Prolonged issue …..

[ollzzz12]

Any advice as I feel like I’m fighting a loosing battle….

As you can see from the pictures I have a pretty bad GHA problem. It has been like this for a few months now (maybe longer) I’m picking out clumps weekly but it just keeps growing back, most of it is to small to grab with my fingers and scrubbing with a tooth brush doesn’t go to well.

Now it’s getting to the point it’s starting to affect my corals it’s kind of annoying me.

Tank is 2+ yrs old,130L (32g) , AI Blade lights on 12hr schedule including 1 hour ramp up/down)

I’d say it’s a medium to low flow tank I should add I am currently raising my nitrates with brightwell neonitro (aiming for 10-15ppm)

I feed a homemade frozen every other day now (consists of prawns, scallops, also mixed with marine feast frozen containing artemia, krill, chopped cockle and red plankton.,I also added green spirulina powder (as I was told a while ago this was great for coral growth) could it be the spirulina?

Filtration I run floss, rowaphos, carbon, purigen, and some chaeto (12hrs opposite light schedual)

I have plenty of algae eaters; lawnmower blenny, tux urchin, 10+ hermits, 5+ snails

I honestly don’t know what else to try.

My next steps are possibly a Kole Tang for a year or so untill it outgrows the tank.

Or very tempted to try brightwell razor & micro bactor clean, how ever I’ve heard these can take a toll on corals.

What are your guys thoughts?

 

[Daenion]

I would not try to raise nitrates as you are just feeding the gha.

Depending on how good your coral health is i would do a big manual clean up, followed by a 3 day black out(true blackout with all glass covered) followed by 10 gallon water change.

Then I would check the nitrates and phosphates. If black out worked they would spike so you would have to come up with a plan to gradually bring them down with water changes.

Also if your dkh is really 7 that is low. I would bring it up to 8.5-9 gradually.

 

[ollzzz12]

I would not try to raise nitrates as you are just feeding the gha.

Depending on how good your coral health is i would do a big manual clean up, followed by a 3 day black out(true blackout with all glass covered) followed by 10 gallon water change.

Then I would check the nitrates and phosphates. If black out worked they would spike so you would have to come up with a plan to gradually bring them down with water changes.

Also if your dkh is really 7 that is low. I would bring it up to 8.5-9 gradually.

Would 3 days be to long for corals? Would be my only concern,

I’m dosing nitrates as it was reading basically 0 and I believe that’s took a hit on some corals especially my soft and LPS,

also DKH tends to fluctuate between 7-8 between tests but I do no dose all for reef which should hopefully help raise that.

I should also add I dose 1ml of manganese per day for my gonis.

But if 3 days wouldn’t affect coral health to bad I will definitely give it a go

 

[Stuckita]

I’m going through the exact same thing, and contemplating a tang as well. Also a 33g, mine isn’t as bad but I do manual removal a couple times a week. I have like 15 nassarious snail, 10+ turbos, 10+ astreas, some hermits, tuxedo, some hermits, used to have emerald crabs but the big nassarious ate them. I’ve got skimmer, uv, you name it lol. Infuriating. Also all the accidental fragging is driving me insane.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Flow helps a lot against algae, if you have a low flow tank, considering bumping it up. Flow does wonders.

Your filtration is pretty heavy for a 30 gallon, and despite your filtration to remove all nutrients, you are manually dosing nitrate. But you have algae which will feed off the nitrate. You are working against yourself.

I would not put a tang in your tank, the most likely outcome would be ich or some other disease to wipe out your fish. If the lawnmower blenny and the urchin did nothing, then I would wonder why?

Are you using rodi water? Do you do weekly water changes?

 

[Daenion]

Would 3 days be to long for corals? Would be my only concern,

I’m dosing nitrates as it was reading basically 0 and I believe that’s took a hit on some corals especially my soft and LPS,

also DKH tends to fluctuate between 7-8 between tests but I do no dose all for reef which should hopefully help raise that.

I should also add I dose 1ml of manganese per day for my gonis.

But if 3 days wouldn’t affect coral health to bad I will definitely give it a go

If you don’t have sps then it should be fine.

 

[ollzzz12]

If you don’t have sps then it should be fine.

No I don’t. I’ll try this. Will a 3 day black our remove all GHA then? And should I keep my light on my chaeto at night?

 

[ollzzz12]

I’m going through the exact same thing, and contemplating a tang as well. Also a 33g, mine isn’t as bad but I do manual removal a couple times a week. I have like 15 nassarious snail, 10+ turbos, 10+ astreas, some hermits, tuxedo, some hermits, used to have emerald crabs but the big nassarious ate them. I’ve got skimmer, uv, you name it lol. Infuriating. Also all the accidental fragging is driving me insane.

Have you found anything works best?

 

[ollzzz12]

Flow helps a lot against algae, if you have a low flow tank, considering bumping it up. Flow does wonders.

Your filtration is pretty heavy for a 30 gallon, and despite your filtration to remove all nutrients, you are manually dosing nitrate. But you have algae which will feed off the nitrate. You are working against yourself.

I would not put a tang in your tank, the most likely outcome would be ich or some other disease to wipe out your fish. If the lawnmower blenny and the urchin did nothing, then I would wonder why?

Are you using rodi water? Do you do weekly water changes?

I’d try bumping my flow up but my gonis sone seem to like it to much.
And my nitrate issue I believe is due to the fact it’s been 0 for a while. My soft corals have been looking quite bad so I assumed it was due to nitrates being too low. Hense the dosing

Lawn mower blenny has barely touched algae since I got him. Think it’s got a taste for frozen food now tbh. And the urchin does do a good job. Always leaves a clear train behind him but I think it’s just getting to much, growing faster then he eats

Rodi water is being used I buy from my LFS, but I’ve recently heard that their rodi isn’t the best (around 4 Tdi) and I probably have done a propper water change for a few months now

 

[Stuckita]

Have you found anything works best?

Nope! haha. But I just beefed up the cleaners even more. I also pulled out my UV sterilizer 10 minutes ago, and it's leaking water again with the bulb out so that's not been functioning. I think I am going to take it our and try an algee scrubber or refugium or something. I just keep hoping it gets better as all the scrubbing is resulting in distressed corals. I'm also dosing hydrogen peroxide with minimal success.

 

[brandon429]

Old tank syndrome is vanquished in reefing now

the cause of old tank syndrome is compounding whole waste particles that blanket the interstitial sand grain zones and plug up the channels in live rocks- in some cases it's sheer overgrowth allowed from various invasions that plugs up the surface area on live rock combined with a thin veneer of...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Pistondog]

Nuisance algae grows where nothing else is growing, like on bare rock surfaces. Try to encourage bacteria and coralline. Manual removal is very helpful. Scrub with toothbrush. One day, youll win the battle.

 

[kevgib67]

You may want to consider saltwater mollies , algae eating machines. Not long ago I saw a before and after picture of an aquarium with bad gha and a sea hare was added, wow. I don’t have experience with them though. Ultimately, the reason for the abundance of gha will need to be addressed for a permanent solution. Best of luck.

 

[ollzzz12]

You may want to consider saltwater mollies , algae eating machines. Not long ago I saw a before and after picture of an aquarium with bad gha and a sea hare was added, wow. I don’t have experience with them though. Ultimately, the reason for the abundance of gha will need to be addressed for a permanent solution. Best of luck.

Sea hare is a good shout. Just heard they need to be passed on as soon as your tanks clear

 

[Ben's Pico Reefing]

Interesting. How long did you get the AI blade light vs algae started? What was the light before? Did you change your lighting schedule as well?

 

[kevgib67]

Sea hare is a good shout. Just heard they need to be passed on as soon as your tanks clear

Ya, I believe that they will starve quickly if not supplemented with algae wafers or nori and can release toxins upon death.

 

[slav621]

Any advice as I feel like I’m fighting a loosing battle….

As you can see from the pictures I have a pretty bad GHA problem. It has been like this for a few months now (maybe longer) I’m picking out clumps weekly but it just keeps growing back, most of it is to small to grab with my fingers and scrubbing with a tooth brush doesn’t go to well.

Now it’s getting to the point it’s starting to affect my corals it’s kind of annoying me.

Tank is 2+ yrs old,130L (32g) , AI Blade lights on 12hr schedule including 1 hour ramp up/down)

I’d say it’s a medium to low flow tank I should add I am currently raising my nitrates with brightwell neonitro (aiming for 10-15ppm)

I feed a homemade frozen every other day now (consists of prawns, scallops, also mixed with marine feast frozen containing artemia, krill, chopped cockle and red plankton.,I also added green spirulina powder (as I was told a while ago this was great for coral growth) could it be the spirulina?

Filtration I run floss, rowaphos, carbon, purigen, and some chaeto (12hrs opposite light schedual)

I have plenty of algae eaters; lawnmower blenny, tux urchin, 10+ hermits, 5+ snails

I honestly don’t know what else to try.

My next steps are possibly a Kole Tang for a year or so untill it outgrows the tank.

Or very tempted to try brightwell razor & micro bactor clean, how ever I’ve heard these can take a toll on corals.

What are your guys thoughts?

I would remove as much of the algae manually first. Mine did not get this bad but I scrubbed my rock and then did just a 2 day blackout and have not had any algae issues since.

 

[ollzzz12]

Interesting. How long did you get the AI blade light vs algae started? What was the light before? Did you change your lighting schedule as well?

So I’ve got a fluval flex 32g , originally had 2 stock fluval marine 3.0 in the lid. Could barely grow zoas on the bottom. So I added the blade into the middle. Corals seem happier now.
Blade has been in 4 months now.

But the algae problems existed before that. It just seems now growing faster then ever

 

[ollzzz12]

I would remove as much of the algae manually first. Mine did not get this bad but I scrubbed my rock and then did just a 2 day blackout and have not had any algae issues since.

Did the black out eliminate all algae?

 

[PharmrJohn]

I would not try to raise nitrates as you are just feeding the gha.

Depending on how good your coral health is i would do a big manual clean up, followed by a 3 day black out(true blackout with all glass covered) followed by 10 gallon water change.

Then I would check the nitrates and phosphates. If black out worked they would spike so you would have to come up with a plan to gradually bring them down with water changes.

Also if your dkh is really 7 that is low. I would bring it up to 8.5-9 gradually.

This is the first thing I thought of.