Oh the frustration!

[oscarmeir]

I've been battling GHA for several months now, doing everything the good book says to do but to no avail.

I started two weeks ago with AlgaeFix and it made the tiniest dent in the jungle. Maybe.

Yes I've been harvesting as much as I can twice a week, water changes, cut back on feeding, on lighting, running PhosBan in my reactor, but nothing's working.

Yesterday my LFS sold me a sea hare for $50 tells me that it will make it all go away. So I take him home, acclimate him, and watch as he heads directly for my Elegance coral, immediately gets enveloped by tentacles, and was dead when I gently pried him off a few minutes later.

I left him in a quiet corner overnight in case maybe he was just knocked out. But this morning he was still there with hermits all over him. Bye bye bunny wabit.

i don't mind investing some of my hard earned cash into my tank but I hate seeing money going down the drain like that.

Sorry to vent but needed to let out to people who understand.
Life goes on. As does the algae.

 

[CHSUB]

GHA can be very frustrating, takes months of multiple changes to overcome....sorry if it was not intended, but your post was very funny!!!

 

[oscarmeir]

Yeah. Trying to keep the cool.

 

[FishN00b83]

Oh the frustration!

have you tried spot treating with h2o2 or GFO? I had it when I first setup my tank. I just starting GFO and brushed the algae off with a toothbrush. my cheato started to grow like crazy and eventually it went away.

nvm you're running phosban..I need to learn how to read lol

 

[Paul B]

I really almost never get involved in algae problems any more but this one time, I would stop changing water. I know virtually everyone will tell you to do that and you saw how great that works. Leave that water alone and keep harvesting the algae. When you change water you are replacing some of the nutrients the algae need. Eventually (if you don't change any water) the water will be stripped of one nutrient or mineral it needs to grow and will start to die. Maybe in 2 weeks or so.
Good luck.

 

[ausgus09]

$50 for a sea hare?! Holy smokes, I bought two for $14...
Not to make your issue seem worse, lol sorry. But what is your current rock situation? Did you add any new rock recently in relation to your GHA? I just walked my buddy through a ridiculous GHA problem and the culprit was the water he was using. I convinced him to try the local grocery stores Primo water in combination with Algae fix and his issue has completely gone away with about 2-4 weeks of work. Following instructions with algaefix, Weekly 15% water changes with Primo and manual scrubbing as the GHA stopped growing as rapidly as it was before.
Hope this helps. Goodluck!

 

[zeebies]

A few questions to help you look for answers:

What fish do you have in the tank? Do you use RODI or tap water? Did you start with RODI or tap? Do you turkey baste the rocks during water changes? Exactly how much and what do you feed?

 

[BigCountry74]

how much coral do you have? do you have another tank you can maybe light the coral with?

the fastest way to clear up GHA is to kill the lights for awhile. let it die. then filter out the die off with some heavy mech.

 

[addictedreefer]

Sounds to me that there is an unidentified nutrient source. A few potential suspects: (1) Rock - Did you use true live or dry rock, if dry, what brand? Have you recently added any new rock? For any rock, did you rinse well before adding? (2) Water - Do you use RODI water? Have you checked it lately for TDS? (3) Salt - what mix do you use? Have you tested it for nitrates/phosphates? (4) Feeding - How large is the tank and how much do you feed per day?

 

[oscarmeir]

Ok Docs and Detectives, lets give this a go.

Tank is a 4ft, 90 gallon + a sump. Up and running for 18 months or so.

Current corals that have survived are, one elegant coral, one bubble coral. a few rocks with Zoa's, mushrooms, hammer, leather and an ever growing jungle of Xenia. Whatever is going on is keeping the xenia very very happy.

Overstocked Livestock includes, 1 blue tang, 1 chocolate lemon peel tang, 1 Desjardini, all about 3-4 inches. 4 red Ocellaris, 3 Black, 3 blue green chromis, 2 Engineer Goby, 1 Red Goby. 1 green manderin, 1 Black Sailfin Blenny, 1 Six line wrasse, asst hermits, turbos, conchs.

There is about 100lbs of live rock in the tank. - with the exception of about 10-15 lbs all were dry. cured. No clue what company. From a crate in my LFS. and I really haven't added anything in the past year. maybe a small piece with a coral on it.

Using this R/O system

Using Red sea pro salt.

Nitrates and phosphates are zero. Which I know doesn't make sense. Nitrate and Phosphate test kits are from API. The internet tells me that the algae is eating the phosphates hence the zero. Not sure if I agree.

I never verified the efficiency of the r/o kit. That is a good lead. Can anyone recommend a good TDS checker?

I have tried the lights off in the past, maybe I'll give it another shot together with the Fix.

Feeding frozen artemia or mix every other day. one cube. Gets inhaled within a minute.

Do a 60l water change about once a month when things were normal. Now a bit more often. Although I'm liking Paul's suggestion.

Some pics attached for reference

Thanks for the help...

 

[BigCountry74]

Nitrates and phosphates are more than likely zero because the GHA is eating them all up . that is actually the good news lol

TDS checker:

http://www.amazon.com/HM-Digital-TD...d=1426531287&sr=8-1&keywords=tds+tester+meter

hmmm that's a nice tank man. you definitely do not want to kill the lights for too long risking any harm to the nice coral in there. so scratch my advice

when i setup my 135 i purchased some premium live rock off CL. it was caked in GHA (got a good discount because of this ). what i did was scrub each piece with a large brush, and then let it all sit in the tank with the lights off for 10 days running heavy mech filtration to suck the die off out. you obviously cannot do that with your coral though.

i remember the mess I made in our kitchen sink. and the smell. my wife about killed me..haha

try paul's advise. he is correct, in that every water change you do your bringing in more to feed it when it gets this bad (esp at 0 no3 and pos)

whatever you do, do NOT run out and start buying chemicals/tools/$$$ crap to throw at it. I see that so many times on these forums and its awful advise. this is a diy hobby. at least it is for me

with that being said, if killing the water change does not work you could maybe try making an algae scrubber? they are cheap and are fun to make/experiment with. and they work. all you need is a pump you have lying around, some pvc to make the frame, a cheap shop light ballast, and knitting plastic mesh you can pick up at the local craft store (you ziptie the mesh to the frame etc). you could try getting the GHA to harvest on the scubber versus your rock etc.

 

[zeebies]

It's really important to cure dry rock before you use it. Did you cure the 90 lbs of dry rock? If so, how?

If your tank has been running 18 months, when did you start the RO? What did you use before the RO? (RODI is much better btw.)

My first thought is that you really have to get that livestock number down. Your tank can't keep up with all the poop and pee. I'd check in with Snorvich's thread and run your stocking list by him. You'll likely have to remove some fish to get things under control.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=23587603

In short, your problem may have started with too many fish too soon, starting with uncured dry rock and not using RODI from the beginning.

You can defeat it but it will require a time commitment and lots of effort on your part.

 

[Lucky Lefty]

Unfortunately I don't have any input towards a solution. You've encouraged me to share my frustration however. I had my hair algae BEAT. It was 90% gone, everyday I would c9me home from work and it was less and less. I was beyond happy. Fast forward a few weeks and I got a desjardini sailfin, who didn't want to eat for his first week in my tank, so naturally I was putting it ridiculous amounts of food to entice him. He started eating exactly 1 week in, but my over feeding caused a huge algae bloom and I'm almost back to square 1. Very frustrating, but I'm trying what I did before and I think it's working. Strategically placing turbo snails to devour the algae and I'm trying not to overfeed. Good luck.. we both need it.

 

[oscarmeir]

It's really important to cure dry rock before you use it. Did you cure the 90 lbs of dry rock? If so, how?

If your tank has been running 18 months, when did you start the RO? What did you use before the RO? (RODI is much better btw.)

My first thought is that you really have to get that livestock number down. Your tank can't keep up with all the poop and pee. I'd check in with Snorvich's thread and run your stocking list by him. You'll likely have to remove some fish to get things under control.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=23587603

In short, your problem may have started with too many fish too soon, starting with uncured dry rock and not using RODI from the beginning.

You can defeat it but it will require a time commitment and lots of effort on your part.

LFS claimed it was fully cured. I have no indication to the contrary.

R/O started 3-4 months ago, before then I was using tap with prime. Yes I know. Question is now what?

 

[addictedreefer]

I suspect the rock. Many horror stories of some dry rock sources leaching phosphates into the water over time.

 

[zeebies]

"Now what" IS the question.

If it were my tank, for starters I would submit my fish list to Snorvich and take his advice to remove particular fish. Then I would take part of the rock out of the tank. I would choose rock that is infested with algae and that does not have coral on it.

I would do a muriatic acid wash and then a bleach and dry on the rock you take out. Then I would cure that rock in a dark tub of circulating saltwater for a few months. Change water weekly.

Meanwhile I would set up a 10 or 20 gallon tank and start cycling it. When your first batch of rock is "cured", add it to this tank.

Now this is the short version. You may not want to hear the rest of it, but the time and effort will pay off eventually.

You will get lots of other suggestions and only you can choose which route to go.

Best of luck :thumbsup:

 

[eddiereefs]

Have you tried turbo snails, i bought three, hair algae all gone in 3 days no lie, invest the ten dollars.

 

[eddiereefs]

The big mexican ones, not the small ones

 

[BigCountry74]

The big mexican ones, not the small ones

thats what she said!

:dance:

if it makes you feel any better I am battling a monster diatom outbreak in my newly cycled 40 build. i am suspecting the rock as well...i picked up the dry rock via CL. previous owner said it was used in fowlr. the dude probably used tap water also. hopefully i can leach all the bad stuff out over the next few weeks. i am running a ton of snails. they are clearing it. just slow. well they are snails...lol

 

[oscarmeir]

Tell me if I'm wrong here, but considering that half the rocks are tied down with corals, is there a benefit of "re cureing" the rest of the rocks?

And short of flushing the fish there is not a whole lot I can do, lfs doesn't like taking back fishes. So basically I'm screwed from foundation up and really need to start all over?