Considering pulling the plug on my tank - GHA

[sanzz18]

Hey guys. Been battling GHA for a couple months almost. I have got my nutrients lowered but are not 0s, I have upped my CUC including adding a sea hare a couple days ago, lowered white lights, and manual removal.

I don’t have all that much time but when I do remove it I cannot reach a lot of it, doesn’t come off easily, and doesn’t look like I removed much. A lot of it gets pretty long.

I added a sea hare the other day, it looked like it was eating the algae where I placed it (on the sand in a thick section of hair algae), now I can’t find it. Doesn’t mean it is dead or anything but if it is, or if there is no dent in the hair algae, I think I want to shut the tank down and move on. 2 years the tank has been up and it has only been an uphill battle with very little enjoyment.

I used reef flux last year for turf algae and it worked amazingly. Negligence let my nutrients rise high so not sure if it was the nutrients that cause this hair algae or if it was because of the reef flux disrupting balance and allowing the next opportunistic organism to rise. I have ordered reef flux again but did not use it because I feel like I am only waiting for the next organism to take hold.

No idea what to do, but I feel like I am almost done.

 

[Oldreefer44]

Not meant to criticize but it seems like you keep throwing things at the symptom versus curing the disease. What are your water parameters and how are you testing them? Especially PO4 and NO3. Suggest that you have an LFS or an ICP vendor verify your results. Algae requires nutrients so you have some somewhere. Most of us have been where you are as part of the learning curve so don't give up.

 

[Eric R.]

Hey guys. Been battling GHA for a couple months almost. I have got my nutrients lowered but are not 0s, I have upped my CUC including adding a sea hare a couple days ago, lowered white lights, and manual removal.

I don’t have all that much time but when I do remove it I cannot reach a lot of it, doesn’t come off easily, and doesn’t look like I removed much. A lot of it gets pretty long.

I added a sea hare the other day, it looked like it was eating the algae where I placed it (on the sand in a thick section of hair algae), now I can’t find it. Doesn’t mean it is dead or anything but if it is, or if there is no dent in the hair algae, I think I want to shut the tank down and move on. 2 years the tank has been up and it has only been an uphill battle with very little enjoyment.

I used reef flux last year for turf algae and it worked amazingly. Negligence let my nutrients rise high so not sure if it was the nutrients that cause this hair algae or if it was because of the reef flux disrupting balance and allowing the next opportunistic organism to rise. I have ordered reef flux again but did not use it because I feel like I am only waiting for the next organism to take hold.

No idea what to do, but I feel like I am almost done.

Sorry to hear about all of your troubles and frustration.

There are some different approaches in situations like this. I personally am a fan of the remove and out compete the algae approach.

I was having algae problems for a while. A combination of removing HA by pulling and scrubbing rocks with a toothbrush and getting an urchin took care of it for me. I think matching the right herbivores with the right manual removal methods can make a difference. Could try getting some tuxedo urchins if you haven't, reefcleaners sells them at a reasonable price, and that's where I got mine from. Tank your size, you could probably grab 5 adults.

How easily can you pull your rocks? I find it's a lot easier to scrub a rock in a bucket of old tank water when I'm doing a water change than to try and remove HA in the tank.

Also, some people have really found using a marineland polishing filter when doing tank maintenance helpful for getting and debris and gunk out of the water.

 

[Eric R.]

Also, I'll drop this in here for your watching pleasure. Rich provides pretty strong evidence that trying to reduce nutrient levels is an ineffective way to control algae.

 

[Jekyl]

What's your clean up crew like? Using RoDi? Have some pics of the tank?

 

[sanzz18]

Not meant to criticize but it seems like you keep throwing things at the symptom versus curing the disease. What are your water parameters and how are you testing them? Especially PO4 and NO3. Suggest that you have an LFS or an ICP vendor verify your results. Algae requires nutrients so you have some somewhere. Most of us have been where you are as part of the learning curve so don't give up.

Thanks, not taking it as a criticism, but I have been working on the curing the disease. My nutrients are 0.08 and 8-10 nitrates (down from 0.78 and 38 2-3 months ago on an account of negligence). I started lowering them the second I noticed the smallest little patch of hair algae with po4 removing and large water changes. I don’t want to bottom out my nutrients because I already fought dinos. I don’t feed that much for my bioload. Only 2 cubes of mysis a day and a half sheet of nori a couple times a week for almost 20 fish.

Sorry to hear about all of your troubles and frustration.

There are some different approaches in situations like this. I personally am a fan of the remove and out compete the algae approach.

I was having algae problems for a while. A combination of removing HA by pulling and scrubbing rocks with a toothbrush and getting an urchin took care of it for me. I think matching the right herbivores with the right manual removal methods can make a difference. Could try getting some tuxedo urchins if you haven't, reefcleaners sells them at a reasonable price, and that's where I got mine from. Tank your size, you could probably grab 5 adults.

How easily can you pull your rocks? I find it's a lot easier to scrub a rock in a bucket of old tank water when I'm doing a water change than to try and remove HA in the tank.

Also, some people have really found using a marineland polishing filter when doing tank maintenance helpful for getting and debris and gunk out of the water.

I have over 50 hermits, many dwarf & regular ceriths, bunch of nassarius, over 50 astreas, trouch snails, emerald crabs, 2 tuxedo urchins that were in there before the problem even started (they do literally nothing), some turbo snails, conches, etc. Now the sea hare. I cannot take my rock work a part as it is glued together mostly.

Also, I'll drop this in here for your watching pleasure. Rich provides pretty strong evidence that trying to reduce nutrient levels is an ineffective way to control algae.

I meant to watch this a few weeks ago and will do so later this evening.

What's your clean up crew like? Using RoDi? Have some pics of the tank?

Clean up crew listed above. I use rodi filters changed a few months ago, never have tds on output.

 

[Jekyl]

Thanks, not taking it as a criticism, but I have been working on the curing the disease. My nutrients are 0.08 and 8-10 nitrates (down from 0.78 and 38 2-3 months ago on an account of negligence). I started lowering them the second I noticed the smallest little patch of hair algae with po4 removing and large water changes. I don’t want to bottom out my nutrients because I already fought dinos. I don’t feed that much for my bioload. Only 2 cubes of mysis a day and a half sheet of nori a couple times a week for almost 20 fish.



I have over 50 hermits, many dwarf & regular ceriths, bunch of nassarius, over 50 astreas, trouch snails, emerald crabs, 2 tuxedo urchins that were in there before the problem even started (they do literally nothing), some turbo snails, conches, etc. Now the sea hare. I cannot take my rock work a part as it is glued together mostly.



I meant to watch this a few weeks ago and will do so later this evening.



Clean up crew listed above. I use rodi filters changed a few months ago, never have tds on output.

Tried dosing live phyto? Sounds silly but it eliminated my gha and cyano.

 

[sanzz18]

Tried dosing live phyto? Sounds silly but it eliminated my gha and cyano.

I have heard that but I think I remember reading it made some people's worse. Not sure if that is true.

Here is what it looked like last weekend before doing a bit of manual removal.

 

[Eric R.]

I have heard that but I think I remember reading it made some people's worse. Not sure if that is true.

Here is what it looked like last weekend before doing a bit of manual removal.

That video didn't show up for me. I'm trying to repost it to see if it works.



Edit: Funny, it works when I quote your post, and when I pasted the link into my post, but I still can't see it in your post. Weird.

 

[Cell]

What size tank is this? Looks like an easy rip clean. Reset to perfect state in an afternoon. @brandon429

 

[Eric R.]

My experience is that a lot of herbivores prefer to not eat the really long strands of HA. If you can manually remove most of it so that's it's only short cropped bits left, then a sufficient crew of herbivores can keep it under control.

YMMV, but the one tuxedo urchin I had made a noticeable difference in my tank. I scrubbed all the algae off with just old tank water and a toothbrush, and since then it's kept it under control. This is in my 13.5 gallon tank though, so a lot less rock to cover per urchin. I also don't have any other herbivores except snails.

 

[Seansea]

I have a ton of algae in my tank but it brings me pleasure. Its all hunkered down here

Get or make one of these and algae go by by in tank.

 

[907_Reefer]

I have a ton of algae in my tank but it brings me pleasure. Its all hunkered down here

Get or make one of these and algae go by by in tank.

Do you run that scrubber in a sump, or HOB filtration, etc?

 

[sanzz18]

What size tank is this? Looks like an easy rip clean. Reset to perfect state in an afternoon. @brandon429

Appreciate the advice but I am 100% not in agreement for a rip clean. Tank is 180g 6ft x 2ft. Not meant as an insult, I just don’t agree with Brandons advice for a large tank. It isn’t practical for me.

 

[Seansea]

I run it in the sump

Its right there on the left but they have hob ones too

 

[Graemesreef]

If your at wits end wouldn't vibrant be a good choice?

 

[Eric R.]

If your at wits end wouldn't vibrant be a good choice?

I mean, if you're going to use an algaecide, might as well save some money and just buy API algaefix.

 

[Graemesreef]

I mean, if you're going to use an algaecide, might as well save some money and just buy API algaefix.

Im in the same boat as with this gha, dont know where it came from but now its here? Moved all my high dollar acros and gonna give vibrant a shot. Didn't know there was a cheaper mislabeled product on the market lol

 

[Nemo&Friends]

you do have a lot of fish, how big is your tank? Your fish look very healthy, but their high number would make you feed them a lot and they will produce a lot of nitrate. GHA love it.
I know it is tempting to get all these beautiful fish, but there is a reason why many people urged not to over crowd the tank.
I would have suggested a foxface, but you have one. So I cannot help you. Sorry.

 

[Crustaceon]

It's really funning how people avoid the one thing they know deep down inside that'll work 100% of the time because it requires effort. All you have to do is go after the algae relentlessly with an old toothbrush and do maybe a 10% water change each time. Algae can't thrive without a habitat. It also can't thrive without nutrients. Adding chemicals to kill the algae will only cause the dead algae to release all of the building blocks to grow algae contained within it and will only cause more algae to pop right back up when the algaecide dissipates. When you get things under control, feed less or do maintenance more frequently.