Another unbeatable GHA

Joined
29 Jan 2014
Posts
23
Reaction score
0
Location
Kempton Park
Hi Guys,

After about 5 months of struggling with GHA I decided to make a post and get some pro assistance as i am currently fed up.

I had a 3 ft tank when the GHA started, (early Dec '14), that thank was a year old, I then decided to upgrade the tank to a 4ft. Ever since algae is just growing...

Tank parameters:
NO3 :0 or undetectable.
PO4 : 0.08
SG : 1.025
Mg : 1320
Ca : 430
KH : ~9-10
PH : 8.2
Temp : ~25°C

Setup :
4Ft tank
2x 55W T5 (one reef blue one cool white)~4 Months old.
3Ft sump (old tank converted to sump)
Jebao rw-8 flow pump and some Chinese 700L/h cheepie
2x 2000L/h return pumps
Bubble Magnus Curve 5
Two little fishies phosban reactor 150
2x 300W heaters
15W UV-always on
Total volume about 350L

LS:
2x Chromis
2x Clowns
1x Bicolour Blennie
1x 6line wrase
1x Manderin
2x Anthias
2x Demsels
1x Tiger Goby
2x Fire Shrimp
2x Cleaner shrimp
3x Urchins
6x Hermits
3x Snails
lots of brittle stars and those white little ones
Zenia
lots of pollops
4x Tubeworms
3x Pin cushion mushroom
Few mushrooms
Few Manjano (I like them tho )
Some Candy Coral
Small Kenya Tree

History to try to beat algae.
1)Purchased Redsea Algea Pro Test kit (NO3 & PO4), used salifert before.
2)Added RW-8 and second return pump as I read I "might" not have enough flow.
3)Dosed NOPOX (1L) - ReadSea algae management program
4)Added refugium containing cheato, center compartment in sump (about 500mmx 370mm by 200mm), to compete against GHA for nutrients, - 20W Red Grow LEDS
5)Added second Heater - apparently temp swings could assist algae growth too.
6)Added Phosban reactor, running ~200ml RowPhos - apparently best to remove PO4 and don't need any NO3 (unlike NOPOX)
7)Removed Activated carbon, it leeched PO4, threw some in 500ml RO and tested positive.
8)Reduced lighting period from 11hrs to 4 hrs, (after a week back to 11)
9)Tried Black out for 3 days about 4 times.
10)Removed auto feeder
11)Feed once at night frozen brine(blue packet, one with omega) (poor fish starving)
12)Added 6x Hermits, smallish
13)Added 3x Urchins, golf ball sized
14)Added Giant Lawnmower Blennie ( GF called it Whale), unfortunately he passed on. (post here on masa).
15)Added BioCubes (in the beginning before algae to help nitrate removal)

My Cheato is growing like hell.
Plopys thats no coverd with GHA looks very good.
Zenia grows quite quick. Went from 1 branch to about 6 in 3 months.
Algae is growing about 10 - 15 mm a week,
Every Sunday I clean of the algae pulling off the most,while siphoning them out through a filter sock, and the brushing the rocks.
Skimmer is set up to wet skimming, (greenish muck)
I stopped dosing NOPOX as I dont have any NO3 so its apparently pointless.
I am dosing KH (Reef Foundation B) to keep at 10dKH
Salt is Red Sea Coral Pro, doing 10% water change monthly.
RO water TDS is 7 - Own System. and connected to ATU
Dosing Vitamins (Vita chem I think) 5ml once a week.

I have 2 "base rocks" brought over from 3ft tank which is completely covered in GHA all other rocks have patches of GHA so i assume PO4 leaching from the base, would have thought it would stop by now, I cant remove any rocks as they all have pollops growing on them.
Temp drops to 24 with Loadshedding, Inverter not strong enough to run heaters.
Running Genny over weekends with Loadshedding and heaters is on then.

I have removed my filter sock as it kills to many pods, - should I rather keep it in?

I listed everything as I don't know if I do something wrong or not doing anything i should.


That is it I think, so what is next? what do I do next?
 
I had a discussion with another reefer and he said 7 is high but not critical, 9 is apparently the limit?
Correct me if i'm wrong?
 
Will have to wait for a pro.I've tagged lawrence from @Aquaria-SA to help.
But I'm almost 100% sure 7 is to high and that's your problem.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
sounds like you're in the "zone", 5 months old... Algae will generally always be a problem. The trick is you need to be a good maintenance manager, I'm not saying at all that you are a kak one, but it comes down to husbandry and upkeep, as well as moving the algae to another place within the system that is more favorable than your display tank.

it looks as tho you have the Issues resolved in you water column.

what this could point to is the live rock you used was either left exposed to fairly high nutrient levels or either excessive yet low nutrient levels over a long period of time.

Where do you find the GHA accumulating?

If i were you:

Clean what I can off of the rocks, dose Vodka, 2 months down the line, smile.

Read up on the vodka dosing.
 
11)Feed once at night frozen brine(blue packet, one with omega) (poor fish starving)
Rather go with flake food.

Are you doing water changes?

Next time, instead of brushing the rocks. Rather drain the old water from the water change into 2 tubs. Pull out some of the rocks and rather scrub it in the one tub. Then rinse in the other. Before returning it into the tank.

Also, dipping the rocks a couple of times, swirling them around, to wash out detritus and whatever other loose bits that is inside out into the tub.
 
7)Removed Activated carbon, it leeched PO4 , threw some in 500ml RO and tested positive.
What do you mean by threw in 500ml RO and tested positive?

I stopped dosing NOPOX as I dont have any NO3 so its apparently pointless.
Not really a good idea in my opinion, you need to continue with the nopox in order to keep the Nitrates down, you just reduce the amount that you are dosing.

Can you post some pics? Just to confirm it is GHA and not Bryopsis or something else?
 
ok i would get your RO down to 0, why add more to the fuel
PO4 can cause some of your issues
The rock itself is leaching PO4 so the GHA will get all it needs from there.
add a long-spine urchin, these will devour all the GHA.
you will have to wait it out i am afraid, or remove the base rock causing the issues
 
sounds like you're in the "zone", 5 months old...
Algae was there since day one in upgraded tank

Where do you find the GHA accumulating?
Mainly on baserock, bit on other rocks.

Read up on the vodka dosing.
Isnt this the same than dosing NOPOX?


Are you doing water changes?
Yes, 10% monthly and clean substrate while at it

What do you mean by threw in 500ml RO and tested positive?
the carbon leached PO4
yes sorry, here a link:
ActivCarbonHPO4art

ok i would get your RO down to 0,
Yes main objective now will check what is going on.

The rock itself is leaching PO4 so the GHA will get all it needs from there.
Yes but how long will this still go on?

add a long-spine urchin, these will devour all the GHA.
I have 3 reasonable sized ones (Stomopneustes variolaris)
they do eat the rock clean but algae grows quicker than they can eat.
Stomopneustes variolaris - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


I have cleaned out allot of algae on Sunday and threw out about half 25L drum of cheato,(removed a third). Will take pictures tonight and then again on sunday an will post them.

Thanx for all the tips !!
 
Last edited:
Hi

I’m no guru but I got a 4 foot set up (400 litre or close to that) and had a similar nightmare that took me about 4 months to get under control. Feel your pain, after lots of google this is what I did:

Fish & Food:
• 1st things 1st – 11 fish even though small species is quite a lot in a 4 foot – I have 10 in my 4 foot and I reckon it should be 8 maybe 9.
• Don’t starve your fish but be careful of over feeding – frozen once a day every second day, flake enough for them to consume in a minute or two max

RO:
• Make sure adding decent RO water – don’t help if you pouring fertilizer in

Two Part Calcium Supplements, Vitamins and Amino Acids:
• Careful of this stuff – scrutinize ingredients on 2 part Calcium/ KH supplements sometimes have Iron which makes algae grow like mad, Amino Acids, reef snow etc. will add to your algae problem if you not careful with it – I would leave it alone all together until you go a handle on the Algae

Bio Cubes, No Pox, Phosban etc. all work but you need to be careful combining them as they can work against each other.

• I eventually stuck with NoPox because I found you can be very precise on the dosage especially if you have it on a dosing pump
• 1st I had a DSB – I realised that for NoPoX to work on Phosphate as well as Nitrate it needs lots of Nitrate and my DSB was starving the NoPox of Nitrate so I removed my DSB
• NoPox then was very efficient on my Nitrate but my Phosphate stabilised at about 1 and would not move.
• Don’t overdose the NoPox, the Nitrate will soon bottom out at Zero and your Phosphate will rise steadily as there is no Nitrate for the NoPox to work with
• Some bright spark suggested adding some ceramic bio media to my sump as it’s apparently very efficient but also notorious as a Nitrate generating machine
• With the added Nitrate my NoPox started working a lot better and now my Natrate is stable at about 0.02 and my Phosphate about 0.04
• It also took about 4 months for my Phosphate to come down but that was probably because I didn’t understand the relationship with Nitrate
• Also you can’t run any Phosban or phosphate removers or any Nitrate inhibiters while you if you going to give NoPox a try

Lastly for NoPoX to work you need a proper skimmer I have a Curve 7 in my tank and sometimes I think I need a bigger skimmer – you mention a Curve 5- You might not have enough skimmer for the NoPoX.

Don’t give up on siphoning and pulling off as much of the stuff as possible – it gives up eventually.

Anyway I’m sure their guys here with much more experience and know how than me on this forum, sure with a bit of patience and good advice you will beat it.

May the force be with you – it’s not a pleasant ride the Algae battle!
 
you need Diadema antillarum, long spine urchin, these are known GHA eaters

the leaching will take as long as it takes, all depending on how much PO4 is in the rock natural, from feeding etc.

Remember PO4 only gets into our tank from us, so the sources are RO, Food and rock
 
Thanx @Adrian B

Exactly what you said with the relationship between NO3 an PO4 for nopox to work was my decision to stop using it, I read up on using it with bio-cubes and it was fine. But also the biocubes need NO3 to remove PO4 (well other way around), then I opted for the RowaPhos (GFO) method which does not require NO3, I did however finished the bottle of nopox and then only moved onto GFO, leaving a block or 3 BioCubes in the sump. Nitrates however, still hasnt moved off "0"

One thing that bothers me through this whole process is someone once said :
- your NO3 and PO4 levels might be low if you have excessive algae because the algae absorb them out of the water as soon as they are released into the water, this means that you keep measuring low because its already used up-
Roughly idea what i got not word for word exactly
how to you dose (nopox) for instance if you have allot of algae and the level of dosing according to the chart is the lowest?

On the fish side, I thought the other day about the same thing, the thing is, they all look happy, no one is chasing no one, so maybe when they all grown up it might change but then I can use it as an excuse to go for a bigger tank again.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Could you increase that to 10% weekly until your problems are sorted. Can use the old water to scrub some rocks clean.

OK I will increase, cant really remove the rocks as they fit perfectly to form a "picture" and removing a rock and putting it back again exactly the same is quite impossible. i think on the living things side it also might be bothersome for them.
 
Are you sure it's GHA and not bryopsis. You can't just stop NOPOX, read the instructions and follow Red Seas recommendations. Like others have said, RO should be at or close to zero, a number of 4 is still ok. Even though you have low numbers, your algae is using the NO3 and PO4 as dissolved organic food to grow.
 
Back
Top Bottom