It's all we can see!!!!!! GHA

Hi everyone. Me and my husband are still battling our GHA brake out .. I posted about it about 2 weeks ago.. Its been almost 2 months sense it started now. We tried phosphate sponge as well as phosphate pad.. We have uped our water changes to every 4 days, our lights are only on for 7hrs. Our Nitrates are reading 0, PH 8.4, Ammonia 0, Temp is 78, Salinity is 1.026. We dont have a test for phosphate our LFS does not carry anything extra for test kits, they only have the basics.. We are going to be ordering a better test kit in a week or so... Our current test kit is about 6 months old. We just added a refugium tank. Hopefully the refugium will help in the long run.. but we need more ideas of what to do.. Its taking over... last week it looked liked it was starting to go away then boom!! their it was again.:-/.. We have a good idea what started the GHA so we have done everything to prevent that from happening.. the only other thing we were thinking is that around the time of the out brake we had changed brands of salt because our LFS was out of the stuff we usually use.. could that be added to the reason why it started?? We are getting desperate.. We were thinking about getting some of the algae go away stuff or what ever its called.. but we have a peace of coral.. its a type of xenia and we have another coral that is a tree xenia type that we are brining back to life.. it was dieing because it was stuck in the middle of the xenia... So we dont know if the algae go away stuff would be a good idea to add to our tank.. Any suggestions?? We have 4 crabs, 15 or more hurmit crabs (some BL and some RL), one snail, 2 clowns, 6line wrasse, clown gobby, royal gamma, and a yellow tail damsel. 6 month old 26gal tank, with about 20-25lbs of live rock, seaclone protine skimmer, canister filter system built for a 65gla tank, so there is lots of water flow, and 150watt compact florescent lights that are only 3 months old.. Help???
sorry about the glare...

 

I would start by shutting the lights out for at least 3-4 days. Not on for 7 hours as they currently are. Just turn them off, and leave them off, for at least 3-4 days.
Is the tank set-up near a window or any other source of natural light? What is your water flow situation?

 

Sea clone skimmers suck, is your husband mechanically inclined at all, there is a mod you can do to it to make it preform better, it envolves removing the impeller and replacing it with a chopped down bio ball, google it.

I also didnt see your dkh listed, this could be part of your problem.

 

If we turn the lights off will the coral be ok?? The tank is set up on the only wall that gets minimal natural lighting.. It may get about 30min of natural light..

Rgarding wareagle35031 comment.
"Sea clone skimmers suck, is your husband mechanically inclined at all, there is a mod you can do to it to make it preform better, it envolves removing the impeller and replacing it with a chopped down bio ball, google it.

I also didnt see your dkh listed, this could be part of your problem."

My husband is very mechanically inclined I will tell him about that.. We currently do not have a dkh tester but we do have a Alk tester and it currently reads in the normal zone.

 

Seeing that you have a xenia in there I wouldnt turn the lights off for 3-4 days, that just might kill them. You need to test for Po4. Are you feeding alot? When was the last time you changed/cleaned out your filters. Luna

 

We changed our filters about 2 weeks ago and we currently dont have a Po4 test kit.. We need to get one... But our LFS does not have any for salt. and the closes one from them is about 2 hours away.. It sucks living in a small town..lol... We cut way way back on the feeding from 3 times to once a day and it is a very very small amount.. just enough so the fish dont starve.. I have been watching the fish when it comes to feeding time and they gobble it all up.. Their is literally no food that hits the bottom.. We dont know what else to do... I guess we could cut the lights down some more.. What do you suggest for how long they should be on...?? Also, is that algae remover stuff ok to use in our tank??

 

6 fish in a 26 gallon tank? That's too much. All of the waste they produce will contribute to high nitrates, especially since that seacrap skimmer won't remove enough dissolved organics to keep up with the bio-load. Your nitrates are zero because the GHA is utilizing it as fast as the nitrate is produced. You need to reduce the bio-load and probably the amount of food your feeding. You also need a better skimmer. I ran a Seacrap for 6 years before I replaced it with an AquaC Remora. Wish I would have done it sooner. And your refugium doesn't look as if there's any macroalgae in it. Can't do much to lower nitrates and phosphates unless there's something in there to absorb them.

 

Our refugium is only a few days old... I suppose i should have said that in the beginning, sorry.. My husband is looking around to see if he can tweak the seacrap so it runs better..lol.. It always stops working for a few days when ever we do anything to the tank...

 

Go on-line and buy the Po4 test kit and test for it. You can buy some turbo snails and they will eat all that LHA right up. You need to find out whats causing it first. I think that Reeron has a good point, too many fish in a small tank and your probably feeding alot. Keep in mind that fish produce the most waste, a waste is what causes No3 and Po4. Luna

 

Tangster is currently using Ultra Algae x on his bryopsis problem, a new product from Germany. It is reef safe, but directions have to be followed to the 't'. It is a last resort type of thing and is fairly expensive, about $60 for a 500ml, $30 for a 250ml bottle. It seems to be working for him and his corals are fine so far. Others have had very good experiences with it