Help!! GHA outbreak!

So i have been battling gha for about 2 months now. I have been religiously using ro from my lfs for about 3 months. Before that i was using tap with prime before i had corals which i know was bad so thats why i switched to ro. I got the gha from a frag i bought that had a small piece of it on it and a month later it took off. I went as far as removing the rock 1 by 1 and scrubbing it in tank water in a bucket and redoing my rockwork about 2 weeks ago. I build a refugium to help with the battle that i have rock, cheato, and 2 mangroves in. I have been removing what i can by hand and i have 3 good sized emeralds in the dt and 1 small in the refugium(only because i caught him picking at my flowerpot coral and he ate 2 palys that are gone now which i caught him picking at one day and the next they were gone!) I felt that i had it under control until about 4 days ago it just started to take off. Now my rocks are starting to get it everywhere and my tank looks horrible. My reading have always stayed at 0 nitrates, 0 nitrites. Im going to get it checked tomorrow and im planing on buying my own test kit saturday. I was doing 5 gallon water changes once a week but have slacked on it a few weeks here and there due to work. I recently cut down feeding to everyother day as well. I also changed from power compact to leds last week which i run the blues about 10 hours and whites 4 hours. My chalice has started to bleach so i raised the lights another 3-4 inches and cut the whits down to 3 hours today and blues to 8 hours. Im sure the intensity of the leds has aided in the outbreak. What else can i do? I was thinking about either raising my magnesium or vodka dosing but i dont know which is better or even if i should do it at all?!? Any advice would be great in helping me get my tank back to looking good cuz right now it is a war in there.

 

A pic would be quite helpful. Sounds like you may have Bryopsis- some strains look similar to GHA, but it can grow in low-nutrient systems. GHA, OTOH, usually starves fairly easily.

Also, how many and what types of fish do you have? What are you feeding? What type(s) of filtration are you running? Knowing these can help determine the best course of action.

 

At work right now but i can put a pic up when i get home. For fish i have a ocellaris clown, falco hawk, scooter blenny, bi color blenny, bangai cardinal, and a blue with yellow tail damsel that i havent seen in about 2 days. Last time i saw him he was being picked on by the clown so he might have killed him. My clown has taken out 3 fish already so i added the 4 at the same time and an anemone to try to get him to be more civil. Cuc I have a mexican turbo, 4 astrea snails, sand sifting star, 3 emeralds, and 3 small hermits. I have a coralife protein skimmer in the first chamber before the refugium that has been filling up in about 2 days now that i setup the fuge as compared to once a week when i had the sump. The algae is mostly green hair like patches all over the rocks and there are a few spots that are a redish color and other spots have bubbles trapped in them but i think thats cuz the pump was blowing bubbles the otber day cuz i had a long shift at work and ran low on water before i got home. Ill add a pic when i get jome around 530-6.

 

Also feeding marine cusine and mysis shrimp which i switch between every 2 days now

 

I think its called marine cusine lol.

 

Or maybe marine mix, its the red frozen cubes. I dont like them very much cuz it looks like theres alot of crap mixed with them. I was planning on getting something else when its used up which i have about 5 blocks left

 

Oh and i usually shave about 2 slivers off and put them in tank water. Pour it in a little at a time till its gone. Takes about a week to use a block.

 

If you don't have one, get a good skimmer, add biopellets. When they've cycled, do the Dr. Tims red slime bomb. Wait patiently.

Your reading will of course be low... the GHA ate all the PO4 and NO3. You need to set up a system that reliably exports more than you import. If that is not the case, nothing else you do will make a difference.

 

Algae scrubber

Try putting an algae scrubber in your refuge. Basically just a piece of plastic netting or frag rack that you get the GHA to start growing on. Put lots of light on it and keep that growing fast. It will out compete your main tank for nutrients. Then clean it off now and again to keep it under control. Also try getting a larger cleanup crew. More hermit crabs and snails will help.

 

I have a coralife super skimmer 65g. My tank is a 55. Its rated for 65 gallons so that should be good right? With the bio pellets do i put them inside the skimmer or in a filter sock?