I have invincible GHA AHHHH!!!!

ya i think ive had 4 sea hares in the past all died within two weeks by being stuck to a power head. i wont be trying those again. and i had big mexican turbo snails that tore through the GHA but died for some reason after about a month

 

Drew,

My turbos did the exact same thing, weird huh. What about a tang for the GHA?

 

i have never had any luck with turbos eating GHA... Had some good luck with hermits eating my turbos. But the sea hares normally have to be taken back once the majority of the algae is gone. or if they get sucked into powerheads. But those guys did the job in 29, and even had one die (or chopped) without any effect. The posions if any change from species to species. I always use the blue spotted SH

 

i dont want a tang cuz it would get to big and i dont feel like fishing a fish out of my tank.

 

When I got my second tank it was covered in GHA and I was still a newbie at the time. I battled it for 6 months before I decided to buy a completely new system and transfer everything over to my 95 gallon wave. This is how I got rid of my GHA and certain areas, which helped me maintain my tank for the last two years. I also have a 24 and 12 gallon reef and macro algae tanks with no GHA. The stuff is tough to get rid of once it takes hold.

My 100 gallon was covered in GHA from almost every surface of the rocks to the back wall.

Physical removal:

During the tank transfer I took out every rock and pulled as much of the GHA off as I could and scrubbed it with new vegatable brushes and tooth brushes.

Starve out the remaining:

1) I began rinsing all of my frozen food prior to feeding the tank.
2) 20-30% weekly water changes for 6 months and backed off to 20-30% every two weeks.
3) Add Phosphate Reactor and Refugium with Chaeto.
4) Increased my LR to 175lbs and took out my Deep Sand Bed in my display.
5) Long Spined Urchin devoured the GHA, but started eating zoas and clams once he did his job and there was no algae left in the tank.

I'd be lying if I said there is never a spec of GHA in my tank, but it's usually just on the powerheads. I haven't seen any on my rockwork in 18 months.

One last reminder: Check your RO/DI water source by using a TDS meter. Turns out that for the last 3 months I've been using tap water because my LFS's filters were depleted. My TDS reading was 33, so now I'm getting my RO/DI from another reefer until I get my system setup. Good luck with the GHA..

Nano's are a little different, so if you have a smaller tank you could do without all of the fancy equipment.

 

Nice write up!!! K+

 

My previous tank was taken over by gha. Turned out to be my water source. I was getting R/O water from my LFS. Long story short, their filters were no good. I got my own R/O D/I system and no more GHA.