::Sigh:: GHA has me seriously thinking of quitting.

Discussion in 'Algae' started by Kevin3884, Aug 25, 2011.

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  1. barbianj

    barbianj Hammer Head Shark

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    Did you run your Mag over 1,800 with Kent Tech M? You didn't mention that.
     
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  3. Powerman

    Powerman Giant Squid

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    Well to be fair to the OP... he didn't actually ask a question on how to fix it, so don't say he isn't taking advice... now if you just want to vent, then carry on. If you do want help, there is plenty here.

    I'll let the experts deal with bryopsis, never had it.

    If it is algae, then you do not have a algae problem, you have a nutrient problem. Period. No nutrients, no algae.

    One of the most overlooked... does your rockwork have good flow through it? Not around it, through it. Have you taken a power head to your rock work till nothing comes out? Is most of it on the sand bed or off it? How clean is it? If you do find dead spots and trouble areas, they need to be cleaned and your rock work needs to be opened up and provided with good flow.

    If the rock are leaching out nutrients... not much you can do. Wait it out till it's done, or remove them. Move your coral, get frags, and get new rock.

    At this point, a fuge is supposed to provide a more beneficial place for algae to grow instead of the main tank. This is not the case. I would suggest getting cheato. Removing some caulerpa every 3 month is telling you it is not aggressive enough to out compete what is in your tank. You may have to go to an extended diminished light cycle to help turn the favor to the fuge. Also, caulerpa is not dense enough. Cheato spread out across the fuge can capture much much more light that caulerpa to grow faster. It isn't enough to have some, you need a lot.... then don't harvest it down to a small ball, leave it big... keeping it spread out and thin ensures there is none dying on the inside.

    So you run GFO... how much, and how often do you change it.... you do not need to run it... you need to overdose it. And I know so many that change it every 2 months... may work in a ultra low nutrient tank... not in yours. I would go by max amount for your tank, and change it every week till things turn around. Also, yes you have never measured PO4 because it is getting taken up... but unless you have a high res kit.. you have never had anything close to a accurate test. Merck and Tunze make high res kits... everything else is for gross reading only and I would not trust any of them below 2.... which is about 100x more than good. Right now though, you don't need a test to tell you if you have PO4... all that stuff on the rocks tells you have lots.

    Not sure if carbon dosing or pellets is enough. Mainly used in low nutrient systems to go lower... you have very elevated nutrients.

    You are skimming well??? So what skimmer do you have and what is your tank size? Does it produce skimmate off and on or continuously? Is it set up properly?

    Do you mechanical filter? I was not a fan of it, but you may need to for a bit to get things turned around. Use floss or socks... stir things up, blow out rock work... take a section of your sand bed and stir up the first inch or two... just sections not all of it, eventually get it all... filter all that stuff out and change filters and do it again in a few days.
     
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  4. Thatgrimguy

    Thatgrimguy Flying Squid

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    This is OUTSTANDING advice.
     
  5. barbianj

    barbianj Hammer Head Shark

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    AWESOME advice. K+ [​IMG]
     
  6. grinder37

    grinder37 Whip-Lash Squid

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    That is bryopsis,i have/had the same,at first sign,i was positive that it was hair algae.I've taken the same steps as you,nothing....cuc would'nt touch it,blackout,phos remover,0 tds water changes,i'm no newbie my self and gha is an easy fix,yet nothing worked and nothing would touch it.I started googling bryopsis and found out there are many species of it and many of these species are often confused for gha.So i started researching the tech m route,asked a couple questions on here and then began dosing the tech m,my mag is slightly over 2000,and most is gone with just a few reminents hanging on,did more research on the tech m treatment,found not all species dies right off like many claim,the mag has to be maintained at that level and can take weeks to even a couple months to rid your tank of it.

    After all you have tried,what would the be harm in trying the tech m?Just raising your mag won't do it,it's a byproduct in the tech m's ingredients,so other brands of mag suppliments typically won't work.Also 1800 is sometimes not high enough,sometimes it has to be taken to 2000,also if you raised your mag with another brand of suppliment,you may need to lower the mag quite a bit so you get a high enough concentration of the impurity of the tech m to do the job.

    And well said Powerman +1
     
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  7. malac0da13

    malac0da13 Torch Coral

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    Also another thing with the tech m is use a squirtter to squirt it right to the bryopsis to kill it faster. That worked pretty good for me.

    Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk
     
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  9. cbs3315

    cbs3315 Ritteri Anemone

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    I know I will hear about this but I'm gonna say it anyway. I had a similar problem except my tank looked much worse. I tried everything myself and nothing was working. My wife told me that I had to get rid of my tank if I couldn't get it fixed soon so I bought some stop hair algae as a last ditch effort to be able to keep my tank. I know that this only band aids the underlying problem but it absolutely worked for me and all the gha or whatever was gone within a weeks time and has not attempted to return. I cut back my lighting to 4 hours a day during this time and moved my powerheads directly on the area I was treating and the next day it was gone. This stuff saved my tank from being taken down and had no ill effects on any of my coral inverts or fish. Just something you may wanna think about to get you through till you can find out the actual problem.
     
  10. cbs3315

    cbs3315 Ritteri Anemone

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    Wish I had pictures to show but I was too embarrassed to let anyone see my tank in that kind of shape.
     
  11. billyboy2

    billyboy2 Coral Banded Shrimp

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    not sure if anyone suggested this yet as i didn't read the entire thread but I had amazing success removing bryopsis and GHA using a type of snail I have never seen before at my LFS.

    They were american star snails..at least thats what they called them.

    I bought 5 and placed them directly on the bad areas. By next day it was demolished. hardly any left at all.

    Also if you have a fuge with macro algae and you have GHA in the fuge you should pick it out . The GHA uses the nutrients in the water faster and easier than most macros and will slowly choke them out(macros) then you will be left with a fuge of GHA. Keeping you mag level high has also helped me in my fight.

    a year ago you would have guessed by looking at my tank that i was a GHA farmer.

    Now i have a reef tank ;)
     
  12. whippy

    whippy Sailfin Tang

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    Any update Kevin?