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Wingnut

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image.jpg Have a little issue could use some help , the picture is tank currently as of about 10 min. ago , everything is doing well but I have a patch of GHA growing on my overflow , and one small patch on a rock and now everyday I have a very thin film of algae on my glass , never had that before , could go two to three days without cleaning glass , my UV bulb is due replacement , and dosing Carbon VSV daily .05 ML and Biodigest weekly , 15 gallon water change every other week using reef crystals always have , tank is 90 gallons with sump probably total water volume of 100 to 110 gallons. Parameters are as follows , just tested tonight.
No3 2.5 ppm salifert
Po4 .00 Hanna checker
Alk. 7.8 Hanna Checker
PH 8.3 Red Sea
Cal. 440 Red Sea
Mg. 1560 Red Sea
also run GFO 24/7
26 ML EVS Alk. Daily
26 ML EVS Cal. Daily
anyone have any ideas why I can't get rid of the few patches of GHA and why my glass now has algae every day.
Thanks
 
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I'd try to slow down the Carbon dosing and don't run GFO 24/7 unless needed. I think you might be stripping the water.

If the bulb is old just replace it. Old bulbs can cause algae growth.
 
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Wingnut

Wingnut

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Thanks , ya bulb is a couple of months past due , doing that this weekend.
 

Clownfish Chris

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I agree with Jared. Lights and don't run GFO full time. Maybe put your reactor on a timer. I recommend working toward stopping GFO entirely.
 
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Thanks Guys , will try turning off GFO for awhile and see where it goes
 

Bigfishy

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Guys I am confused. If it he slows down on carbon dosing and GFO that means there will be more nutrients in the water. Which will feed the GHA. Correct? The water is probably showing low on nutrients as the GHA is probably consuming what is there.
I would think he needs to cut back on feeding.


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Cutting back on food is always good. Most PO4 gets into our tanks from feeding. He said he only has two small patches of GHA. My guess is that it's unlikely to be enough to consume all the PO4. That said, I think the water column is a bit stripped from the GFO which leads to an imbalanced system (red field ratio). This also creates nuisance algae.

IMO, GFO should only be used to get a handle on elevated PO4 issues. He stated that the PO4 is zero......So the question becomes....what purpose is the GFO serving?

Same with carbon. Carbon is great for a couple reasons (removing unwanted metals, polishing water, dealing with odor, etc.), but I feel if it's run 24/7 important trace elements can be depleted.
 

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Right. I don't think he is using carbon but carbon dosing which remove nutrients. I agree GFO should only be used to get nutrients under control which I don't think he has it under control. I would be will to bet hit parameters show good as the GHA is consuming some of the nutrients I would back off on feeding no maybe try lights out for three days. And then start cutting back on GFO while making sure parameters look good. If the food is hitting the bottom of the tank you are feeding too much. Feed only what the fish can consume in 2 minutes.


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Wingnut

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I only have 8 fish in the tank a medium size yellow tang , meadium kole tang , two clown fish , coral beauty , a small puffer , and two pajama cardinals. I feed two cubes of various frozen foods a day and keep a little nori in the tank daily for the tangs , I feed my corals BRS reef chili and coral frenzy every three days , just the recommended amout stated on the bottles. I don't feel that I over feed but maybe I do. Thanks for the advise maybe I will cut food back and see what happens.
 

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That is a lot of food. Do you rinse the frozen food before feeding?


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Wingnut

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Should I cut back to just one cube a day and see how things go.
 

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Keep up with your gfo-I use a minimal amount to keep haze off the glass.

One cube of food is more than enough. We all dump too much food in our tanks.

Your tank looks great Don't do anything drastic-if possible use tweezers/toothbrush/ or just pull by hand to remove the algae. Also, decrease your light period by an hour or two. It should help some.
 

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LOL, before I even post what I am about to post, I can tell we have some very different opinions here. If you aren't confused by now, you will be by the time I'm done with you...haha

Based on what you have stated, here’s what I would do, for whatever it’s worth. This is what has worked successfully for me. If you’ve seen my tank, I don’t have any GHA.

First, turn off the GFO. You need some PO4. Mine routinely runs anywhere from .08 to .15 on the Hanna. My NO3 also runs about 10. Therefore, I think it’s more like Reefaholic suggests, in that your tank is out of balance. This will help get it going that way. As long as your PO4 doesn’t surpass .10-.15 or so, I wouldn’t use any GFO. Some people just can’t let go of the idea that nutrients should be zero. You NEED nutrients.

I think you are feeding ok. I wouldn’t cut back just yet. Don’t punish your fish, find better ways to balance and control nutrients. I would however feed twice daily if that’s not how you are doing it now. One cube in the morning and one in the evening, not two at once. My tank is about 4x yours in volume and I feed the equivalent of about 20 cubes a day. My fish are obscenely fat. Therefore, you could feed significantly more than you are now and get away with it, as long as you learn how to control your nutrients.

Your alkalinity/calcium/magnesium are out of balance. A good balanced ratio is more like alk 8.5 dKh/cal 420/ mag 1350. If you raise your alk to 8.5, that should push your calcium down to about 420. They work inversely of one another, not independently. If you raise alk while keeping calcium dosing the same, your calcium will fall. Same thing happens when your alk gets low, your calcium will rise. Some might see the calcium rising and cut back on dosing calcium when they should really be raising the alk.

Stop dosing magnesium for a while, assuming you are, and let it come down naturally, testing it weekly. It will likely take a couple weeks to decline to 1350 on its own. Corals don’t use much magnesium. Once there, figure your depletion rate and dose less. Your mag shouldn't be that high.

Don’t leave nori in the tank for the tangs. Tangs will pick on the rocks all day consuming micro algae and possibly your GHA if they are hungry. Leaving nori for them in there all day makes them lazy. Feed some in the evening for them and then take out what they don’t eat.

If you haven’t seeded your tank with pods in a while, get some and do that. Pods are like little ants, scurrying around on your rocks at night consuming detritus.

Don’t cut back on your carbon dosing. You are only dosing .05 cc daily. That’s a little low in my opinion. After you turn off your GFO and your PO4 starts to rise to something detectable, then you can play with your carbon dosing. If your PO4 starts to get too high (above .15), then up your VSV to bring it back down. If you don’t know how or why that works, read up on it. I think running the GFO is messing up your NO3/PO4 balance. You are adding nitrifying bacteria and feeding them with the VSV carbon (all good) but they can’t do their job without a little PO4, which you are stealing from them with your GFO. Stop it.

Lastly, your coral feeding. Every 3 days is ok, as long as you target feed and don’t broadcast feed. I would target feed them after the lights go out with a baster with the pumps off. Even once a week is fine for feeding, but if you should cut back on any food at all, it should be the coral food. Corals also consume nutrients in the water like fish poop, so feeding your fish more is also feeding your corals. Corals can also make food through photosynthesis, fish can not.

I think you said you need a new bulb on your UV. While that is good for things like parasite control and bacteria control (like red slime), it won't do much for nutrient control.

If I think of anything else, I'll add to this.
 
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Wingnut

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Thanks , for all of the good advise I will do a little research and try figure out best corse of action , but will do it slowly , one reason I run GFO 24/7 , this was a used tank that I bought and moved from Clearlake , and my Po4 was over 2.something so I started the GFO and it has always stayed between .03 and .07 when it would climb over .07 I would change GFO and it would go back down to.03, it has just been the last couple of weeks that it is reading .00 on my Hanna checker , the tank has been running for over a year now. Thanks again
 

webster1234

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Thanks , for all of the good advise I will do a little research and try figure out best corse of action , but will do it slowly , one reason I run GFO 24/7 , this was a used tank that I bought and moved from Clearlake , and my Po4 was over 2.something so I started the GFO and it has always stayed between .03 and .07 when it would climb over .07 I would change GFO and it would go back down to.03, it has just been the last couple of weeks that it is reading .00 on my Hanna checker , the tank has been running for over a year now. Thanks again

Ok, so it looks like you got all of the bound up PO4 out of your rock. Good! So now, quit trying to control it MECHANICALLY and start trying to control it NATUARALLY. You control it naturally by giving your nitrifying bacteria the energy to do their job.

Think of vodka dosing as a human loading up on carbs before a long run. You eat/drink a bunch of carbs to give your body the energy to perform its job (finishing the run, right?) Carbohydrates are made of carbon/hydrogen/and oxygen.

For nitrifying bacteria, they need carbs to do their jobs, just like the aforementioned example. If your PO4 starts to creep up, that means your nitrifying bacteria don't have enough energy to finish the run. Therefore, increase your vodka (carbohydrate) dosing to give them more energy. Don't replenish your GFO.

If its still creeping higher, increase even more vodka. My gf doses almost 5cc/day in her 60g tank. .05cc is nothing. The day you get tired of dosing vodka daily, get a biopellet reactor. Something else you can do to help the bacteria is skim wetter. Skim to where your skimmate looks like tea, not coffee.

Get out of the mindset that you NEED GFO to control your PO4....Although the manufacturers may hate you for it.
 

Bigfishy

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Webster1234 and I are saying the same. You do need nutrients, however I think once the GHA dies off your nutrients will be high. I think one cube a day or feed twice.


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Wingnut

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Thanks Guys , I will shut off GFO and increase Carbon dosing in small amounts.
 
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