GHA how long does it last!

IMO it is unreasonable to set the bar at introducing 0 nitrates into your system. You are going to get them - from food, poop, tons of sources.

one way of getting rid of nitrates is via algae growth (as you are experiencing). But like everything else in nature, this needs to be kept in check. That is where your CuC comes in. They eat the algae. (and the CuC does not tend to grow out of control like GHA )

The goal is to strike a balance between how fast your algae grows and how fast your CuC eats it. This is primarily controlled by CuC population control. As it turns out, John Maloney is almost magically gifted at predicting this balance. It is really quite amazing how many folks can attest to that.

In much the same way your tank will forever cycle invisibly to you, the cycle of nitrates -> algae -> full CuC tummies should be invisible to you other than a living CuC (w/o die-off); that is to say you should not ever notice the algae grow.

That is the goal... some tanks seem to really be *in the zone* on this and others are not.

I just felt like typing and thinking on that... just my opinions on balance in nature and mimicking that in a tank.

 

Doesn't sound like you are overfeeding but depending on what you are keeping you might be able to cut back further without issue.

Did I read that you have uncured rock in your system? If so then you'll be looking to maximize getting the ha fertilizer out. I had the same issue and upgraded my skimmer, increased water changes, started running rowaphos in a two little fishies reactor, beefed up my fuge, and kept harvesting it.

Try to get after it as much as you can. Once it gets established it's a bear to get rid of.

Good luck, keep after it and keep us posted. I'll try to post some before and after pics of my tank so you know it's possible to beat. I almost quit a few times over it.

 

Deff. get yourself a tds meter, i had the same issue, tested my ro water realized that it was coming out at about 60, I then changed all of the media in the ro di unit. It now comes out at zero. Scrubb the rock, try to get out as much of the loose stuff as you can, increase water changes, stir up your sand bed small sections at a time, as to not sent your tank into a whole new cycle but to help get out any of the phosphates that are trapped. Get yourself a few BIG i mean BIG mex. turbo snails, 3 should be fine, they are cheap as well. They ate through mine GHA so fast and they loved it. But you have to break up the GHA first or they will not touch it, also when it is in clumps it just holds on to the phosphates. Also get yourself some chemipure or some other phosphate removal media. Mine was really bad and taking over everything as well and now im free and clear of it. After you scrub the rocks, try to suck out as much of the floating stuff as possible with a small water change, what I did was syphoned it with a tube with a fine mess net at the end to trap all of the GHA, i then placed the water back into my tank as to not waste too much water. i also have a uv steralizer to help kill the spores so i was able to do that, not sure if it will as much for your setup however.

 

its about time for ur cuc

 

I'm fighting back a GHA invasion since I put in non-cycled dry-rock that apparently had lots of phosphate in it.


I've been dosing quite heavily on carbon (glucose and vitamin C) and cutting photoperiod back to 5 hours, and it's made a significant dent in the algae invasion.

 

Reviving an old thread here but wanted to post this to give an idea of how hard and long it could be to win the battle against HA. My tank crashed in 2006 due to a power outage and after 3 years of doing everything they tell you to do I still had a serious HA issue. Got a high-end, seriously overpowered protein skimmer and in addition to everything else it made a major positive impact. A friend of mine and I put together a video we entered into a contest sponsored by Vertex. It highlights their product but I think the video paints a realistic picture of just how hard HA is to beat.

And I thnk you'll be amazed at how bad my HA problem was and how great it looks now in comparison. HA can be beat but it's not easy. It's very easily the hardest thing I deal with in this hobby.

Hope you like the video.
YouTube - Vertex Aquaristik " It aint easy being Green"

 

i did not get HA growth in may tank even though i bought a used powerhead that had red HA on it and i was ignorant to put it in the tank. but my snails cleaned them (i think along with the hippotang) i'm running a canister filter and dont have sump and i used tap water for a while. tank is 6 months old. i think i got lucky and i hope my mistakes don't come back and bite me in the A. i added cheato and another red macro in dt and it helped a lot with other algae ( iguess diatoms). good luck with your fight

 

hi i had a big problem wiv gha,i tried elimphos bags,worked great but it didnt totaly wipe it out,left some for the cuc to eat.i know use aquakat tankclear,none left all gone,ammonia,phos,nitrate,all gone and its not chemical its all plant extracts.got it off ebay,i put 1ml a day for the first week then 1ml each week,it truly works,and it enhances the work of your filter system,skimmer etc and not as many waterchanges,give it a go youll be well pleased ;D

 

I was where you are at 3 week's ago - I started with tap water - I didn't know any better (well actually my lfs told me it was fine) Now my GHA is 95% gone. (started with a refugium)
Cheto was / is sucking up the nitrogen (big fan)
1 collector sea urchin
1 lawnmower benney
added gfo
put 5 more algae eating snails in (up to 10)
did a 20% water change (before the gfo)
scrubbed a few rocks to clean off the gha

I am very happy with the turn around in 3 weeks - and getting better every day.
I have a very light bioload still on my 4th month. (75gal)