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

Fantastic thread. So much like the hassles I went through.
Feels better to know others have such issues.
And it is so frustrating when people say - "Oh just GHA, that's easy".

Well, I am still going through it to some extent. Not 100% gone.
Great advice from Powerman as well.

First: From all the pictures and descriptions, it really seems that you may have BOTH!
I think I did. I would get tufts of tough stringy non-fern bryopsis, and then get
hair algae growing in and around it. From those pics, looks similar.
And that might explain confusion under a microscope.
When I scraped with a wire brush, the differences were more obvious.
Or maybe it is super-GHA. Don't know. Whatever it is - Nasty.

Second: I believe there is no one single cure!
If you try X, then Y, then Z, it may not work, ever.
But if you do X + Y + Z, at the same time, then you may succeed!

For me:
1) Removed the worst rocks.
2) High magnesium.
3) Super low nutrients.
(Less feeding, bigger skimmer, Carbon, Purigen, phosban, turf scrubber.)
Yes, all of those, all at the same time.
4) Stronger flow.
5) Wait months.
It is receding and bleaching. Although the now-white tufts are still tough to
pull out.

Cleanup crew did nothing.
Tangs, red+blue hermits, and any type of snail I could find.

Oh, and that rock I removed I wanted to save, so I put it in a covered bucket.
About 3 months later, that stuff was still there, and still green.
Not growing, but not dead. The only light was through the side of the bucket,
from simple house lighting.

 

So I decided as a last ditch effort to get rid of my GHA problem (which it was GHA for sure), to get rid of what I deemed "Problem Rock"...so 125lbs of rock removed later...this is what I have going in my tank now...I lost a lot of SPS due to the GHA/removing rock, tho i salvaged as much as i could from the rocks....I also bought a skimmer rated for tanks up to 700G, and added a boat load MORE macro to my fuge....I am still not done with the battle...but compared to when I was at my wits ends...it sure has come a LONG ways...I plan on upgrading to LED lights by the end of the year too.

 

looks good. welcome back from the edge!

 

I'm sure if you ordered from john he recommended them, but I have some cerith snails in my cuc. I had one particular piece of rock that was heavier with GHA than the spots here and there. I put the ceriths directly on the rock. They move slow, buy when they move from a spot, it is back down to bare rock and coralline. Just my 2 cents.

 

I have just about every different breed of snails, hermits, nudis, hares, chitons, urchins in my CUC...they wouldnt, and still wont touch the algae.....its all manual removing..

 

well if it's any consolation I think the composition of your new tank layout looks alot more interesting than the older flat "wall" of rock.

 

Algae problems are usually caused by aquarium water with excess nutrients like phosphate, nitrates etc. In the long term you may have to examine how you care for your tank. There are some commercial dry foods also contain excess nutrients and other undesirable things like nitrates, phosphates etc so I strain/rinse my fresh/frozen foods before feeding my tank. You may want to consider feeding your fish less often. Also using RO/DI water and a high quality salt with little if any NO3, phosphates etc like Tropic Marin will really help too. Adding a phosphate remover, increasing flow in your tank, adjusting your tank's photo period or replacing old bulbs may help too.

 

Kevin, the tank looks great even with less rock and I sure it looks even better than it did the last time I saw it ;D