July And The Great Green Hair Algae War
Ok, from the previous thread, you'll know I've been tearing my hair out with GHA. While I know its part of the cycling process and virtually inevitable, it still has been pretty dam annoying. The sand bed was a lawn and the GHA was beginning to encroach upon some of the corals too.
This gives you an idea of the worst part of it on the sandbed while the photo below shows some of the worst of it on my LR.
Phosphates tested on 6 July were 0.06. Nitrates very low and not a problem.
Ok, so the declaration of war was tabled and the GHA was given notice to evacuate or face the consequences :) Yesterday (7 July), I put some Sachem Phosguard in the weir and some in one of the baffles of the sump. I had pulled the lighting back from 11 hours to 9 and pulled a lot of the algae (including the sand it was attached to) out of the tank.
Today, I was fortunate enough to pick up a Hanna Phosphate egg and reactants from someone selling their tank so got them for a good price. I tested the tank and the GHA seems to have heard the war cry because the test result was 0.00!!!!! Woohoo!!!!!
Now, lets get real here though. I may have won the current battle, but the war isn't over yet. The rocks might continue to leach Phosphate for weeks and weeks, months or heaven knows how long yet so I'm going to have to be vigilant continuously.
I have noticed this morning though that all the corals seem just a bit more perky. I'm not sure if its my imagination but I swear for example that my button coral is much fuller and that the moody (and particularly grumpy) goni is more open than normal.
I can still see new GHA growing on the sandbed but I'm sure it's nowhere near as much or as fast as it had been. Fingers crossed that the war effort is going my way :)
Phosphates tested on 6 July were 0.06. Nitrates very low and not a problem.
Ok, so the declaration of war was tabled and the GHA was given notice to evacuate or face the consequences :) Yesterday (7 July), I put some Sachem Phosguard in the weir and some in one of the baffles of the sump. I had pulled the lighting back from 11 hours to 9 and pulled a lot of the algae (including the sand it was attached to) out of the tank.
Today, I was fortunate enough to pick up a Hanna Phosphate egg and reactants from someone selling their tank so got them for a good price. I tested the tank and the GHA seems to have heard the war cry because the test result was 0.00!!!!! Woohoo!!!!!
Now, lets get real here though. I may have won the current battle, but the war isn't over yet. The rocks might continue to leach Phosphate for weeks and weeks, months or heaven knows how long yet so I'm going to have to be vigilant continuously.
I have noticed this morning though that all the corals seem just a bit more perky. I'm not sure if its my imagination but I swear for example that my button coral is much fuller and that the moody (and particularly grumpy) goni is more open than normal.
I can still see new GHA growing on the sandbed but I'm sure it's nowhere near as much or as fast as it had been. Fingers crossed that the war effort is going my way :)