GHA how long does it last!

I know the main reason of my gha is that it's because it's a new tank and it's one of the normal stages of a new tank. But my question is how long does this horrid algae stay for? it's starting to grow pretty long on the rocks and getting really bad on the glass. I'm also getting a little bit of cyano.

To get this out of the way, tank is 3 months old, livestock is 2 clowns and a blue tuxedo urchin. Yes Ro/di water is used. And i do have some nitrates but is going down. No i don't have a phosbane *sp* reactor or anything like that but i'm considering one, but i don't know.

So how long does this ugliness last! i hate it! i remember seeing jwin's and triplemom's gha algae at the beginning and hope mine doesnt get as bad as theirs.

 

It depends. HA is a really tough issue to deal with. I lost power over 4 years ago for a week while I was away and my whole tank melted down. I kept going but I am still dealing with HA from that long ago because my live rock sucked up so much nitrate and phosphate and it's been leaching out ever since.

Watch your feedings (I feed my tank twice a week), keep up on your water changes and maintenance, and look for ways to decrease nutrients being added and increase nutrients being removed from your tank. GFO and water changes are some of those. If you don't have a refugium consider adding one, and research other methods of starving out the HA.

I know a lot of tanks that never cycled through an HA algae phase, so I'm not sure it's part of the normal cycle.

Good luck with it. This is one of the hardest things I've had to deal with since I entered the hobby.

 

IME it doesn't go away as part of a cycle like a diatom bloom. It will stay forever and take over your tank unless you do something about it. Are you using RO/DI water? Have you measured your TDS and phosphates?

 

thanks for the tips. i'll look into a a refugium to see if theres a way i can add one to my tank

 

yes using ro/di wather. i don't have a test for TDS or phosphates, but i do have some nitrate, i forget the exact number from last week but i do weekly tests and will be testing tomorrow.

 

I wouldn't wait for it to go away on its own. Try a CUC and consider a fuge with chaeto. Buy a TDS meter and check to make sure your RO/DI is working. You may need to change your DI resin.

I got out of the hobby the first time because I got tired of brushing all my rocks with a toothbrush every couple of weeks. It got so long that my clowns would host a patch of it. This was 20 years ago when RO systems were really expensive and nobody was using LR and fuges. We've come a long way.

 

In your case, I think you'll be dealing with this for quite some time.

Going back (again :-/) to the uncured LR you're using. Your nitrates are low because the GHA is soaking it up... but the source is that rock.

I would seriously look into nuking the majority of that rock and putting it back in later as base rock.

Another option is to get some major CuC that can keep up with it... either way, without a CuC yet... well... CuC is why I don't have any... they eat it faster than it can grow in my system.

Whatever happens, good luck!

 

ok. If it gets really out of hand i will really consider nuking and using base.



and as far as cuc goes, i get paid next week so im hoping i will be able to get my credit card down and get some from reefcleaners next week.

 

It's not a normal part of a new tank. It comes from nutrients being to high. Agreed with mocarski above.

The first thing I would do is order a GFO reactor and some Rowaphos. What are your phosphate levels?

 

Ok.. I see you don't have a PO4 yet .. Get one pronto. Phosphate is algaes favorite food. It is essentially fertilizer.