Jump to content
Cultivated Reef

Recommended Posts

44 minutes ago, Grimes said:

The small frag of GSP I glued to the rear panel is beginning to grow out a bit. Looking forward to seeing how this plays out 

 

IMG_20201119_175412.jpg

I never had any luck gluing GSP to walls for some reason. Wish I could though - because I love the GSP-taking-over-the-back-wall look. 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
1 hour ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

I never had any luck gluing GSP to walls for some reason. Wish I could though - because I love the GSP-taking-over-the-back-wall look. 

I tried a few years back and it just dropped off after a few weeks dead. But this time it's creeping outward away from the current. 5 or 6 new polyps beginning to grow out 👍🏼

 

38 minutes ago, afcajax73 said:

I’m looking forward to seeing that! Glad the gha is  dropping too

Cheers yeah the emerald crab is battling through the last few patches. Then back into the fuge he will go 🤣

  • Like 1
  • Haha 1
Link to comment
On 11/21/2020 at 11:37 PM, Snow_Phoenix said:

I never had any luck gluing GSP to walls for some reason. Wish I could though - because I love the GSP-taking-over-the-back-wall look. 

Same

 

I have given up on the idea. Tired of looking for the cyanoacrylate gsp disk in the rocks and sand. And then tweezing it out.

  • Like 1
  • Sad 1
Link to comment
8 hours ago, farkwar said:

Same

 

I have given up on the idea. Tired of looking for the cyanoacrylate gsp disk in the rocks and sand. And then tweezing it out.

That's a shame. Mine is right next to the wavemaker so it's getting blasted. I do find that with the larger colony on the rock I still need to blow the crap out of it a few times a week. It gets clogged. But never had GHA --- yet!

  • Like 2
Link to comment

Getting a bit annoying dealing with the GHA. Very low N and P with only small clumps of GHA but it's not giving up. Don't know what to do about it. I pull every strand outut I can see with tweezers then 2 days later the same 6 or 7 clumps are back! Mainly in and around my zoas just so they get pissed off .... 

Link to comment
6 hours ago, afcajax73 said:

looking good there mate, nice to see some success!

Cheers really thinking about putting my skimmer back online. Just feel like I feed to heavy not to have it turned on. That means I need a new lid as the current glass cover doesn't give me the space I need to drop the skimmer in the back 

  • Like 1
Link to comment

Pulling it out, dosing quantum phosphate and nitrate removers, skimming, 2 x 10 % water changes after blowing the crap out of the rockwork every week. Changing floss with each water change. Reduced lighting intensity on white and red as well as bringing it down to 6 hrs a day........ And still the GHA is taking over. 

Zoas and GSP being hit hard by it now as well....... 

Link to comment

GHA stinks. Some people can beat it with clean up crews and such. I used a ton if snails, a tuxedo urchin and an algae scrubber and it was still taking hold. I resorted to Vibrant which knocked it out in a week and it hasn’t came back. It has probably been five months since? Can’t remember. Now its growing in the algae scrubber like it was supposed to. 
 
I never used this type of approach in my other tanks and tried to keep it “natural.” But the stuff worked wonders. I guess having another place for it to grow is important for when you stop dosing. 

  • Like 2
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment

Ok so update. 

 

Talked to a few of you Including @afcajax73 about vibrant and have been closely following @seabass on his trail. I have picked up a bottle of the stuff. I'll keep my own record here about it. 

 

I did have an interesting conversation with @afcajax73 and the great guys down at cellar yesterday about the GHA, they have listened to my tails of woe and come up with in interesting thought. Could the GHA be a result of the tanks location?

It's right next to the patio doors and on the other side of the room has a large double window, so from both sides it gets blasted from 8am til lunch from the left, and then from around 13:00 till 16:00 on the right. 

im going to look at this and review where the algae is growing against where the sunlight hits the tank over the next couple of days. 

 

Also made an upgrade from the Hanna manual test to the Hanna phosphate checker yesterday but it just confirmed the initial reading.. phosphate is too low as I have been aggressive with skimming and quantum phosphate remover so as a result I have pulled the skimmer and will reduce on the quantum for a couple of days to let it come back up to around 0.03.

 

oh yeah and cheers for the Kenya Tree @afcajax73👍🏼

  • Like 1
Link to comment
6 hours ago, Grimes said:

Could the GHA be a result of the tanks location?

To an extent.  Lighting (and in the case of sunlight, spectrum) can definitely contribute.  A source of inorganic nutrients is also required, although a bloom may be utilizing the nutrients nearly as quickly as they become available so testing might not indicate input levels (or the source).

 

Nutrient control is a tricky thing as corals also compete for these same nutrients, and some pests like dinos seem to be experts at existing in low nutrient environments.  So fighting algae by bottoming out nutrients isn't always a winning strategy.

 

At just under 8 months, your tank is still fairly young.  I'm confident that also contributes.  Running a refugium or an algae scrubber (or even decorative algae in your display) might help out compete nuisance algae in your display, but even these efforts might not eliminate unwanted algae. Coralline algae, along with the biodiversity of a mature system can help too.

 

Manual removal (like you are doing) is important as well.  But even with a decent cleanup crew and manual removal, unwanted algae can still take hold.  And once it does, it is sometimes hard to beat.  You should also consider the negatives of trying to make your tank too sterile.

 

I also feel that organics (dissolved, or otherwise) play a part here too.  But given all of this (and back to the original question about direct and indirect sunlight), I'm sure that spectrum, along with duration and intensity, all play significant roles.

 

What are my thoughts about Vibrant?  I feel that extended use can have unintended negative effects on some animals (along with the algae).  It's definitely not a miracle cure that only affects unwanted algae (especially when dosed twice weekly for extended periods).  However, in some cases, it might be worth it, to gain control of a bad situation.  Although I'm not positive that your tank is at that point yet.

  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment

I take your point about it being a young tank @seabass. And I do try to remind myself of that fact. Of course after having established tanks for so long, when it comes to starting a new one up the memory seems to jump forward from the first year of waiting for stabilisation to kick in. 

  • Like 3
Link to comment

Ho ho ho hold on a second. After a re measure this evening using the Hanna checker.......... 0.30 phosphate you absolute bastard .. 

 

Now we know the what. I need to fix this and then look at the root cause. Could be feeding, maybe not enough water changes at the right % or not enough filtering out crap via the skimmer? 

  • Like 2
Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recommended Discussions

×
×
  • Create New...