What is the best GHA eating fish

MombasaLionfish · Apr 13, 2020

I was thinking lawnmower or tang or a few mollies acclimated to SW or something else. I have a 60gl tank with a ton of GHA. I will later be adding a ribbon eel and a dwarf lion.

Hemmdog · Apr 13, 2020

Have you tried vibrant?

MombasaLionfish · Apr 13, 2020

No but I've got a plan for the algae. I just want to know which fish is best at eating it.

Jeto2004 · Apr 13, 2020

Maybe I’m unlucky, none of my utilitarian fish choose to eat GHA. While all my tangs (sailfin, kole, yellow, blond naso) pick at rocks they ignore GHA as well as my lawnmower blenny.....maybe not GHA.....

User1 · Apr 13, 2020

60 gallons isn't optimal for a tang regardless of best intentions of buying small and returning later. Then again people may also recommend a tang - so...

Herbivores are important just as the proper balance of snails and hermit crabs. It is also going to require you to manually remove what you can over the course of a couple days. Grab a cup of water to rinse your hands in and leave the GHA. Basically what you are doing is going to glove up, safely reach in the tank, pinch a tuff of GHA, gently pull and twist. Lift out of the tank, place in cup or bowl of water, rinse and repeat for about 20 minutes. Come back later and do it again. And again. And again. Couple days you should have made a pretty good dent in it and can now look at other options.

First - why are your nutrients high. This isn't about test results at the moment because they will be ok more than likely because of the GHA. It will mask them because they are consuming them. So we are back to mitigation and control.

Not sure why sort of tank you are talking about but you said ribbon eel and lion. Maybe a predator tank or fish only. If it is a reef of some type you can try vibrant as noted above. Search on the forum as there is a great thread in General about it. 300 or so pages. Vibrant isn't going to work over night but if you manually remove what you can and then work on what is causing nutrients you will stand a good chance of beating it. Must have a good working skimmer though. It is required.

MombasaLionfish · Apr 13, 2020

saf1 said:
Herbivores are important just as the proper balance of snails and hermit crabs. It is also going to require you to manually remove what you can over the course of a couple days. Grab a cup of water to rinse your hands in and leave the GHA. Basically what you are doing is going to glove up, safely reach in the tank, pinch a tuff of GHA, gently pull and twist. Lift out of the tank, place in cup or bowl of water, rinse and repeat for about 20 minutes. Come back later and do it again. And again. And again. Couple days you should have made a pretty good dent in it and can now look at other options.

This is part of my plan as well as phosphate rx.

saf1 said:
First - why are your nutrients high. This isn't about test results at the moment because they will be ok more than likely because of the GHA. It will mask them because they are consuming them. So we are back to mitigation and control.

My phosphates are too high I'm not sure why I only feed every two to three days. Also yes I use RODI.

saf1 said:
Not sure why sort of tank you are talking about but you said ribbon eel and lion. Maybe a predator tank or fish only. If it is a reef of some type you can try vibrant as noted above. Search on the forum as there is a great thread in General about it. 300 or so pages. Vibrant isn't going to work over night but if you manually remove what you can and then work on what is causing nutrients you will stand a good chance of beating it. Must have a good working skimmer though. It is required.

Those are the two main fish I plan to add I also have two clowns three domino's a few zoas and an anemone in there at the moment.