GHA... Scrubbing my rocks ?

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Just a quick question ( maybe a stupid one)

The GHA on my top piece of LR is starting to annoy me. Even though there is very little GHA it is growing rapidly and makes the rock look ugly as well.

So I'm going to be taking out the infested rock and scrubbing it and flushing out the debris with some freshly made salt water.

Now : In scrubbing the rock will I not actually cause any further spread of GHA and other nuisance algea by spreading algea spores over the rock ? :022:
 
Scrub it and rinse thoroughly in fresh salt water. Then find the source of excess nutrients in your tank.
 
naggg thats extreme in my opinion....sorry to disagree warr:) besides you would eb doing short term methods for long term problems.

where is its food source comming from? is it the LR itself (viper i think that was your primary problem?) or is it your feed routine, or the water u use to top up and make SW?

i battled with Hair algae untill i figured the source of the problem (in my case tap water for top up) then it burnt itself off.

manual removal so its short is a good system if u have algae eaters (my lawn mower blennie was brilliant as was the large fox face.....but only once it was short) I also had HUGE hermit that is simple a GHA face.....loved eating and ripping it off:)

find your source then sort that out before you boil rocks and kill off good filtration....unless thats your problem source?????
 
Ja, once its short and you don't have a big problem. Herbivores will keep it there. You always need them in any tank.

Scub it and rinse it well.
 
Thanks guys for your replies. I do appreciate your support.

OK. Let me just update you quickly on where I am with this Nano (60 liter) at present.

The Nano is into week 5 of cycling. I realise that GHA , diatoms are all part of the cycle but here's my concern :

I cannot as yet put a CUC in, due to the fact that the Nitrates have not come down as yet . Fish will only be introduced in approx 2 months time, as I wish to allow the tank to settle and introduce some softies & LPS's before adding any fish.

If I wait until the ANN cycle has completed , the GHA may get out of hand and be difficult to erradicate.

So it's a bit of a catch 22 situation.

All I am trying to ensure is that I can keep the GHA under control by manually removing as much as possible every day or so. I'm also manually blasting most of the rocks with a turkeybaster to remove any settled detritus that may have settled there. At present only the top LR is badly affected by GHA although I see some very small patches on two adjecent rocks.

Water parameters at present are :

SG = 1.025
Amm = 0.01
Nitrate = 10
Nitrite = 0.05
PO4 =0
KH = 14
pH = 8.4

I am extremely diligent with checking all water sources used for topup . Only RO water is used.

I believe that the source of PO4 is from the LR itself. It is indeed great quality rock, but it's probably loaded with phosphates and other nutrients that are being taken up by the algea before they can leach into the water.

My first water change will be done this weekend.

Am I just being a bit paranoid about the appearance of GHA ?

Latest pic (this morning)

P1020587.jpg
 
Firstly I just want to congratulate u on your patience...man i could never wait over 3 months to add a single fish, lol it would drive me crazy.

Your nitrates arent that high, 10ppm is perfectly safe for CUC, its your nitrites and ammonia that u need to get to 0 though, yours are almost none existant maybe one of the more experienced guys could tell u if its ok to add CUC with your ammonia and Nitrites at that level. From my own experience i would say its fine, cause at the moment i am in week 4 of cycling my new tank and i have had some snails in there for at least 2 weeks now which came in on a rock and they are fine, and my nitrite and ammonia levels are more than double yours.
 
oh another thing...do u test the RO water? A poor quality RO could definately add unwanted nutrients to the system.
 
Thanks for the reply Kunhardt,

Yes, I have decided to take things VERY slow with this tank.

Had some bad experiences many moons ago with my first 2ft Marine tank.
Since then I have vowed to never wilfully endanger or kill one of God's creatures again.

Besides , I am still doing lots of research as to what corals will be placed in the tank.
Because the nano is only 60liters, I am a little restricted as to what can go in there and what will be compatible.

So I will be going for a reef tank with only 2-3 fishes at most .:thumbup:
 
Thanks for the reply Kunhardt,

Yes, I have decided to take things VERY slow with this tank.

Had some bad experiences many moons ago with my first 2ft Marine tank.
Since then I have vowed to never wilfully endanger or kill one of God's creatures again.

Besides , I am still doing lots of research as to what corals will be placed in the tank.
Because the nano is only 60liters, I am a little restricted as to what can go in there and what will be compatible.

So I will be going for a reef tank with only 2-3 fishes at most .:thumbup:

Thats more than my 10 galllon, I only have 1 fish...he doesnt like company :whistling:
 
oh another thing...do u test the RO water? A poor quality RO could definately add unwanted nutrients to the system.


Kunhardt,

I test any RO water that is added to my tank.

Although I only test PO4 levels and not Nitrates:(
Will remember to do this with the next topup.

My suspicion is still that the high nutrient levels are coming from the LR.

Would be a pity if I have to take out the top LR as it is a very nice piece indeed, but if there is not other way then that's what I'll have to do.

Will give me a chance to do some rescaping ( again ... :lol:)

At present I feel my aquascaping is a bit too "closed" and limits the view to the front rocks. The back rocks have most of the interesting critters on them and some beautiful orange-red sponges.
 
I had major GHA problems with my 10 gallon in its first 2 months, you couldnt see the LR anymore at its worst point, now i dont have a trace of any algae in the tank at all. I Changed from RO and salt mix to NSW, did 20% water changes once a week, while doing the water changes i would manually remove as much GHA as i could, added some red and blue legged hermits and some star fish. I am still convinced the star fish had something to do with the GHA going away, even though i was told they dont eat it, still as they seemed to move over it it seemed to get less.
 
OMG don't even go there. I remember when I set up my 2.5m it was a lovely tank it was running for about a year, then I went over to the uk for almost two years left the tank in my fathers hand. Now he also use to keep marines before. The last month before I left I went through the running of the tank with he. He said yeah no sweat Iv got it. When I spoke to he I always asked how is the tank and he would say good looking good.

When I got back it was a jungle of GHA. It was about 15cm long and on every mm og rock it have smuthered most of my corals. So I striped the tank scrubed the rocks set it up again looked good for a while but it just keeped comming back and just as bad as be for. and even when I sold the tank and it was started a fresh but with the same rocks and bang it was back.....

So moral of the story is get rid of it before it is to late... oh yes and never let any one els look after your tank.

Good luck with you misson Apollo.



You probably will.

Cook the rock and make sure you get rid of it. I am sure you have read Viper and Jacques tank thread, if you let it get out of hand, you will never get rid of it.

Green Hair Algae Info - Nuisance Algae

Dead right Warr if you let it get out of hand its going to be very hard to get rid of it.
A reefers worst nightmare.
 
Apollo - just one thing - USUALLY, when GHA grows on live rock - then there is USUALLY hidden detritus WITHIN the live rock. Scrubbing the live rock will not be a COMPLETE solution to your problem. The GHA will grow back... believe me.

Just do yourself a favour - do the following test: use either a loose powerhead or a turkey baster, and put a jet stream of water on those rocks where the GHA is growing - IF you see something that comes out of the rock, that looks like "white dust" - then you have the proof that you have hidden detritus in the live rock....

Hidden detritus leaches nitrates/phosphates in the CLOSE vicinity of the rock, thus feeding the GHA. And if you would test your tank's water, your nitrates/phosphate levels would MOST LIKELY be very low....

God luck with this. Believe me - I have had MAJOR MAJOR issues with GHA AND BRYOPSIS! And I WON!

Now - if I can JUST get rid of my aptaisia problems!
 
Thanks Guys,

OK. So this is what I've done sofar.

1. Since I wanted to rescape the tank in any way , I removed the infested rock and the adjacent ones.
2. I diligently scrubbed the infested rock with a toothbrush to get rid of all visibe GHA.
3. Replaced rock after scaping and added two hermits & approx 4 local snails ( Thanks Crispin)

Jaques, you were right : The rock had a large amount of hidden detritus.

The hermits have "mowed down" most of the remaining GHA on the adjacent rocks and are still busy picking away at it. Snails have helped with the GHA on the back walls.

I'll keep a very close eye on it and be even more diligent with my water changes and daily cleaning routine.
 
Thanks Guys,

OK. So this is what I've done sofar.

1. Since I wanted to rescape the tank in any way , I removed the infested rock and the adjacent ones.
2. I diligently scrubbed the infested rock with a toothbrush to get rid of all visibe GHA.
3. Replaced rock after scaping and added two hermits & approx 4 local snails ( Thanks Crispin)

Jaques, you were right : The rock had a large amount of hidden detritus.

The hermits have "mowed down" most of the remaining GHA on the adjacent rocks and are still busy picking away at it. Snails have helped with the GHA on the back walls.

I'll keep a very close eye on it and be even more diligent with my water changes and daily cleaning routine.

Apollo - I am very glad that you now found and identified the issue. Without having to "cook" the live rock - diligent "cleaning" of the live rock a few times a week, in this way I described, will also resolve your issue in the long run.....
Just keep working on it, young man!

Good luck with eradicating this pest!
 
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