Winning the war on GHA

[texdoc77]

I have a new tank and it is still finishing its stabilization process. As part of this I developed a nasty little green hair algae problem. Now my best attributes don't include patience, but I do research and decided that my phosphates were high regardless that my test kit said they were not. So on the advice of other more experienced reefers I stopped overfeeding and added a phosphate reducing substance to the tank. In my case I added phosguard to my canister. I also routinely removed as much as I could with a tooth brush on a weekly basis as well. Finally I added a cuc and a lawnmower Blenny.

Well there had been no significant change in well over two months but this last week I began to see some tan/grey substance in the rocks and sand bed. Now just over the last two days I have realized that the GHA is turning that very same color and dying off all over the tank. This is a huge win for me because I usually only learn lesssons the hard way but was able to be patient and get good results on this occasion.

Just a little note of encouragement from an impatient reefer to maybe other impatient reefers. It's been said over and over but good things don't happen in a hurry in a tank, though bad ones can. Oh and if anyone remembers I did have a little bryopsis and ended up just taking that entire piece of LR out of the tank with good results.

 

[SALTYwaterDOG]

Good for you! It's good to success stories. Hope your luck continues

 

[gone fishin]

Glad to hear it. Patience is the key, it seems algae can show up overnight but take months to go away.

 

[Johnnycat]

Way to hang in there!

Just out of curiosity, does/did your lawnmower blenny attack the GHA?

 

[texdoc77]

Way to hang in there!

Just out of curiosity, does/did your lawnmower blenny attack the GHA?

No question the blenny helped, but definitely not a means to an end. I really like him but given the choice I wish I still had my Midas Blenny.

 

[vooDoo213]

I got done cycling my 90g + 29g sump a month ago. GHA was off the chart, got four turbo snails + blenny + yellow Tang and GHA got destroyed in three days. My tang and blenny loved GHA, damn fun watching them eat together all day long.

I see you added phosguard to your filter, I did the same. Before phosguard, I was testing to see how fast the GHA can grow so I cranked the light up very bright and it was exploding with bright light. After phosguard added to my filter, I barely have any algae growing. This stuff is very potent and works extremely fast! Just make sure to rinse it before putting it to work.