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I need some help


polarbear

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. . . It may take a few big water changes/manual removal attempts before it starts to stay away. I battled mine for probably 6 months or so.

I am of the opinion that the 'GHA' outbreak so many of us go through is just an ugly stage of the usual algae outbreak that all tanks have when new. . .

+1, I would reiterate being patient. I've seen green hair algae and other nuisance algae problems clear up on their own without any intervention outside of manual removal during water changes and I've seen tanks all screwed up because too many things were done to fast. Neilson and Fossa i Vol 1 of "The Modern Coral Reef Aquarium" have some good pictures and charts of a big reef system going through it's algae cycles and it looks horrible at first. Definitely keep an eye on your pH, Alk and calcium.

Edited by Timfish
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  • 4 weeks later...

Ok after many attempts to rid the tank of what I thought was GHA I Joe believe it's bryopsis. What should I do? I know everyone is saying to raise the Mg but what will it kill in my tank? I have all soft corals, 2 green BTA's, a star fish and the fish I stated in a prior post.

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Ok after many attempts to rid the tank of what I thought was GHA I Joe believe it's bryopsis. What should I do? I know everyone is saying to raise the Mg but what will it kill in my tank? I have all soft corals, 2 green BTA's, a star fish and the fish I stated in a prior post.

I followed the instructions on the website with success.

http://www.austinreefclub.com/page/FAQ/_/saltwater-101/defeating-the-evil-bryopsis-r30

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Ok after many attempts to rid the tank of what I thought was GHA I Joe believe it's bryopsis. What should I do? I know everyone is saying to raise the Mg but what will it kill in my tank? I have all soft corals, 2 green BTA's, a star fish and the fish I stated in a prior post.

Kinda what I thought..

Raising Mg is how I got rid of mine.. but I didn't have much coral to speak of.

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Ok after many attempts to rid the tank of what I thought was GHA I Joe believe it's bryopsis. What should I do? I know everyone is saying to raise the Mg but what will it kill in my tank? I have all soft corals, 2 green BTA's, a star fish and the fish I stated in a prior post.

I followed the instructions on the website with success.

http://www.austinree...il-bryopsis-r30

My Mag stayed above 2000 for several weeks with no noticable affect on any life. I read online that it could affect snails and like creatures, but I did not have that problem. My readings on salifert were around 2400 after dosing. I did not do a water change for 2-3 weeks (I don;t remember at this point). It took about 1.5 weeks before I saw a noticable decline. I did normal water changes after that (15 g on my 125) weekly to bi-weekly for the next few months. My mag was high for months afterwords, but never saw it again. Tank was pretty new at the time. (2 months old) I also pulled the worst rock out, and scrubbed it with a new toothbrush in salt water. This stuff was so tough you could pick up the rock by grabbing the growth.

post-1726-0-30119700-1311593644_thumb.jp

post-1726-0-92460700-1311593652_thumb.jp

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Ok not trying to hijack this thread, but figured no sense in starting a new one given the subject and plethora of information in one thread.

Im seeing it again as well. The snails and tangs had mowed it down but now its coming back worse. Running GFO, replaced all of my bulbs with ATI. Params below

Phosphates 0

Ca 520 (currently dosing purple up)

Ph 7.9-8.0

Sg 1.026

Temp 76-77f

Light time: 12pm-10pm(2ea blue +), 3pm-8pm(purple+/aqua blue spl)

amo/nitrates/nitrites: 0

No filter sock, wet skimming seems to work well. Going to do a 15g water change tonight.

My alk was really low so Im adding some buffer to get it up since even water changes are not enough to keep my alk up. I figured with Ca being so high, my pH would be lower (prior to buffer).

I was running carbon for a couple weeks and that seemed to help. My RO unit is showing 4ppm tds now. Not sure thats right though since the unit is only about 5 months old and maybe had 200g through it. It shows tds even when there is no water flowing. I took the probe out and cleaned it then it shows 0 but then 4 when water starts moving both in/out of membrane/DI resin.

Also, My blue hippo has ich so Im trying to minimize what steps are taken and trying to let this level out on its own since Im dealing with a couple problems at once. Based on the params and light cycle, what would you guys suggest as the first step?

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Just went through the same ordeal. Mine was not Bryopsis (which has thinner individual strands), rather it was likely Derbesia (old fashioned GHA). Tried everything, incl TLC as rec by the LFS and Polyp Lab's RF-Fuel. Finally, the ATI bulbs were changed (~1 yr old) and added Algaefix by API for ~4 weeks. Now the algae is all cleared! The skimmer worked overtime and a lot of nasty green gunk came out of the tank. Beware of starfish, brittle stars, etc - they died, cucumber didn't like it either but surviving so far, but everything else including all the macros in the refugium were not affected. I did not change anything to my tank chemistry. I can still feel the frustrations of GHA infestation. Now I just pray every night.

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