New Years resolution: GHA Annihilation

[jdwells]

Here is the GHA as of this morning. Not great pics but I'm not real proud of the tank right now.

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So what I've done in the past couple months.
1 reduce photoperiod. The lights are on a total of 9 hours and half of that is at half power. My lights a DIY 24x3 watt led I built myself so it's really underpowered.
2. Lots of filtration with an avast skimmer and I added a gfo/carbon reactor from BRS. I keep the media clean and I changed out the filters in my ro/di recently. Water change are every 2 weeks.
3. Pulling algae manually off the rocks every couple days to a week.
The new plan is 1. to up the water changes to every week. It'll de difficult since I travel for work but I'm doing it anyway. My wife is helpful with mixing water for me.
2. Straight up terminator on the existing algae. We're going to move the corals to the sump, pull all the rock and scrub it, then put it back so the algae sides are mostly down. Also have some new rock to add and change up the scape so it gets maximum flow.
Wish me luck an give me other ideas if you have them!


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[heathlindner25]

Add a sea hare...or 5...lol

 

[ringo®]

Get a real close up pic if you can.

 

[heathlindner25]

Ringo®;923268 wrote: Get a real close up pic if you can.

I'm pretty sure that's hair algae.

 

[ringo®]

heathlindner25;923269 wrote: I'm pretty sure that's hair algae.

Looks like it, but that stuff has been having a field day.

 

[jdwells]

Not doing a sea hare. I hear great things but I don't want to have an animal die off after he's done his work. Also I think that's treating the symptom. I want to cure it.


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[franciscosalazar]

If you are removing the coral, just place each rock one at a time in freshwater bath until the gha dies off then place back into the tank and drop a new rock in the bath, repeat till all is gone. This will help keep your tank from going through a hard swing in parameters and release anything else within the rocks as well.

 

[jdwells]

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This is as closeup as I can get.



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[jdwells]

franciscosalazar;923282 wrote: If you are removing the coral, just place each rock one at a time in freshwater bath until the gha dies off then place back into the tank and drop a new rock in the bath, repeat till all is gone. This will help keep your tank from going through a hard swing in parameters and release anything else within the rocks as well.

This is pretty much what's happening here today except all at once. I'm using tank water to scrub it all so it shouldn't kill too much in the rock. Ideally the only thing I want I kill is the GHA. Everything else I'm happy with. Hitch hikers included.


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[thefishbuddy]

How would you remove gha from a few rocks that have coral on them?

 

[jdwells]

thefishbuddy;923304 wrote: How would you remove gha from a few rocks that have coral on them?

No all the coral is off the rock and temporarily in my sump with a small power head.

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My wife is scrubbing the rock in tank water with a brush while I eradicate any that's in the tank (glass and sand)
This is where we are now.

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Sorry about the crappy pics. I'm trying to hurry.
Good news though! I havnt seen my pistol shrimp in at least a month an he's still alive! Yay!


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[jdwells]

Sorry. HERE'S where we are now.

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[tbub1221]

Good luck !

 

[smoothound]

Hi JD number one thing is PHOSPHATES AND NITRATES get that in check and keep it in check and you will see great results, once you get your water right everything else would be better the main thing is to get phos/nit low and keep them low. For phosphate I use phosguard from seachem and nitrate I use sulpher dinitrator that I have been using for about 4 years that's how I do it.

 

[picoreefguy]

hey jd im having the same problem. on a much smalll scale but still i have hair algae or bryopsis im not sure which but ive been using peroxide to battle and its been working. its not all gone yet but im thinking itll be gone within a month or two. but heres what i do if you want to try it out. cut off all flow in the tank. suck up some peroxide into a syringe and then put your hand into the tank very slowly so as not to move too much water around and very gently squirt the peroxide into the clumps of algae and keep your hand still or move super slow so you dont blow the peroxide out of the algae for a bout a minute or two then move to the next clump. just make sure you get it all over and inside the algae if possible. and then wait. after a couple days youll notice a huge decrease in you algae population. just repeat as needed until its all gone. but also work on the cause too otherwise it could just come back

 

[jdwells]

smoothound;923309 wrote: Hi JD number one thing is PHOSPHATES AND NITRATES get that in check and keep it in check and you will see great results, once you get your water right everything else would be better the main thing is to get phos/nit low and keep them low. For phosphate I use phosguard from seachem and nitrate I use sulpher dinitrator that I have been using for about 4 years that's how I do it.

Yeah that's another thing I've been working on. I limit feeding to 2-3 flake feeding a a day and I make sure they eat all of it. And I feed LRS Frenzy once a week. I run a BRS dual reactor with GFO and carbon. My phosphate and nitrate tests always show 0 bit with the algae who knows. I'm controlling input though.


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[smoothound]

Good luck man keep fighting you will get there.

 

[thefishbuddy]

I have some on 3 rocks that have coral on them. Thats why I was asking though it might help both of us.

 

[jdwells]

I'll have to try the peroxide when/if this stuff comes back. That would worry me. Any effect on corals?

thefishbuddy;923334 wrote: I have some on 3 rocks that have coral on them. Thats why I was asking though it might help both of us.

Yeah mine weren't glued down. I've been thinking about doing this for a while. So they were really easy to pull off.
But even with coral on the rock you could scrub around it. Corals fine out of the water for a minute or 2 and we were using tank water to do it.


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[jdwells]

alt="" />alright all the algae is gone. New scape which I think I'm happy with.
Corals are placed but I'm sure I'll have to move some based on flow when they stop being pissed at me. lol Thanks for all the input and good wishes guys!


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