Continual battle with GHA

[Glenner’sreef]

Yes, they are Kessil 180s. They are on for 7 hours 30 mins a day - should I reduce them by an hour? They used to ramp up/down from 15 to 60 intensity and spectrum, but my controller broke last week, so now they are on about 50% intensity and 40% spectrum. I'll drop the spectrum down a bit.

I keep direct sunlight off the tank, but it does get indirect (nothing I can do about that really, although the algae doesn't seem worse in parts of the tank that get indirect sunlight.

I feed a bit of a cube of frozen mysis, and a small amount of frozen copepods or rotifers. I do put in a small amount of flake and pellets, but I will stop with the pellets.

And about your water source? Also where did your rock work come from? Live, dry, used etc.

 

[LeftyReefer]

If it were my tank, I'd just bite the bullet and use algaefix once and for all to get it under control, and then never let it get like that again via other means.

 

[SlugSnorter]

Man, I haven't had that happen. I had one die because of Vibrant.. I think... but it just stopped moving and inked the tank a little. Was a little bit of a mess in the filter socks and skimmer cup for a few days, but didn't seem tp o bother anything too much. I only knew it happened when the socks and skimmer cup turned black. It might be worth another shot. Sea Hares will consume the long hair algae most other organisms won't touch, and they eat a lot of it.

something happened to burst or shatter its internal shell somehow I guess.

 

[jakeb]

My snails are fine (over 400) and my Mag is 1545 as of today.

ATS are relatively easy to make and there are tons of info on R2R and here

I've been tempted to make one, but I haven't had time to research/make one yet. My youngest daughter likes to take up most of my evenings at the minute...

And about your water source? Also where did your rock work come from? Live, dry, used etc.

It's mains (tap) water. My rocks were used dry rock. It had been sat in someones garage for a while, so I soaked it in rodi water and bleach for a few weeks, and then rodi and dechlorinator. I then cycled it in saltwater (in buckets) for months before adding to my tank.

All live rock I could get my hands on at the time was covered in aiptasia.

 

[djf91]

I’ve had the same trouble with seahares and snails in my system as well, as I attempt to battle GHA. Something, I think the species of GHA maybe, is killing my turbos. I’ve been through at least 20 of them, none survive. This is an system with growing SPS and a large thriving Maxima clam. Has me puzzled. Manual removal in a 500 gallon display is getting old but I think the GHA is coming back less and less each time with additional corraline coverage. Tank was started with 80% dry rock.

 

[djf91]

My belief is that there is a toxic species of GHA these days going around. Either that or it’s been misidentified as GHA and is actually Lyngbya.

 

[ReefGeezer]

I’ve had the same trouble with seahares and snails in my system as well, as I attempt to battle GHA. Something, I think the species of GHA maybe, is killing my turbos. I’ve been through at least 20 of them, none survive. This is an system with growing SPS and a large thriving Maxima clam. Has me puzzled. Manual removal in a 500 gallon display is getting old but I think the GHA is coming back less and less each time with additional corraline coverage. Tank was started with 80% dry rock.

Have you ever used algaefix or Vibrant? I appears they are at least similar and the main constituent is toxic to mollusks. I think that is what killed a bunch of my snails, Urchins, and a Sea Hare.

 

[Chrisv.]

My belief is that there is a toxic species of GHA these days going around. Either that or it’s been misidentified as GHA and is actually Lyngbya.

I have almost no evidence to support this, but I think you're on to something here. I also noticed that when I had a bunch of GHA, inverts seemed to die or become ultra sluggish. Once I got it under control, some that I had written off became super active again.

Not sure if it's Lyngbya or something else, but the impact was stark.

 

[djf91]

Have you ever used algaefix or Vibrant? I appears they are at least similar and the main constituent is toxic to mollusks. I think that is what killed a bunch of my snails, Urchins, and a Sea Hare.

I did use Vibrant (one single dose) before I knew the algaecide truth behind it. This was 5 months ago and I still continue to have die off on new snails I buy. Not sure if it could still be lingering in the system or not.

 

[djf91]

I have almost no evidence to support this, but I think you're on to something here. I also noticed that when I had a bunch of GHA, inverts seemed to die or become ultra sluggish. Once I got it under control, some that I had written off became super active again.

Not sure if it's Lyngbya or something else, but the impact was stark.

Another thought I’ve had it is that the GHA species is not palatable to our snail species, but not toxic. But it is outcompeting all other types of algae and causing our snails to starve.

 

[Jekyl]

Dose live phyto. Beneficial for everything and helped greatly with my algae.

 

[Coolnesscomplex]

My theory is that you’ve misidentified it like I did and it is actually bryopsis. Look very very closely and if there is any branching at all in the algae it’s bryopsis.

It’s a pain to remove your chaeto, but treat it again with Reef Flux, maybe multiple times over the next few months. I spent a year of my life thinking that I sucked at reefing because my nutrients weren’t that high but the green hair algae seemed unbeatable. Then I realized to my dismay that I never even had green hair algae!

 

[djf91]

My theory is that you’ve misidentified it like I did and it is actually bryopsis. Look very very closely and if there is any branching at all in the algae it’s bryopsis.

It’s a pain to remove your chaeto, but treat it again with Reef Flux, maybe multiple times over the next few months. I spent a year of my life thinking that I sucked at reefing because my nutrients weren’t that high but the green hair algae seemed unbeatable. Then I realized to my dismay that I never even had green hair algae!

I don’t mean to hijack the thread but this is what mine looks like:

Pretty sure GHA.

 

[Gedxin]

Ah a fellow ~1yr old tank GHA buddy! I've right there with you and my tank is riddled with GHA, but at the same time most of my corals are super healthy. I struggle to maintain nutrients without bottoming out and this is leading to an ongoing battle with Dinos. I scrub almost daily along with 1-2week water changes. Been doing this for months now with little progress.

One thing you seem to have going for you is your sandbed. It looks pristine! Mine's got GHA all over it. Anything you're doing to help that?

I have no advice other than to say "stay strong friend."

 

[Wick]

get a lawnmower blenny and it will have a field day cleaning that up! probably maintain most of it.

 

[jakeb]

My theory is that you’ve misidentified it like I did and it is actually bryopsis. Look very very closely and if there is any branching at all in the algae it’s bryopsis.

It’s a pain to remove your chaeto, but treat it again with Reef Flux, maybe multiple times over the next few months. I spent a year of my life thinking that I sucked at reefing because my nutrients weren’t that high but the green hair algae seemed unbeatable. Then I realized to my dismay that I never even had green hair algae!

I believe it is GHA as I haven't noticed any branching, but it's very possible that I have misidentified it. I will upload a close up photo when the lights come on tomorrow.

My belief is that there is a toxic species of GHA these days going around. Either that or it’s been misidentified as GHA and is actually Lyngbya.

It seems like I have had a similar experience losing inverts as @djf91 and @Chrisv. (although I haven't dosed vibrant). I've tried to tell the difference between lyngbya and GHA in the past, but haven't been able to. Is there an easy way to tell the difference between the two?

Thank you all for the help with this, if anyone has any more ideas, please let me know Assuming I haven't misidentified bryopsis or lyngbya as GHA, I think I will do the following:

• Keep cleaning rocks with a toothbrush and siphon. Keep removing smaller rocks to clean, but start using hydrogen peroxide (avoiding corals).
• Raise magnesium to 1500
• Dose live phyto

If magnesium and phyto helps, great. If it doesn't, I will look at using FluxRX and/or hydrogen peroxide again. And look at a DIY ATS and/or UV.

 

[jakeb]

Ah a fellow ~1yr old tank GHA buddy! I've right there with you and my tank is riddled with GHA, but at the same time most of my corals are super healthy. I struggle to maintain nutrients without bottoming out and this is leading to an ongoing battle with Dinos. I scrub almost daily along with 1-2week water changes. Been doing this for months now with little progress.

One thing you seem to have going for you is your sandbed. It looks pristine! Mine's got GHA all over it. Anything you're doing to help that?

I have no advice other than to say "stay strong friend."

It's good to know that there are other people with similar problems, although I wish neither of us had to deal with it

I don't really do much with my sand bed, my diamond goby constantly filters through it, so I am guessing he should take the credit. It did take several months of strategic rock and coral placement to stop him from making a massive sand mountain on one side of the tank. Now he makes a small pile in one corner, I leave him to it

 

[jakeb]

get a lawnmower blenny and it will have a field day cleaning that up! probably maintain most of it.

I have a molly miller blenny that picks at it. But he's only small so doesn't eat too much. I'm guessing a lawnmower blenny wouldn't get along with him, and I think it would be impossible to get the molly miller out.

 

[Chrisv.]

For what it's worth (and others have no doubt said this) I think that situations like this require balancing two goals: 1) getting rid of the algae, and 2) getting rid of the nutrient problem that will only become obvious as the algae problem is being resolved.

I've had good luck with a hefty water change, Dr Tims waste away and refresh + gfo + herbivores.

 

[djf91]

get a lawnmower blenny and it will have a field day cleaning that up! probably maintain most of it.

I have one. Went to town on the first wave of GHA in the 2nd month of the tank and cleared literally all of it. Won’t touch this second wave of GHA though.