Getting rid of GHA

[Deep Water]

Is it safe to keep lights off for three days to help eliminate some gha. Fish and corals all seem to be healthy? I was able to get my nitrates down to 0.0 and my phosphate down to 0.05.




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[Agostinone]

Critters will be fine without light for 3 days. If you do succeed starving the GHA to death you'll need to remove its nutrients from the tank or it'll just start again. Maybe remove as much as you can by hand then siphon out the dead stuff and do a series of water changes.

Sometimes the tests for nutrients come back looking good because the algae is pulling it out of the water. Be sure you figured out what the cause was/is for the excessive nutrients and made changes or the GHA will just come back

 

[davehead86]

You are probably over feeding the tank (thats where my problem was). You will need to stop this problem (or whatever excess nutrients your tank has) before it will go away.

Pull it by hand. Siphon out the extra bits. Do a water change. Cut down the feeding. You can turn off the lights for three days, but I doubt it helps that much.

I found luck with having an emerald crab or two in my tank to help eat the algae including bubble algae and GHA. Get some snails to go through your sand-bed to clean out the excess nutrients.

 

[scooter31707]

How old is the tank? It is very common for GHA to appear in newly established tanks. I have had great success with GFO and turbo snails. Fish wise, had success with Lawnmower/Starry Blennies, Foxfaces, and Kole Tangs.

 

[Deep Water]

How old is the tank? It is very common for GHA to appear in newly established tanks. I have had great success with GFO and turbo snails. Fish wise, had success with Lawnmower/Starry Blennies, Foxfaces, and Kole Tangs.

The tank is a Red Sea Max 250. 65 gal, running for a year. I had a little bit of GHA earlier, but I was able to keep it under control until the last month. Inhabitants are 1 royal gramma, 1 diamond goby, 1 purple fire fish, 2 ea Ocellaris Clowns, 3 ea blue/green chromis and a blue sided fairy wrasse, all fish are 2.5" or less in size. I have 2 ea porcelain crabs, 2 ea green emerald crabs, 2 ea turbo snails, 1 ea strawberry conch, 1 ea turban snail, 1 ea nerite snail, 2 ea lg nassarius snail, about 50 am nassarius snail (have been populating quickly have taken batches in to LFS twice already) 2 ea cleaner shrimp, 1 ea blood shrimp, 3 ea flower anemones, 1 ea GBTA and some corals, all of which have been happy and growing well. I feed once a day a cube frozen music or other frozen foods, try to keep a variety and some silversides to my GBTA and flower anemones a few times a week.


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[jar41]

having similar problem.. really curious what others say. will try to siphon sand during water change. maybe will do bigger change?

 

[aznflyfisherman]

If you siphon your sand, you need to do it very slow n try not to stir it up too bad or your gha will get worst, i had it happen to me but i was able to rid my gha, brown algea n dino issues within 2 to 3 months. I did a 25% water change weekly n i also use a bag of phosguard. It was so bad i almost gave up on my 110g.

 

[Agostinone]

Are all your snails and other CUC accounted for? Sometimes a turbo snail or some other CUC member will croak (for no particular reason) providing a spikes in algae nutrients. Typically just cleaning the GHA by hand and doing a water change and being patient will return things to their previous state.

 

[Deep Water]

Are all your snails and other CUC accounted for? Sometimes a turbo snail or some other CUC member will croak (for no particular reason) providing a spikes in algae nutrients. Typically just cleaning the GHA by hand and doing a water change and being patient will return things to their previous state.

Thank you all for your help. I did do the three days no lights and removed the GHA by hand and performed a 25% water change, which I will continue with a couple times a week. I have my nitrates holding at 5 ppm.
Thanks again!


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[Sk8r]

The answer to GHA is GFO, in a reactor, changed monthly until GHA goes thin and scarce. Then it'll just go away. Lights-out works on cyanobacteria, not GHA.

 

[Bpb]

If GHA is still lingering around at this point I think you're beyond the "age will take care of it" status. Tank is too small for tangs and rabbitfish which would make short work of it. Pincushion urchin, or multiple tuxedo urchins or a combination of the two ought to have it cleared up in short order. Sometimes GHA isn't always an indication of poor parameters or husbandry. You can have picture perfect NO3 and PO4, with appropriate light, feeding, and water change schedule, and STILL have GHA. So at this point, something to eat it will help. Urchins do such fantastic work.

 

[Sk8r]

Some limestone contains phosphate, which takes a while to soak out, so you can have a late 'bloom' of gha. You'll sometimes see only one rock festooned with it, while the others are quite free. The problem with getting a critter to eat it is that they poo the phosphate right back into the water. Wind and yank with a toothbrush can 'export' a few pounds of the problem, but otherwise you're reliant on a skimmer to help you export the stuff, and it can. Strength of the skimmer, plus removal, plus gha to take care of any phosphate in the water, are all methods that can work together.

 

[anthonys51]

The tank is a Red Sea Max 250. 65 gal, running for a year. I had a little bit of GHA earlier, but I was able to keep it under control until the last month. Inhabitants are 1 royal gramma, 1 diamond goby, 1 purple fire fish, 2 ea Ocellaris Clowns, 3 ea blue/green chromis and a blue sided fairy wrasse, all fish are 2.5" or less in size. I have 2 ea porcelain crabs, 2 ea green emerald crabs, 2 ea turbo snails, 1 ea strawberry conch, 1 ea turban snail, 1 ea nerite snail, 2 ea lg nassarius snail, about 50 am nassarius snail (have been populating quickly have taken batches in to LFS twice already) 2 ea cleaner shrimp, 1 ea blood shrimp, 3 ea flower anemones, 1 ea GBTA and some corals, all of which have been happy and growing well. I feed once a day a cube frozen music or other frozen foods, try to keep a variety and some silversides to my GBTA and flower anemones a few times a week.


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am i reading this right, you only have 4 snails that eat algae. plus 2 crabs. i would increase that number, will this wont eliminate gha, its a good start.

i would add 5 more snails and maybe 2 scarlet hermit crabs. i got 40 frags covered in gha and my 2 scarlet cleaned off the frags in 2 days.

also i would add an algae eating fish, such as a algae blennie or a kole tang.

gfo is great. but your levels are already very low.

 

[ajoe]

1) GFO Reactor with RowaPhos

2) Get a Molly Miller Blenny (blows a lawn mover blenny away)

3) Cut down feedings and amounts to every other day. Our fish need far less food for those very tiny little bellies than we appreciate. Sure they will eat all day if fed but your just creating a larger problem. They are all scavengers by nature. A buffet is not helping them or your algae problem. Ensure your dry pellet food is not adding phosphates to the system as well. New Life Spectrum and Hakari are good brands to consider.

4) Always soak frozen food in some warm aquarium water for 2-3 mins and drain off all water into sink before feeding. You will see the gunk that does need to accompany the food go down the sink.

5) API Marine Algaefix works fast and well and is an option to consider. A calculated dose with each weeks water change will keep it in check going forward. Not the only component however to battling algae but effective nonetheless.

6) Eliminate any red/green LEDs from your lighting if you are utilizing that spectrum and cut back on the white lights a bit if your running LEDs above 40%. Algae thrives on light.

7) Get and maintain a good skimmer.

8) Weekly water changes are the most effective tool.

luck

 

[meverha1]

The answer to GHA is GFO, in a reactor, changed monthly until GHA goes thin and scarce. Then it'll just go away. Lights-out works on cyanobacteria, not GHA.

I'd argue that GFO should be used as a last resort.

I was running GFO and still had GHA. All the GFO did was cause my chaeto to die off, which added nitrates back into the system.

What finally helped was reducing feeding and adding a tuxedo urchin and a couple of turbo snails. A little over a month later and my GHA is almost all gone and my chaeto is thriving.

Lesson learned? Don't feed a "rich" food like LRS Reef Frenzy daily.