vibrant or carbon dosing for GHA?

[boxed_reef]

I’m losing my battle with hair algae, doing weekly water changes, manual removal, cleanup crew, and chaeto refugium. It just keeps coming back stronger. Now I’m looking to start carbon dosing or using vibrant. I struggle to keep Po4 measurable (hanna ulr), but nitrates won’t come down. So carbon dosing seems like it may be a good long term solution. But should i give vibrant a try to knock out the GHA first?
Tank is 120 gallon, 1 year old, mixed reef (going mostly SPS):
alk 8.5
cal 420
mag 1480
po4 .01
No3 10
ph 8-8.2

 

[Dsnakes]

What do you have for fish? My tangs would love for my tank to have that.

 

[boxed_reef]

Have 3 algae grazers... kole tang, yellow tang, starry blenny. They don’t really touch the stuff once it gets too long. My phosphates have always tested low, and nitrates 5-10. I did start with dry pukani, which i cured in rodi for nearly 2 months. Obviously have excess nutrients, maybe leaching from the rock? My poor snails are growing more algae on them than they’re eating.

 

[Rich Klein]

What do you have for fish? My tangs would love for my tank to have that.

How's the refugium doing? Is it growing? What kind of lights do you have on your main and fuge? I would be careful about using Carbon Dosing and Vibrant. Carbon dosing can crash the little PO4 that you might have and leave you with a tank full of Dino. Vibrant will kill your chaeto along with the GHA. If you are growing chaeto in you fuge, it will take care of your nitrates, and slowly out-compete with your GHA. You can help the process with manual removal, but IMO a fuge with a strong Grow light will make your tank happy in the end.

 

[Slarti]

Well Vibrant worked for me but take is slow and don't expect overnight results.

 

[sghera64]

@jhOU any updates on progress?


I ask because I'm in a similar boat. My 135 Gal DT is GHA-free - - not a trace, but I have 2 yellow tangs, a kole and lawnmower blenny. But, my two 25 gal frag "bins", which are connected to the same system via the sump are full of hair algae. I already have a 20Gal sump full of Chaeto (grows wonderfully) which connects to another 20 gal sump with a skimmer. My N and P both bottom out (Red Sea Pro , Hann ULR respectively) if I don't add daily additions of Ca(NO3)2 and Na3PO4.

I had no algae eating fish in the frag bins. I started Vibrant. It is slow to have an effect. Since it is just bacteria strains, I started to dose vinegar to "feed" them and keep the population up. I dosed 2x per week (instead of 1x / 2 week). I stopped after a week and a half because I was seeing a dramatic "weakening" of the GHA in the frag bins and got worried for my Chaeto. I have had to increase my N-dosing 2x during this time to keep some N in the system. Today, I noticed my chaeto is starting to look less dark green. I'm going to dose iron today and remeasure my NO3.

I'm hoping to become not dependent on Vibrant and use only Chaeto - - and maybe vinegar. But, it seems "not elegant" to be adding vinegar AND have chaeto, while also adding N & P. I would think the system should be balanced with just chaeto AND not have GHA. So, I share all this detail to hopefully get someone else to say, "me too", or "here's what you need to do".

 

[boxed_reef]

I’ve been dosing Vibrant for about 3 weeks. I have now upped the dose to 2x a week. I also realized i’m dealing with dinoflagellates on the sand as well, so definitely didn’t want to start carbon dosing. I actually started dosing Po4 and No3 (currently .05, and 5). The GHA is definitely weakened, and much easier to brush off. But it continues to grow pretty rapidly. So now I’m just trying to maintain nutrients and manual removal. The dinos are my primary concern right now. VERY ugly right now... but hopefully vibrant will help and things can balance out.

 

[marlinmon]

I’ve been dosing Vibrant for about 3 weeks. I have now upped the dose to 2x a week. I also realized i’m dealing with dinoflagellates on the sand as well, so definitely didn’t want to start carbon dosing. I actually started dosing Po4 and No3 (currently .05, and 5). The GHA is definitely weakened, and much easier to brush off. But it continues to grow pretty rapidly. So now I’m just trying to maintain nutrients and manual removal. The dinos are my primary concern right now. VERY ugly right now... but hopefully vibrant will help and things can balance out.

Start overfeeding while dumping in phyto. Should clear you up. Stop dosing all these bottled chemicals and start a refugium.

 

[sghera64]

I’ve been dosing Vibrant for about 3 weeks. I have now upped the dose to 2x a week. I also realized i’m dealing with dinoflagellates on the sand as well, so definitely didn’t want to start carbon dosing. I actually started dosing Po4 and No3 (currently .05, and 5). The GHA is definitely weakened, and much easier to brush off. But it continues to grow pretty rapidly. So now I’m just trying to maintain nutrients and manual removal. The dinos are my primary concern right now. VERY ugly right now... but hopefully vibrant will help and things can balance out.

Thanks for the update. I think you and I are on parallel tracks - - I'm feeding the Vibrant bugs with carbon.

I had one spot of Cyano before I started my changes (3 weeks ago), and that is now almost gone. I'm concerned that I'm seeing so much progress (cyano disappearance, GHA breaking down and not coming back, even bubble algae are losing color), so rapidly. So, I'm not going to add any more Vibrant for a while and will cut my vinegar down to 1/2 the dose. I was dosing 75mL into my Kalk reactor each day. I'm cutting that to 30mL per day. My kalk reactor doses only at night from 8PM - 11AM: hourly for a total of 2.5L, so vinegar goes in at the same time.

I suspect that since you are not carbon dosing, your rate of change might be slower and more in control. Have you tried vacuuming or stirring up your sand bed?

 

[boxed_reef]

I’m siphoning dinos and cleaning the sand bed every other day. I seem to be making some progress. But while i’m battling the dinos, the hair algae is still growing. I’m pretty sure the GHA is thriving off phosphate leaching from the pukani rock. When i scrub/siphon the GHA from the rocks I also blast the rocks with the turkey baster.

 

[sghera64]

I’m siphoning dinos and cleaning the sand bed every other day. I seem to be making some progress. But while i’m battling the dinos, the hair algae is still growing. I’m pretty sure the GHA is thriving off phosphate leaching from the pukani rock. When i scrub/siphon the GHA from the rocks I also blast the rocks with the turkey baster.

My Pukani did that for three months in my DT. And I “cured” it for months prior to putting it in my tank.