Ready to give up! GHA

[Lalaallieu]

Guys, I have GHA, and it’s taking over. It’s gotten worse and worse. It’s only one one single rock but I already have corals glued down. I got it from some corals I got at once. I got four at once and it affected two corals that I purchased and has just spread everywhere on this one rock. I have been dosing vibrant and hydrogen peroxide but its not seeming to help. I just treated my tank for flatworms so I don’t want to put too much stress on said tank. My tank is beautiful and has grown immensely in four months, but I’m just so frustrated. I pick this off and it comes right back. I’m ready to give up. I just picked it off yesterday%

 

[brandon429]

Dosing isn't the right way to fix it, gotta change that part

That above would be easy to fix, apply peroxide externally not via the water. Nothing is wrong with your tank there's no nutrient issues, no coralline and no grazers is the cause, so dosing water won't help those. Lift out rock, kill algae, set back in be thankful for a totally accessible tank scape like that above, clean your sandbed too it's the gha feed. Intense lighting on reflective rock will grow gha in anyone's tank nothing is wrong with yours.

 

[Spaceshrimp]

I would recommend astrea snails

 

[Dvanlier05]

What type of clean up crew do you have. I've found manual removal, scrubbing with toothbrush and a good clean up crew will do wonders.

 

[LadyTang2]

Id blast it with some peroxide, if you dilute it and dont use too much you can use it in the tank. You also need to get some clean up crew!

 

[Skynyrd Fish]

I have taken Brandon’s advice and it helped immensely. You can pull the affected rocks out and scrub them in a bucket of tank water with a stiff brush. I would clean the sand at this time. You may have to do the rocks once a week for a couple weeks. I also will recommend a tuxedo or long spine urchin. They bulldoze baby gha.

 

[BrandonS]

Would do just vibrant. Hydrogen peroxide can kill the Bacteria in the rocks your trying to establish. I had good luck with vibrant but don't do more than recommended dose. Over doing it doesn't work faster but can put a hurting on coral. It's a long haul but keep at it. Vibrant with a combination of manual removal and feeding less, parameters in place, and the usual stuff should work.

 

[LadyTang2]

Go to reef cleaners site and order there. An urchin will do the job but probably would be ok with just snails if you use the peroxide.

 

[Travis Alderman]

Guys, I have GHA, and it’s taking over. It’s gotten worse and worse. It’s only one one single rock but I already have corals glued down. I got it from some corals I got at once. I got four at once and it affected two corals that I purchased and has just spread everywhere on this one rock. I have been dosing vibrant and hydrogen peroxide but its not seeming to help. I just treated my tank for flatworms so I don’t want to put too much stress on said tank. My tank is beautiful and has grown immensely in four months, but I’m just so frustrated. I pick this off and it comes right back. I’m ready to give up. I just picked it off yesterday%

I would get vibrant. It's a bacteria that only eats algae. It's really amazing stuff.

Dose it once a week and be patient. Some people does it twice a week but change that fast is never good.

I always battled some form of algae because I feed so much. I have no choice with anthias. This stuff changed the way my tank looked permanently, for the better.

 

[jim9]

Dont give up yet. What's your CUC like as of now? GHA has never really been a real issue for me at all. The last time i did anything with it was fanning it with my hand and getting algae everywhere. In your case, use a toothbrush with less feeding and run GFO if you have it.

 

[zapbap99]

i mean gha is not that bad i wouldnt worry to much just give it time do water changes, manually scrub it off, it will take its toll then go away, you can try a blackout too for 3 days

 

[ReefGeezer]

A big ugly Dalhalla Sea Hare will solve your problem. Good ones love hair algae and get it in the nooks and crannies to boot. You do have to keep an eye on them to make sure they don't die and foul the tank. Starvation is the usual cause of death. The have to eat a lot. I removed mine a sold it back to the LFS when the visible algae was gone. Vibrant is pretty safe to dose if you follow the directions. It'll help in the long term and seems to have little downside.

I used a Sea Hare and Vibrant to solve a pretty stubborn hair algae problem in my 90. Other Grazers are great to keep algae at bay but unfortunately things most don't seem to care for hair algae once it gets very long. Algae Blennies sometimes munch on longer hair algae, but not always.

 

[Lalaallieu]

So I have hermits, and I bought some mexican turbo snails and some nassarius snails, but my hermits just ate them! I have the hermits, one big nassarius snail and a couple other smaller snails. I have a emerald crab and also a peppermint shrimp. Like I said, my hermits kill any snails I add. I have these corals glued down on the rock so idk how to get them off to take the rock out and scrub them without killing them?

 

[Lalaallieu]

I would get vibrant. It's a bacteria that only eats algae. It's really amazing stuff.

Dose it once a week and be patient. Some people does it twice a week but change that fast is never good.

I always battled some form of algae because I feed so much. I have no choice with anthias. This stuff changed the way my tank looked permanently, for the better.

I use vibrant now and have been for about 3 weeks with also picking it off daily.

 

[LadyTang2]

So I have hermits, and I bought some mexican turbo snails and some nassarius snails, but my hermits just ate them! I have the hermits, one big nassarius snail and a couple other smaller snails. I have a emerald crab and also a peppermint shrimp. Like I said, my hermits kill any snails I add. I have these corals glued down on the rock so idk how to get them off to take the rock out and scrub them without killing them?

Vibrant, or turkey baster with hydrogen peroxide in the tank, search forums for instructions as you need to dilute

 

[Lalaallieu]

I did test my water parameters yesterday and were as follows.
Salinity 1.027
(Red Sea Test Kit)
Ammonia:0
Nitrite:0
Nitrate:0
pH-8.2
Mag:1400
(salifert)
Alk:8.6
Cal:435
Phos:0

 

[ccombs]

I know some will disagree, but I got a lawn mower blenny to keep some GHA in check and it worked great! This also gave me time to find the source of the GHA which I eventually got in check also.

 

[Scrubber_steve]

Do you dose any trace elements ?

 

[Cell]

Need snails to deal with algae. Hermits eat the snails. Feed hermits so they dont eat the snails. Create more algae from excess nutrients. Vicious cycle, ain't it?

Good advice given here, brandon429 in particular has a ton of experience in this regard, if not a bit labor intensive. Either pull the rock and work around the corals spot applying h202 as needed or pull the corals and remount after cleaning. If you think the algae came in on a frag or two, you will probably want to h202 dip those as well.

 

[W1ngz]

The corals won't suffer too bad if you take that rock out, place it in a bucket of tank water and scrub the rock surface. Refill the tank with new water when you're done.

Any time you have hermits and nassarrius snails it's a good idea to add some empty shells for the hermits to move into as they grow. The killed snails probably contributed to the problem. It will take a few weeks, and probably more than one scrubbing but if you keep fighting you have biology on your side and will win by default as the tank matures.