GHA Frustrations about to throw in the Towel

[islandreef]

Ok I have been trying to battle GHA for almost 6 months now. I have replaced all the filters in my Rodi Unit, I had a deep sand bed in my refugium, I took an afternoon turned all my pumps off and sucked that stuff out so now its clean, tried picking it out, tried sucking it out during water changes, changed my lights from Metal Halides to LED's and this thing just keeps on growing. I am right now putting together a Algae Scrubber to put in the area where I took out the Deep Sand bed. I have GHA growing all over my once beautiful tank.

I am at the point of just scrapping the entire thing and starting fresh, but the only corals that have survived this onslaught are my green hairy mushrooms and their attached to two main rocks. Help me out how can I beat this thing or should I just blow it away and start fresh.

HELP ME OUT.

 

[ricky5415]

Did u test nitrate + phosphate level? I bet they are high

 

[danh]

Agreed. You need to test everything and let us know where you're at.

 

[reefswimatl]

Keep in mind also that whatever changes you make...you need to give it a couple weeks to guage the results of each incremental effort. Changes do not happen overnight!

 

[tcampbell23]

How log has the tank been up? Did you start with live rock or base rock? Have you tested your levels?


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[tcampbell23]

Are you running GFO or any other type of phosphate removal media?


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[islandreef]

Have not tested this week, will get that done and get back to you on that. I am running GFO, just changed it 2 weeks ago, using the high yield kind. Tried the Turbo snails it looks like their standing still not much movement from them. Not sure what that means either. Have new water being mixed at this moment for another water change tommorow. Tank is 6 years old. Started with Live Rock, most bought from people on here. Tried the manual removal, tooth brush, took some rock out and scrubbed them sprayed them with Hydrogen peroxide and put them back. GHA came back on them within weeks. Cut my feeding back to see if that was the issue Nothing I have done seems to work. My tank looks terrible, this green flowing crap all over the place. The more I pull out the more it seems to grow, I cannot for the life of me figure out what its feeding on. Next water change I will try to clean my sand in the process.

 

[ricky5415]

How did the algae scrubber work out for u? Any good growth

 

[islandreef]

Working on another one at the moment. First one was my first rendition, it had good growth for the 2 weeks I had it up but there were some issues I needed to fix that will be resolved with this second one. Also got some nice red led lights for it. We shall see soon enough.

 

[ricky5415]

I run the ATS too. Feel free to text 404-421-4670 if I can be any help

 

[tcampbell23]

Ricky5415;1097963 wrote: I run the ATS too. Feel free to text 404-421-4670 if I can be any help

Great guy to go to. Ricky has helped me through any issues I have had with my tank.


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[tcampbell23]

The only thing I can think of is your sand bed mat be to the point where it is just leaching phosphates back into the water and that's the issue you're having.


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[xilez]

My thought is that you waited too long vacuum your sand bed, and you vacuumed too much of it releasing 6 years worth of nutrients.

I would try scrubbing rocks and water changes daily for a week or so. Also, cut the lights for 2-3 days, after that run a severely limited lighted schedule (6 hours).

Can you post a pic?

If it looks like this, I would probably just start over

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[sewer urchin]

Can you post a pic?

Sound advice.... I was wondering if it might be something nastier like bryopsis.

 

[islandreef]

xilez;1097969 wrote: My thought is that you waited too long vacuum your sand bed, and you vacuumed too much of it releasing 6 years worth of nutrients.

I would try scrubbing rocks and water changes daily for a week or so. Also, cut the lights for 2-3 days, after that run a severely limited lighted schedule (6 hours).

Can you post a pic?

If it looks like this, I would probably just start over

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Sorry guys got really busy, will try to post pic tommorow. The sand that I removed was in my refugium. THe GHA was already all over the place before I did that. Before I did it, i cut all my pumps, sucked all that stuff out, washed it out several times with RODI water and then filled it again with RODI water. The picture is close, I am thinking of doing what you suggest, pull out some rocks vacuum the sand bed, give rocks a good scrubbing in new salt water and then doing some major water changes. Other than that I am at a loss.

 

[islandreef]

Sorry made a mistake, fill with Saltwater Made with RODI water not just RODI water

 

[snowmansnow]

so heres the thing. don't let it beat you.
its better to pull out all the live rock, put in new sand.. start over and learn than it is to throw in the towel.
I remember early on I would pull out the live rocks and scrub them with a stiff brush a few times a year haha
IMO if you don't mind a big of a reset (your bacteria should still be present so there wouldn't have to be another cycle though).. then make sure ALL the GHA is out.
Even start over with fresh dead rock IMO.
The only reason i'm a proponent of such a drastic hit is that its important to know what you're levels are at... and where they started.
this way you can test from a clean tank and start from there.
again.... just my opinion

 

[mkowalchuk]

barry_keith;1097937 wrote: Get some large turbo snails

+1
1 for every 10 gallons, done.

 

[kevinathom]

Just read the thread. I am still relatively new, so this may sound stupid to those that know what they are doing, but a while back, someone suggested a sea cucumber to keep my sand clean. I can't say it has made a difference with GHA, but it seems plausible that it has. Dirty sand to go in one end of the cucumber and out the other. The cucumber has gotten huge. He is getting something out of the sand that my vacuuming was not. Don't give up, and good luck!

 

[schwaggs]

I feel your pain, my recently restarted my 12 year old system due to GHA, Bryopsis and Dinos. I tried everything to no avail. I wasn't even feeding the tank for 6 months and the stuff continued to thrive even though I had 0.00 phosphates (running GFO) and low nitrates. Some varieties of these nuance algaes can survive at very low nutrient levels and I believe some can make use of ammonia directly. I restarted partially because of these pests but also the stony corals in my system had grown much too big and needed to be re-aquascaped.

You need to keep your nutrient levels as low as possible. You need to get as much detritus out as you can of the sand and rock work. once you have this, you can work on removing the GHA.

The best eradicator of GHA out there is the sea hare. It will scrub your rocks cleaner than anything out there. So clean that it takes quite some time to grow back in the spot they clean off. If you keep up with your water changes and nutrient elimination/export, you can beat it with a sea hare. I will warn you that they are sensitive creatures and you need to find one in good health or you will be wasting your time. If they are not moving around the tank at the store, DO NOT WASTE your time or money. Acclimate them SLOWLY. Measure the Sg of the water in the bag (store water is notoriously low) and drip acclimate it over hours. If you have more than one tank in your system, you can move it from tank to tank to clean them all. If it misses a spot in your tank, move it to the spot where the algae is and it will eat it. If it stops moving for more than a day, it is about to die. Watch them very closely as when they go, they disintegrate into a slimy stinky mess that you DO NOT want left in your tank.

Once you don't have much GHA left, loan the sea hare to someone else in the club as without GHA, they will starve quickly (within a week or two). I say loan it since you may want it back if your GHA comes back.

If I had it to go all over again, I would be tempted to try some of the nutrient eating bacteria in a bottle (Dr Tim's, etc) that is out there today or some of the other NO3 PO4 products (Red Sea, etc). I have no experience with them but would certainly try that before tearing everything down.