GHA Issues... STILL

[+C Lo Slice]

It's been about 6 months since GHA popped up in my tank. At first, it stayed secluded to one area of the tank. Now, it's EVERYWHERE. My frogspawn is in the process of losing its last head because of this. My HUGE colony of zoas that I spent a pretty penny on won't even come out because of a light layer of cyano. My gigantic superman monti looks pathetic because of small patches of GHA scattered about it. I can honestly see why so many beginning hobbyists call it quits due to frustrations.

I test water regularly. Everything is ALWAYS in check, if not within reason. I have had a Sea Hare for about a month now and he hasn't done a d@mn thing. I had one a couple months ago that cleared the tank of nearly everything, but I fear I gave him up a little too soon. I'm just so freakin' frustrated. I look at my cousin's gorgeous tank and get so discouraged when I come home to see mine. I have gotten to the point to where I look at my tank, and it totally ruins my day. Upkeep is no issue. I do weekly 10% water changes from my RO/DI unit, I test regularly, feed regularly, and pick off as much GHA as I can when doing water changes.

I just flat out don't know what to do anymore. I've been trying to keep the tank as natural as possible, not dosing anything that I can't test for. But I'm now at a loss. I seriously don't know what to do. Extremely frustrated...

[Juiceman]

Have you done any bacteria dosing. I used tlc from fishy business to help with mine. The other thing that helped was I situated my sump to force all of the overflow water through gfo and carbon. It disappeared in about a week.

[Toxiq Reef]

Get some saltwater mollies

[Bannerfish]

I've seen yellow tangs and foxfaces clean up gha nicely, as well as mollies or a ton of snails. A good ol' rock scrubbing helps a ton too. Have you checked for phosphates? Phosphates in my tanks LOVE to grow algae, but if theres enough algae it won't show up in a test cause its sucking it all up.

Edited February 18, 2012 by Bannerfish

[jamesdean3]

The main source of GHA is going to be excess nutrients in your system. How often/what do you feed? and whats you filtration look like? Cutting back on feedings will help and maybe bump the water changes to like 20% for the next 2 months or so. It'll take a little while but with good upkeep you can choke it out.

[jamesdean3]

Also i would try and stay away from adding things to the tank to battle the GHA. Livestock or chemical it will only be a temp fix for you problems, again nutirents are the culprit.

[ManImTheMan]

TLC and SKIM wet, and mexican turbos and do water changes less often. do 25% once a month

[ManImTheMan]

what skimmer do you have?

[mikedelgado]

my tank was a disaster 2 months ago.Gha about 2 inches thick after a year or so of neglect. heavy kalkwasser dosing, manual scrubbing with wire toothbrush , small ro/water changes got it down to a low roar then algea fix knocked it back pretty good. I still have a little algea going on but my corals are growing and look real nice which has sparked my interest in the hobby again

[Woods]

I agree with jamesdean, what are you feeding and how often and how much? Also have you checked your water source specifically for Phosphates? Something you are doing is adding too many nutrients to your tank and your system is not removing it prior to the GHA using it... Do you have a sump with MacroAlgae?

[Mad Reefer]

OK so there are lots of ways hit the GHA. But the one that worked for me and quickly was a sea hare. I kept him for a full week after I could no longer see any GHA in my tank. then i sold him because otherwise he'd die of starvation. YOu must have a dud this time. your last one cleared the tank right . see how good of a job mine did?

http://www.austinree...ats-hair-algae/

Now for the red slime cyanobacteria. got that myself right now. bought this stuff that worked but it came back 3 moths later

http://www.amazon.co...g/dp/B00025YRJS

to be fair, i only gave like a third of the reccomended dose and i only did it one time but some people claimed it killed their tank so i was scared

This time i am going to try some live active nitrifying bacteria reccomended to my by fishey business called startsmart complete. The same people that make that TLC product mentioned above in this thread.

http://www.startsmar...rtcomplete.html

Buy the sea hare now. i hear aquatek has some juicy ones right now. I will let you know how it goes with the smart start. i have a well established tank so i am only doing maintainance dosing which i was told will work in a month on the red slime.

-good luck

-Madness

Disclaimer: yes after we clear up this mess we are going to have to keep our phosphates down and nitrates down and under control we wouldnt have these problems in the first place.

[+o0zarkawater]

^^ Agreed.

While the main problem will be getting your phosphates and other levels in check to finally rid yourself of the GHA, I love me some sea-hares. I had GHA in my 55gal a year or so ago and bought a sea-hare who cleared up the problem in less than a week. Traded him on. Recently I had a similar issue in my 29, got another sea-hare, cleaned it up in less than a week. I was in the process of trading her when she croaked for some reason. She had run out of GHA to eat, but I was feeding her nori by hand every night, so I'm not sure what went on there.

Cyano..... chemiclean. I had a weird brown/green cyano in my 55 that nothing would get rid of. Not darkness, not wet skimming/gfo/carbon, not frequent water changes.. nothing. It was killing my corals daily. I could siphon it off in the morning and come home to have it claim another candycane head in a single day. I finally broke down and tried chemiclean and it cleared the tank in one dose. Been 3 months now and I haven't seen a single bit come back.

[+Jakedoza]

pics?

I thought I had GHA at one point, but it turned out to be bryopsis.. I tried EVERYTHING under the sun for GHA.. I finally got rid of it by raising my MG to 1800 until it all died out.. then slowly lowered it back down.

Here was the thread..

http://www.austinreefclub.com/topic/15328-green-algae-help/page__p__106207__hl__+algae%20+problem__fromsearch__1#entry106207

[Aaarrrggg]

The fact it's being so persistent and the sea hair won't touch it is making me think bryopsis too. Does 3 days of darkness have any effect?

Maybe wiping out the previous case of GHA just gave the bryopsis a foothold? Bryopsis can look v much like GHA.

[Timfish]

If none of the above approaches work for you I would first pull out all the affected rock and use a toothbrush or small bristle brush (I know this sound tedious but it doesn't take that much time) and scrub off the algae in a bucket of tank water. I would evaluate the rocks to see how valuable they are (I want to preserve biodiversity but I'm also lazy) some rocks that don't have anything I feel valuable to save I would just toss. My reason for scrubbing the rocks is two fold, one it gets phiscially gets rid of a lot of nutrient fast (herbivors are needed but they poop putting the nutrient back in the system) and second it greatly reduces the work load of any herbivores (I'm preferential to urchins and sallylightfoots). Keep doing large water changes and don't hesitate to use the brush on a spot in the tank during a water change and syphon off the stuff while you're scrubing it. It doesn't hurt to keep using GFO, carbon or one of the enzyme/probiotic products (I've not been impressed with them but it could always be the magic bullet in someones tank). Obviously I would evaluate how much I'm feeding. Be patient, it may be weeks before you see good improvement.

One other thing I do is as soon as the corals I have in the tank start to show improved expansion I would be adding more easy fast growing mushrooms, Zoas and polyps. My reasoning is there are a lot of nutreints still in the system and corals will pull these nutrients directly from the water competeing directly with the algae for them.

the algae

[+C Lo Slice]

I've seen yellow tangs and foxfaces clean up gha nicely, as well as mollies or a ton of snails. A good ol' rock scrubbing helps a ton too. Have you checked for phosphates? Phosphates in my tanks LOVE to grow algae, but if theres enough algae it won't show up in a test cause its sucking it all up.

I do have a juvenile Yellow Tang. She eats some of it, but really not enough to do any damage. I have not checked for phosphates, although I do suspect it in my water and being the main culprit.

The main source of GHA is going to be excess nutrients in your system. How often/what do you feed? and whats you filtration look like? Cutting back on feedings will help and maybe bump the water changes to like 20% for the next 2 months or so. It'll take a little while but with good upkeep you can choke it out.

I feed daily. I use Hikari Mysis Shrimp and San Francisco Bay Brand Saltwater Multipack. Typically, I rinse the cubes off in RO then drop one cube each of mysis and something from the variety pack into a shot glass to thaw. Once thawed, I will pour a little into the tank right when the daylights go off, but the actinics are still on. The fish have become like Pavlov's dogs with this method. I don't feed more than they can consume in a minute or two, and the shot glass with the two cubes will usually last me close to a week. As far as filtration, there hardly is any. I rely on a lot of live rock, a lot of water movement, and a HOB skimmer.

what skimmer do you have?

AquaC Remora HOB

I agree with jamesdean, what are you feeding and how often and how much? Also have you checked your water source specifically for Phosphates? Something you are doing is adding too many nutrients to your tank and your system is not removing it prior to the GHA using it... Do you have a sump with MacroAlgae?

See above for feeding details. I have not checked my water source, though that is what I suspect. The water out here in Buda is extremely hard. I have a whole-house conditioner, water softener, and a RO unit at my sink. I use the RO for the water changes, but I still think it isn't good enough. I don't have a sump, just a HOB skimmer.

OK so there are lots of ways hit the GHA. But the one that worked for me and quickly was a sea hare. I kept him for a full week after I could no longer see any GHA in my tank. then i sold him because otherwise he'd die of starvation. YOu must have a dud this time. your last one cleared the tank right . see how good of a job mine did?

http://www.austinree...ats-hair-algae/

Now for the red slime cyanobacteria. got that myself right now. bought this stuff that worked but it came back 3 moths later

http://www.amazon.co...g/dp/B00025YRJS

to be fair, i only gave like a third of the reccomended dose and i only did it one time but some people claimed it killed their tank so i was scared

This time i am going to try some live active nitrifying bacteria reccomended to my by fishey business called startsmart complete. The same people that make that TLC product mentioned above in this thread.

http://www.startsmar...rtcomplete.html

Buy the sea hare now. i hear aquatek has some juicy ones right now. I will let you know how it goes with the smart start. i have a well established tank so i am only doing maintainance dosing which i was told will work in a month on the red slime.

-good luck

-Madness

Disclaimer: yes after we clear up this mess we are going to have to keep our phosphates down and nitrates down and under control we wouldnt have these problems in the first place.

My first Sea Hare was a champ. He knocked nearly everything out in about two weeks. I've had this one for about a month and he hasn't done anything. He is actually looking much skinnier than when I first got him. I will check out those links you provided. Keep me updated on the smart start.

^^ Agreed.

While the main problem will be getting your phosphates and other levels in check to finally rid yourself of the GHA, I love me some sea-hares. I had GHA in my 55gal a year or so ago and bought a sea-hare who cleared up the problem in less than a week. Traded him on. Recently I had a similar issue in my 29, got another sea-hare, cleaned it up in less than a week. I was in the process of trading her when she croaked for some reason. She had run out of GHA to eat, but I was feeding her nori by hand every night, so I'm not sure what went on there.

Cyano..... chemiclean. I had a weird brown/green cyano in my 55 that nothing would get rid of. Not darkness, not wet skimming/gfo/carbon, not frequent water changes.. nothing. It was killing my corals daily. I could siphon it off in the morning and come home to have it claim another candycane head in a single day. I finally broke down and tried chemiclean and it cleared the tank in one dose. Been 3 months now and I haven't seen a single bit come back.

I'll check out chemiclean. I was trying to go the natural route, but that obviously isn't working. I'm running out of those options.

The fact it's being so persistent and the sea hair won't touch it is making me think bryopsis too. Does 3 days of darkness have any effect?

Maybe wiping out the previous case of GHA just gave the bryopsis a foothold? Bryopsis can look v much like GHA.

I haven't done the 3 days of darkness. I plan on starting it tomorrow, and will post results.

If none of the above approaches work for you I would first pull out all the affected rock and use a toothbrush or small bristle brush (I know this sound tedious but it doesn't take that much time) and scrub off the algae in a bucket of tank water. I would evaluate the rocks to see how valuable they are (I want to preserve biodiversity but I'm also lazy) some rocks that don't have anything I feel valuable to save I would just toss. My reason for scrubbing the rocks is two fold, one it gets phiscially gets rid of a lot of nutrient fast (herbivors are needed but they poop putting the nutrient back in the system) and second it greatly reduces the work load of any herbivores (I'm preferential to urchins and sallylightfoots). Keep doing large water changes and don't hesitate to use the brush on a spot in the tank during a water change and syphon off the stuff while you're scrubing it. It doesn't hurt to keep using GFO, carbon or one of the enzyme/probiotic products (I've not been impressed with them but it could always be the magic bullet in someones tank). Obviously I would evaluate how much I'm feeding. Be patient, it may be weeks before you see good improvement.

One other thing I do is as soon as the corals I have in the tank start to show improved expansion I would be adding more easy fast growing mushrooms, Zoas and polyps. My reasoning is there are a lot of nutreints still in the system and corals will pull these nutrients directly from the water competeing directly with the algae for them.

the algae

Pulling out the rock will be a problem. I have very large rocks in a 12" wide tank, so I had to stack them fairly intricately. Therefore, if I decide to take one rock out, I'll have to take them all out. I had a tuxedo urchin, but he was knocking over all my frags so I got rid of him. As soon as I did, the GHA popped up for the first time. Now that the GHA has started killing all my corals, I'm tempted to try another urchin since it won't have anything to knock over (unfortunately).

[+C Lo Slice]

pics?

Understand that this is very hard for me to do. I'm so ashamed of the way my tank looks right now. I don't want people thinking I'm neglecting the tank or that I'm an unresponsible hobbyist. I try to take care of the tank as best as I can. You can ask my wife: this tank consumes me (in a good way). I want it to be pretty and I do put in the time and effort to try and make it so.

As you can see from the pics, the GHA (or briopsis) has even taken over my powerheads and the back glass. The powerheads just got cleaned thoroughly last weekend, and will be getting cleaned again tomorrow.

On to the sadness...

[Mad Reefer]

Wow, I feel your pain C Lo.

I am certainly no expert, But this looks bit different than my hair algae which was darker green and shorter hair an came in little puffy ball clumps.

See second pic here:

http://www.austinreefclub.com/topic/13759-harry-the-hungry-sea-hare-eats-hair-algae/

Your stuff seems more of a neon green and much longer especially around your shrooms. I am sorry I cant say for sure what that is. Hopefully someone else here can help.

Allso, your sand bed seems clear of Red slime algae as well. Are you sure you have it? if so, do you have a pic of that?

I wouldnt wait for me to start on the TLC or startsmart dosing. I would start that now before more of your corals get choked out.

Good luck,

-Madness

[+C Lo Slice]

Three days of darkness starts now. Let's hope for at least some results...

[+Jakedoza]

Not to rain on your hopes... but I doubt it works.. It didn't for my algae problem.. Here is hoping for you though.

That looks exactly like the outbreak I had.. and the amount too.. It took about 2 months of Mg dosing to rid my 135 of it.

[innate1]

That's the devil we all know as gha. I had it forever and almost gave up the hobby. I would test for everything and have normal ranges. The thing is it's getting nutrients from somewhere. It came down to my lr must have been leeching them back out. So I did three days of darkness, manually scrubbed the rocks, and then uped my water changes to 5 gallons twice a week. The gha was and is gone. I'd start buying your ro water from a lfs until you get it under control, that way your sure you aren't adding anything back in that you don't want.

[pbnj]

Here's what I would do:

1) Stop using the food you're feeding the tank. In my opinion, that kind of food (mysis, frozen foods) should only be used as an occasional treat, certainly not fed every day and not in the quantities you're using. In your case, you need to eliminate them altogether. Don't even use flake foods or Nori for a while because they break-down fast in the water. Switch to something like New Life Spectrum 1mm slow-sinking pellets and only feed once per day. Even better, buy an automatic feeder, that way you know the tank is only getting a designated amount every day. Feeding by hand tends to lead to over-feeding because in our minds, the fish always look hungry.

2) Buy a hand-held TDS meter and check your top-off and water-change water. If using your own RO/DI unit is not an option, you may need to start buying RO/DI water from a LFS.

3) Many people have seen great results by increasing their Magnesium levels using Kent Marine Magnesium (levels of 1500+). Keep pulling-out whatever GHA you can by hand.

4) With the way you've been feeding, that sandbed is probably loaded with nastiness. I would start to slowly thin it out over the next few weeks.

Also, clean-up crews don't remove nutrients from water. They eat stuff and poop it out. Clean-up crews break-down waste/detritus so that the tank's nutrient export system (skimmer, water-changes, etc) can remove it. Can you imagine the waste a Sea Hare would create by eating all of that GHA?

[dsquared]

+1 for what PBNJ suggested. Quit feeding so often. I only feed every 2 or 3 days w/ some nori mixed in between.

[Michae52]

Have you tested for PO4 yes or no. If it is high I don't care what you do you are still going to have an algae problem. What are the nitrates normal or within reason? What's within reason. Maybe you are feeding too much, but you are looking for a cure not trying to solve the problems. Is your ro/di filters still effective. Is your LR and or sand bed leaching out PO4, very well could be. I was once told that it's hard to starve a healthy fish. Cut way back on the feeding, when you do a water change vaccum the sand bed unless it's full of H2S. Get some turbo snails they will help. I am finding that alot of things that I have purchased or gotten from members of ARC have some sort of alage on the rock. I just set the turbos on them and in a couple of days it's gone.

[DerrickH]

I keep seeing "RO WATER" but dont see "ro/DI" water, except first post. Are you using true RO/DI or just RO water? When my DI resin went south, GHA started showing up in my tank along with some cyano. I replaced the resin, added 2 tangs, and upped the water changes to 5g a week and in a month I was GHA/Cyano free. Snails didnt do squat to it... I did also use chemiclean for the cyano.

PO4 + TDS + daily feeding = GHA/CYANO heaven...just my .02c

Since you dont have a sump to put macro in, might put a TLF reactor on the back of your tank with some BRS hi cap GFO or the seachem (bit expensive). This will help as well.

Sounds dumb, but also you could stick a couple large chunks of cheato in the tank, the GHA will have to compete with it for nutrients ect and will loose some ground. Heck of a lot easier to pull out a large chunk of cheato vs GHA all stuck to the rock.

Edited February 20, 2012 by DerrickH