Almost ready to give up. GHA has kicked my butt

[Ugla]

So, my reef has been set up for 16-18 years and has been awesome. Until GHA took over. I have done all the stuff you are supposed to do and was close to just hanging it up. I just cam back from six weeks out of the country and as expected, it got worse while I was gone. I am going to get rid of all of the rock and substrate and start over.

Anyone have an extra 100 or so pounds of nice clean live rock? Looking for larger pieces not rubble from a tank that is not super old like mine. Also interested in some clean sand. Don't need a lot as I keep it pretty thin.

Thanks,

Jim

 

[mfinn]

I did the same thing on my 50. Removed everything and was very generous with bleach in the tank and soaking the rock in a bleach/water mix.

Pretty tough to find anyone with clean, pest free live rock. I found a couple pieces, and I am going to reuse a couple pieces that came out clean.
About 1/2 of it is going to be the marco colored dry rock that OBD has.
I found some nice shapes and dropped in the sump of my 240. Going to try and leave it in there for atleast a week. Then I will be using some Dr. Tims One and Only.

 

[1guydude]

Have u just left the lights off for like a month?
+1 dry rock. Take half out than the other half some time later.
That should let u get the upper hand. U need to add something to compete or eat out the nutrient that's feeding the HA imo.
Good luck hths
D

 

[Gryphon]

I had a problem with it, and introduced a yellow tang and a rock boring urchin. Cleared it out no problem.

 

[rayjay]

I solved it by vacuuming my sandbed.
I did 1/4 of the sandbed about every 5 days until it was finished, and then did 1/3 once a week for a few months and the hair algae all went away.
After that, I made sure to vacuum the sand bed every 5 or 6 months to keep the nutrients from building up again.

 

[1guydude]

thats a good tip gryphon. Urchin and a tang to eat.
-d

 

[JasonD]

I used a Pin Cushion Urchin to wipe out GHA in my tank. A single 1” urchin cleaned a 60 gallon tank covered in GHA.

If you have an acrylic tank, make sure you do not have any coralline algae on the walls. The urchin will scratch the crap out of the tank trying to remove it.

After all the GHA was gone, then I had a major cyanobacteria breakout on the sand bed. I never could get it cleaned up for more than a week at a time.

I ended up just removing the sandbed.

 

[Gryphon]

Only downside to the rock boring urchin is I never have Coralline algae for long so my rocks are constantly white.

 

[Blue Lip]

Have you tried hydrogen peroxide?

 

[Ugla]

Dosed hydrogen for 8 weeks, lights so low my news are faded. might try an urchin

 

[Blue Lip]

Mexican turbo snails will eat it.

 

[seedlessinseattle]

Mexican turbo snails are very good i added about 30 on my 180
After a few weeks is getting better

 

[Ugla]

Ok, giving it another try. Did two water changes. really stirred up the gravel when vacuuming it and blew off all the rocks. Put filter socks in the sump to catch all the junk. Have spent hours pulling GHA out. Got a new led light for the sump to hopefully grow cheat better. Added number of snails and crabs + emerald crab and urchin. Gonna try that for a few weeks and make a decision. Continuing with hydrogen peroxide and mag dosing.

 

[Blue Lip]

Mexican turbo snails will eat green hair algae.

 

[Ugla]

I added 10 Mexican turbos. The urchin is finally on one of the rocks and off the glass. Will see how it does.
Just installed a 120 watt LED in sump for the cheato. It is turned down about half. Have never been able to grow cheato in the past hopefully it will grow now.

 

[NanaReefer]

Holy wha!! What size sump do you have? That's a lotta light. I'm using a 7w Par30 and my Chaeto grows like madness-lol.

 

[1guydude]

Cyano is a Lil easier Imo buy cyano and GHA aren't a over the night fix type thing. It will likely take weeks, or a month, or.months to get the GHA and or cyano out of the water coloum.
Good luck and keep at it!
-d