I have an 8 month old LPS heavy with some SPS 200g system with an elaborate basement sump and all the filtration one could want. Filter rollers, skimmer, algae scrubber, UV, ozone, carbon reactor, GFO reactor. My water chemistry is good, stability is good, I do the Reef Moonshiners program and ICP tests monthly. On any given day 90% of my corals look awesome and healthy but the GHA is encroaching on some and making them close up.
I've been struggling with GHA for the last couple months, it's not at plague proportions but is growing steadily. For some unknown reason 90% of my snails died over about a month period a couple months ago. After that I got GHA. To deal with the GHA I've been manually removing, I added more snails, and 5 tuxedo urchins and I've always had 4 tangs. I've also been working to lower my PO4 by feeding less, testing more often and keeping an appropriate amount of Rowaphos in a reactor. This approach isn't cutting it. After talking with an experienced reefer whom I respect I ordered a dolabella sea hare which will be delivered tomorrow.
Well last night I was inspecting the tank and discovered 5 quarter to half dollar sized clumps of bryopsis growing on my rock. I know sea hares don't eat bryopsis so I'm looking for advice on how to tackle this multi-pronged algae problem.
What I'm thinking is to introduce the sea hare when it arrives tomorrow and put some 2 part epoxy over the bryopsis patches that I can see and get to. Let the sea hare do it's job for a while and once the GHA is mostly gone treat the whole system with Reef Flux to address the Bryopsis (assuming coating the patches I can see in epoxy isn't sufficient to eradicate it). Does this sound like a solid plan?
Current Params
Salinity: 34.5 (Hanna/ICP)
pH: 8.3-8.4 (Apex/Hanna)
Temp: 77.1-78.3 (Apex/Hanna)
Alk: 7.8-8.2 (Trident/ICP)
Ca: 420-425 (Salifert/ICP/Trident)
Mg: 1450 (Trident/ICP)
PO4: 0.05 (Hanna/ICP)
NO3: 6.3 (Hanna/ICP)
Algae is not directly noticeable in this recent FTS but trust me it's there. On the sand, on the rocks, and in my vortechs.
I know this is GHA not bryopsis. The bryopsis is in other places in my tank which I don't have a picture of.
I've been struggling with GHA for the last couple months, it's not at plague proportions but is growing steadily. For some unknown reason 90% of my snails died over about a month period a couple months ago. After that I got GHA. To deal with the GHA I've been manually removing, I added more snails, and 5 tuxedo urchins and I've always had 4 tangs. I've also been working to lower my PO4 by feeding less, testing more often and keeping an appropriate amount of Rowaphos in a reactor. This approach isn't cutting it. After talking with an experienced reefer whom I respect I ordered a dolabella sea hare which will be delivered tomorrow.
Well last night I was inspecting the tank and discovered 5 quarter to half dollar sized clumps of bryopsis growing on my rock. I know sea hares don't eat bryopsis so I'm looking for advice on how to tackle this multi-pronged algae problem.
What I'm thinking is to introduce the sea hare when it arrives tomorrow and put some 2 part epoxy over the bryopsis patches that I can see and get to. Let the sea hare do it's job for a while and once the GHA is mostly gone treat the whole system with Reef Flux to address the Bryopsis (assuming coating the patches I can see in epoxy isn't sufficient to eradicate it). Does this sound like a solid plan?
Current Params
Salinity: 34.5 (Hanna/ICP)
pH: 8.3-8.4 (Apex/Hanna)
Temp: 77.1-78.3 (Apex/Hanna)
Alk: 7.8-8.2 (Trident/ICP)
Ca: 420-425 (Salifert/ICP/Trident)
Mg: 1450 (Trident/ICP)
PO4: 0.05 (Hanna/ICP)
NO3: 6.3 (Hanna/ICP)
Algae is not directly noticeable in this recent FTS but trust me it's there. On the sand, on the rocks, and in my vortechs.
I know this is GHA not bryopsis. The bryopsis is in other places in my tank which I don't have a picture of.
