a sea hare but haven't made that choice yet. I do have a tuxedo urchin but he loves my Coraline too much. I do know my phosphates were higher than what is needed just can't remember the exact number off the top of my head (at work now). nitrates are the same. I'm sure they will read wrong if this is GHA because it will be feeding off of them. I only feed frozen and AB+ rough 3x a week. I will test again tonight and post my results. thanks again for the feedback and I'm kinda glad it was looking green when I pulled it out because it for sure looked brown in the tank and god knows I don't want lyngbya. maybe its time for a cleanup crew order

 

[BanjoBandito]

@sixty_reefer & @CoralB, Thanks for the input. I have looked into a sea hare but haven't made that choice yet. I do have a tuxedo urchin but he loves my Coraline too much. I do know my phosphates were higher than what is needed just can't remember the exact number off the top of my head (at work now). nitrates are the same. I'm sure they will read wrong if this is GHA because it will be feeding off of them. I only feed frozen and AB+ rough 3x a week. I will test again tonight and post my results. thanks again for the feedback and I'm kinda glad it was looking green when I pulled it out because it for sure looked brown in the tank and god knows I don't want lyngbya. maybe its time for a cleanup crew order

lowering your phosphates will make the GHA release easily for manual removal. It won't be rooted in there as bad and kinda just wipe off with a toothbrush.

 

[CoralB]

You don't have a phosphate issue, you have a herbivore issue. Also, you are the best CUC. You can dip those zoas in H202 with no issues and it'll clean em off.

Soooo! What your saying is don’t worry about trying to figure out what caused the issue to begin with to try to prevent it from happening again , just picking and dipping is the answer and he’s good to go !!! WOW !!!

 

[BanjoBandito]

Soooo! What your saying is don’t worry about trying to figure out what caused the issue to begin with to try to prevent it from happening again , just picking and dipping is the answer and he’s good to go !!! WOW !!!

You are absolutely right. TEAR THE TANK DOWN. ALGAE IS UNACCEPTABLE.

 

[NotoriousDMC]

You don't have a phosphate issue, you have a herbivore issue. Also, you are the best CUC. You can dip those zoas in H202 with no issues and it'll clean em off.

+1 on H202. I’m no algae expert, but I did try H202 (and manual pulling while they were being dipped) on zoas specifically a few months ago and they went from dying to “fine” very quickly.

 

[SPS2020]

I'm in the exact same boat. PO4 went up while dosing AB+ and I did not realize by how much as I have always had to struggle to keep any PO4 and NO3. All of a sudden, BOOM, GHA everywhere. I've added six Tuxedos, hundreds of Ceriths, Turbos, a few Red Scarlet hermit crabs and have a Bristletooth and Yellow Tang. I also run UV, have a L2 Algae Scrubber and refugium. The ATS has been a recent addition (one month) and is just starting to get some decent growth, but there are bare spots on the screen. It seems that manual removal has produced the best results, but it is tiring for certain. I ran GFO for about three weeks and saw my Acroporas starting to pale a bit, so I removed the GFO. Also, I stopped using the AB+ and AcroPower completely. Only feeding LRS frozen foods. Aggressively skimming and changing filter socks frequently. In the past, I have used ReefFlux with success...but did not have as many Acropora as I do now which is the reason I am not using it at present. Just don't want to take that chance just yet. I have used H2O2 with success on pieces that I could pull out of the tank.

Edit: this is a bare bottom 100 gallon tank. Both NO3 and PO4 are in check. Just had a Triton ICP performed and all was good. Going to do an N-DOC this week.

GHA sucks!

 

[vetteguy53081]

Gha and what looks like chrysophytes but pic a little too blue to confirm
Reduce white light intensity or amount of hours of bright white and pull as much as you can by hand
Add: pin cushion urchin, sea gate and astrea-cerith-turbo and trochus snails
For other substance, you’ll need to remove rock and scrub with firm toothbrush and peroxide in a container of tank water

 

[CoralB]

You are absolutely right. TEAR THE TANK DOWN. ALGAE IS UNACCEPTABLE.

 

[sixty_reefer]

Soooo! What your saying is don’t worry about trying to figure out what caused the issue to begin with to try to prevent it from happening again , just picking and dipping is the answer and he’s good to go !!! WOW !!!

What’s causing it it’s pretty obvious, at some point there was a piece of LR or a coral fragment that had GHA on it, the reason why it’s growing is most likely because the system has enough nutrients to sustain life and the light is strong enough to promote photosynthesis. Ways to get back in check have been given on the thread that are really good, there’s several methods to tackle nuisance algae.
Having pest algaes is not related to nutrients imbalance as most seem to think.

 

[SaltyDadDog]

All,

thanks for all the info. I have just concluded my phos and nitrate test. Both read zero. I assume that the algae is eating the nitrates but not sure on the phos. Does GHA consume phos? The algae was somewhat hard to remove off the rocks but easy to remove around the zoas. I’m turning the gfo reactor off now. I have manually removed the algae and will try and keep on top of things a little better. I know it won’t be a quick fix and I’m ok with that. You guys have giving me a ton of info and I can’t think y’all enough.

 

[CoralB]

While your combating the algae issue I would try to get and keep your phosphate and nitrate up either by dosing or over feeding so as to not end up with cyano or Dino’s . It will be a struggle at first because what you add will be fuel for what your trying to get rid of . You might want to try a 3 day black out at this point . Good luck!!!