GHA

[tofer]

Right now Im having a issue with GHA trying to cut back on feeding .  Im thinking of either a sea hare or a tuxedo urchin  but before I make the purchase I need to Know a couple of things .

Will any fish bother the sea hare  I have a pair of Ocellaris clownfish and a Springeri Dottyback . The female clownfish goes after my emerald crab .

I have flower anemone as well  will that be an issue ?

With the urchin is there a chance it will eat/kill my baby flower anemones i have many on the rocks ? 

I know after the GHA is gone i will have to either return the sea hair or feed it algae is the urchin the same ?

Thanks

 

[xM3THODx]

I never tried either of those for algae control but I'm sure somebody will chime in. Before you commit and buy either, you could save the money and give your feeding cutback and some water changes a chance for the gha to die off. Rip or siphon some our during the water changes.  

[A.m.P]

Manual removal and peroxide dosing can work with gha, if possible you could remove the rock from the tank and dip in higher concentrations to pretty much guarantee there will be none left.

[Clown79]

Tried an urchin once, I won't do that again. Some urchins only eat certain algaes and knock over too much.

 

Never tried a sea hare.

 

What worked for me was manual removal with peroxide treatment as soon as it started while determining the cause.

[A.m.P]

I think the old german oxydators or whatever they were called were really onto something, microdosing peroxide seems to have nearly-no downside while generally helping out a great deal with tank-health, pest algae, and potentially dissolved organics. Though I would probably continue my own manual-dosing or use a dosing pump instead lol...
-Almost off-topic bit of randomness.

[seabass]

Why not just get some astrea snails?

[tofer]

17 hours ago, Amphrites said:

Manual removal and peroxide dosing can work with gha, if possible you could remove the rock from the tank and dip in higher concentrations to pretty much guarantee there will be none left.

I have been doing manual removal  during water change . Have not tried the peroxide. Can’t dip whole rock  with baby flower anemones .

1 hour ago, seabass said:

Why not just get some astrea snails?

I did not think they ate GHA 

[A.m.P]

5 minutes ago, tofer said:

I have been doing manual removal  during water change . Have not tried the peroxide. Can’t dip whole rock  with baby flower anemones .

I did not think they ate GHA 

I think Trochus also eat GHA if you're more able to get some in your area. (Though only astrea and other turbo's have a reputation for "totally eating" GHA)
Peroxide dip would just be 2-3x normal concentration you would put into your tank (1ml per 10 gallons), some inverts really do hate (tolerate but get scrunchy/pouty) it, not sure about nems though I know certain shrimp and corallimorphs such as ricordea dislike it, so it would make sense for nems to potentially be sensitive as well.

[seabass]

19 minutes ago, tofer said:

Can’t dip whole rock  with baby flower anemones .

You "can".  You would make a saltwater peroxide solution by substituting half the RO/DI water with hydrogen peroxide (to help prevent osmotic shock).  IMO, adult RFAs will bubble up, then look horrible immediately afterwards, but they almost always recover.  I haven't tried this with baby RFAs, as I don't do this anymore, and don't recommend dipping live rock.  I feel that spot treatment using peroxide outside the tank is still an effective tool, as is dipping certain frags (like zoanthids).  However, peroxide is a harsh treatment that will greatly affect the biodiversity of live rock.

 

29 minutes ago, Amphrites said:

I think Trochus also eat GHA if you're more able to get some in your area.

Yes, another good option.

 

[tofer]

2 hours ago, Amphrites said:

I think Trochus also eat GHA if you're more able to get some in your area. (Though only astrea and other turbo's have a reputation for "totally eating" GHA)
Peroxide dip would just be 2-3x normal concentration you would put into your tank (1ml per 10 gallons), some inverts really do hate (tolerate but get scrunchy/pouty) it, not sure about nems though I know certain shrimp and corallimorphs such as ricordea dislike it, so it would make sense for nems to potentially be sensitive as well.

right now i have 3 Trochus and they seem not touch it . Well off to LFS  this weekend  CUC shopping I know the have Trochus , Astrea, and blue leg hermits .

[seabass]

IMO, astrea snails do a good job with common hair algae.

[mcarroll]

23 hours ago, tofer said:

Right now Im having a issue with GHA

Pic?  (Closeup pic and a tank pic would be nice if possible.)

 

23 hours ago, tofer said:

trying to cut back on feeding

Were you over feeding before?

 

23 hours ago, tofer said:

 Im thinking of either a sea hare or a tuxedo urchin

Unless you have a specific reason for avoiding them, stick with the tried and true -- herbivorous snails.  Turbo, Astrea, Trochus, Cerith, Nerite...et al.

 

4 hours ago, tofer said:

I have been doing manual removal  during water change

Keep it up.  Every time you clear a significant patch, grab one or more of your snails and place them right on it so the don't have to find it on their own.

 

HISTORY

How old is this tank?

 

How was the tank's biology started?

 

What's your filtration like?

 

What are your test numbers like for the big five - ca, alk, mg, no3, po4?

 

Have there been any hiccups like big salinity swings or alkalinity swings? 

 

Anything else interesting happen since the tank was started?

 

DIAGNOSIS

Might update this based on the answers to those questions, but so far...

 

IMO it sounds like you just don't have a cleanup crew and you're trying to do it all (or most of it) yourself.  Not impossible, but not something most folks wold sign up for. 

 

Snails are cheap and work tirelessly for you.   They just can't eat the long algae -- look how small that mouth is!!!  😄   

 

So hand-pull the long stuff as frequently as you can. 

 

Add snails a few at a time, with a week or two of wait in between to guage success, until you have control. 

 

Figure you may end up needing the equivalent of 1-2 turbo snails per gallon.....but take your time getting there since you might figure out half way there that you have enough.  (With too many they end up starving each other to death.)

[tofer]

On 9/12/2019 at 9:21 PM, mcarroll said:

Pic?  (Closeup pic and a tank pic would be nice if possible. 

 

Were you over feeding before? I try not to . I feed once a day  . 3 days of frozen  rest of the week Pellets or flake . 

 

Unless you have a specific reason for avoiding them, stick with the tried and true -- herbivorous snails.  Turbo, Astrea, Trochus, Cerith, Nerite...et al.

Really did not have a specific reason

 

Keep it up.  Every time you clear a significant patch, grab one or more of your snails and place them right on it so the don't have to find it on their own. Will do

 

HISTORY

How old is this tank? 2 1/2 years

 

How was the tank's biology started? Bought small amount of live rock when started tank 

 

What's your filtration like?  Tank is a bio cube  32gal  Have skimmer in 1st chamber , intake media basket  with floss & Bag of carbon  2nd chamber 

 

What are your test numbers like for the big five - ca, alk, mg, no3, po4?

Alk 9.6 ,cal 455,mg 1350, NO3 5 ppm, po4 .08 

 

Have there been any hiccups like big salinity swings or alkalinity swings? 

salinity has always been steady 1.025 , ALk dropped whenI setup dosing pump was an misprint in instruction  so got messed up . fixed and slowly raised back to normal level  over a 6 day period.

Anything else interesting happen since the tank was started?

Not that i can recall 

DIAGNOSIS

Might update this based on the answers to those questions, but so far...

 

IMO it sounds like you just don't have a cleanup crew and you're trying to do it all (or most of it) yourself.  Not impossible, but not something most folks wold sign up for.  i have 3 torches, 7 dwarf cerith, 1 turbo ,1 emerald crab had some bubble algae in January, 

Snails are cheap and work tirelessly for you.   They just can't eat the long algae -- look how small that mouth is!!!  😄   

 

So hand-pull the long stuff as frequently as you can. 

 

Add snails a few at a time, with a week or two of wait in between to guage success, until you have control. 

 

Figure you may end up needing the equivalent of 1-2 turbo snails per gallon.....but take your time getting there since you might figure out half way there that you have enough.  (With too many they end up starving each other to death.)

@mcarroll

[mcarroll]

If possible can you post a picture so we can see relatively how much algae you have?

 

Bubble algae is a type of green algae, so even though it looks weird it's actually related to hair algae.

 

Much like with hair algae, snails will not be able to eat mature growth so you have to deal with that part.

 

And you do it pretty much the same way as with hair algae – just take a little bit of care not to pop every bubble you pull out since that will release algae propagule's which can settle and grow elsewhere.  

 

By the same token you would want to remove hair algae with care as well as it has the same spreading mechanism, just no bubbles to pop.

 

Here's a great vid:

 

If you have sausages for fingers and can't help but to pop the bubbles as you are removing them, consider using a pair of bent tweezers to grab at their base. 

 

I don't think they really do spread much in most tanks – I have always had bubble algae as far as I know because it comes and goes every few months but doesn't stick around. 

 

But if you are having a problem with rampant algae spreading in between your picking sessions, that's when you know a UV filter or micron filter such as a diatom filter would be called for.  

 

UV will kill those propagule's while a micron filter will simply mechanically filter them out – both tools seem to be extremely effective.  

 

(UV filters seem to be pretty common even at the retail level. Micron filters seem to be less popular for some reason. Marineland has what they call their "polishing filter" and the good folks at Vortex industries still make the Vortex XL diatom filter.   I have two of the polishing filters and I know people with the Vortex and both are effective.  

 

Polishing Filters are also a lot easier to use than the Vortex, and they have no bulbs to be replaced like UV so I give Marineland a slight edge in my recommendation.)

[tofer]

Thanks for the tips . My bubble algae issues has been gone for a few months the emerald crab handled it well . Went to LFS to restock my cuc . Got 2 more turbos , 2 astrea , 3 Spiny Star Astrea , 5 blue leg hermits , 6 narcissus snails (for more sand bed turn over .  

[mcarroll]

Usually it doesn't take very many hermits or nassarius to fill their niches.  

 

There shouldn't be enough food leftovers (or dead things!) in and on the sand to feed very many of these snails and crabs.

 

They are carrion eaters in nature, which should be a very small role in an aquarium.

 

If there is not adequate food, the snails will starve. But the crabs will often turn omnivorous and sometimes even hunt live critters like snails or fish.

[tofer]

@mcarroll I understand what you are saying about the 2 purchase . With the narcissus my thought process is if I truly  do overfeed which I may and could be one of my causes to this algae flare up they would be a way to cleanup the excess . The hermits  are known to eat hair algae  so with this my thought was this cannot hurt in getting this flare up resolved and also take care of excess food . I do understand hermits can be snail hunters i got some extra empty shells to try to not have a issue. 

 

I do believe I have been heavy handed in my feedings and not monitoring my cuc numbers which have lead to my gha . These are things i have to keep an eye on from this point foward . I will be adding some more snails  to the crew in like another 2 to 3 weeks  based on the   progress of this batch .  I know you are looking for a picture of the issue which i will try to post today but life keeps getting in the way of it .

 

Thank you and everyone who has chimed in with advice on this . I will keep updating  about the progress hopefully with pics soon .

[tofer]

Slowly making progress with manual pulling out and the snails . Going to still give 3 more weeks before adding more snails . 

[Perthreefer]

This saved my tank from hair algae:

 

51GliYvoWaL._SY355_ by kenpau01, on Flickr

 

I can guarantee a million % that this works, or it did for me anyway. I couldn't believe it when I started dosing it, it took about three weeks to disappear completely and I was thinking, this is such a common problem, how is this product not more widely used!!

 

Bad photo but I went from a really heavy coverage of hair algae, and it got much worse than this:

 

algae2 by kenpau01, on Flickr

 

To this week being free of hair algae for 2 months with increased coraline growth:

 

reef2 by kenpau01, on Flickr

 

I tried the manual removal, increased water changes, a hundred snails, blackouts and nothing had any effect until I tried the Algaefix. If you do decide to try it then make sure you get the marine version as the normal Algaefix can't be used with inverts.

 

Good luck whichever path you choose!

[Cpl_Wiggles]

Pencil urchin was the nuclear option for my tank. He plowed through everything algae including eating the electrical cord covering for my powerhead. I eventually had to re-home him. But he did some major work.

[tofer]

Update 

Slowly getting rid of the gha  by manually removing  when doing water changes and also in between when work allows. I did add  a few more astrea and a few Trochus snails . I also tested my phosphates  and they were high  so I also picked up a bag of chemi pure elite and they are slowly coming down .  I would like to thank all who gave advice ! 

[seabass]

With phosphate, just try to avoid dropping it too fast or too low.

[tofer]

@seabass yeah I’m keeping a close eye on it testing Phosphate every 3 days .