GHA issue

[Tastee]

I have a 6 month old tank which I going well overall, but I do have a Green Hair Algae issue I would appreciate any suggestions about. The GHA started to appear fairly early as the tank established and I am currently managing it by physically removing as much as I can weekly. The tank is still in the process of being stocked with fish. It has a few corals but I have ceased adding any more corals until I finish stocking and get the tank to what I consider a stable state.

The tank is a Red Sea Reefer 250. I use Aquaforest reef salt and Component 1+2+3+ dosing. Current parameters are temp 25-26.5C, salinity 1.024, Ammonia, Nitrites and Nitrates 0, Phosphorous 0.25 ppm, pH 8.4, Alk 9, Mg 1480, Ca 470. These are pretty stable at this level and I dose 10ml of all 3 components daily.

Inhabitants are Yellow Tang, 2x Clowns, 2x Fire Goby, Sixline Wrasse, Coral Banded Shrimp, Nassarius snail, Turbo snail, Hermit crab, 2x small slugs. I am intending to add an Orchid Dottyback next week (QT atm), and a Sand Sifter Goby, Blennie of some description, Bluestreak Cleaner Wrasse and Emerald Crab in future.

Here is the tank currently.

You can see the GHA on the plate coral in the top left. This is my biggest concern as it appears to be taking over this coral. It has spread from 5% to 30% in 6 weeks.

What do you suggest I do to help control this?
I am hoping the Blennie will help - any suggestions as to specific types?

Should I consider a GFO?

Thanks in advance!




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[RobZilla04]

If the tank was started with dry base rock, there is a high likelihood that the rock is leaching phosphates. This will fuel the GHA until it has finished. Basically all you can do during that time is fight it back through manual removal, water changes to dilute Po4, and GFO to steadily remove Po4.

Even if the tank wasn't started with dry base rock, seems GHA is one of the algae stages new tanks experience. Though it shouldn't be as bad as tanks started with dry limestone for example.

In any case, aggressive manual removal is the best first step. Remove as much by hand as possible. Then scrub with a tooth brush any areas which you can. This is best followed by a water change of 10-25% to further manually remove the smaller particles and dilute the mess of microscopic junk you just created.

GFO in a reactor changed every two weeks if GHA still grows or monthly if GHA is dying off will certainly help. During this time I wouldn't recommend adding any livestock. Fish will add to the bio load and coral may not be happy going through the stress of moving tanks plus being introduced to heavy GFO.

Protein skimming will help immensely as well.

Best of luck.

 

[LeJeune981]

I agree with the post above.. but want to add a little something..

I battled with the for a long..... LONG... time..

I did all of the above.. including pulling out all 100 lbs of live rock in my display and scrubbing them with a tooth brush in a bucket of salt water...but it ALWAYS CAME back with a vengeance...

I'm pretty sure it's because I over feed..and well... I don't plan on stopping lol

Anyways... the way I beat it is with an "upflow algae turf scrubber"

Did some reasurch.. then built my own for about 20 bucks..

About a month... month and a half later my display and fuge were algae free..

My ats grows all the algae now.. in an easily accessible and easily removed place

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[mcgyvr]

Lets not forget that the phosphate could be from excessive feeding as foods are typically pretty high in phosphate..
Reducing feeding and just doing a few water changes should lower the nutrient level and can help reduce the fuel for the algae..

I personally avoid ever recommending GFO as it is quite powerful and can do more harm than good..
Your corals need phosphates just like the algae does.. Attempting to starve the algae with GFO is also starving your corals...

 

[RobZilla04]

Yes GFO, if used, should not be run 24/7/365. I am using it now to knock down some green algae on the back glass and some red turf on a few rocks and the overflow divider. Once the algae has been knocked back about 80% I intend on taking the GFO reactor offline to ensure I don't strip too much Po4. Test, test, and test again.

 

[Tastee]

Thanks all.

The tank was started with live rock.
I am running a protein skimmer 24x7.
I feed mostly Dainichi Marine FX pellets daily, and Mysis shimps twice a week (instead of pellets on those days).

I'll have a look into the turf scrubber, a little down the track I am planning to replace the standard ATO with a Neptune one fed from an RODI unit, and then re-purpose the ATO as a small refugium.


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