Combat with GHA. What I can do more...

[Marouette21]

Hello
I have a problem with GHA.
There is my set up:
-The tank is an EVO 13,6 g. with AI prime HD light with this set up. I started it in October 2019
- I have the Sicce 1.0 return pomp and hydor Koralia 240 pomp
- All my paramaters are ok, tested with Red sea kits. I know Nitrate and phosphate are low because of the alguae
- In my filtration, I use chemi pure blue and Phos guard.
- I make a 20% water change each week, removing all the alguae I can with a brushtooth.
- My lifestock include a bubble tips anemone, 4 snails (1 trochus, 1 nassarius, 2 ninja), 1 cleaner shrimp and corals. Maybe an emerald crab but at least 1 month I did nt see it.
- I feed the anemone with shrimp each week and, each 2 or 3 week, I use reefroid directly on the corals (making a kind of pasta I use to direct feeding my corals)
- In December, I begun to add 2 ml of Vibrant each week. Many people said to me that could make miracle but not seem to change anything except I have less coralline.
So… Now I don’t know what I can do more. My idea right now is to add a tuxedo urchin, because I read they eat a lot of alguae, and replace my hydor koralia 240 with a wavemake. My last option is to change all the rocks… but I don’t see how I could do that without affect my corals
Thanks for your help and suggestions.

[Marouette21]

Mistake, I started it in october 2017, not 2019...

[Marouette21]

I can add I tested my water before make the salt water and TDS is 0

[OldReefGuy]

I had great success with PhosphateRX and a Urchin

[ReefWreak]

Reef roids shouldn't be used in a tiny tank without HUGE FREQUENT water changes. It's just pure waste, and that's what is feeding the GHA. Feeding the anemone regularly contributes to that too.

If you dose vibrant, you'll end up killing the tank with super high nitrates. When you dose Vibrant, it kills the algae, but then there's nothing to pick up the extra nutrients floating around, so you just end up with high nitrates.

Stop feeding as much. You should only feed the shrimps, and feed them VERY little every few days. The anemone you can probably feed once two weeks or less often than that. I don't think most people feed them directly unless they're trying to breed them.

You could set up a Hang-Over-Back refugium and grow algae back there, so it's easy to remove (basically an Algal Turf Scrubber), or you could start growing xenia, and as they uptake the nutrients, you can sell the frags or just throw them in the garbage, knowing that they are just there for nutrient export. Your problem is too much import and not enough export currently. Vibrant won't fix that (it'll actually make it worse unless you do a lot of water changes).

Small tanks are very difficult to manage.

[Crusinjimbo]

What ReefWreck said! You gotta get to the sources not just harvest algae. Doesn’t work well over the long haul. Your tank is young and needs to mature a bit as an ecosystem. Your probably overfeeding and the algae is taking it out of the water so tests results look better than true. By comparison, my 13.5, moderated populated, runs on an algae scrubber, a simple screen mechanical filter and return pump. I overfeed but the scrubber takes up the excess nutes upstream of the algae. A refugium functions similarly. Good luck.

[Uncle99]

I always have some concern when parameters are Listed as OK and not the number.
You say you know your N&P are low because you have algae. You mean N&P are high right?

It really comes down to 2 things, water and light. For water, you need to maintain nitrate in the 2-5ppm (lower for SPS dominant) and phosphate in the 0.02 - 0.05 range.

For mixed corals, me personally, I like a stable ALK in the 9.5 area, CA, 450, MG 1360.
Alk is key, keep in in range and stable.

For light, ensure there is absolutely NO outside light hitting the tank, if using T5 or MH be sure they are newer (less than 9 months because these colour shift to the red spectrum which algae loves).

Lower the photoperiod if you can....8 is sufficient.....a few 3, day rolling blackouts on occasion and this Algae will die....it will turn from green to beige/translucent and die.

Just keep in mind that algae does not live without light and nutrients, as you limit these, it will go away.

You feed the nem too much IMO. I feed mine only size of fingernail piece of Shrimp once a month!
It's just needs strong lighting and very clean and stable water chemistry.

Urchin will eat a lot, this is true, but it will eat everything off the rock including any Coraline, and only masks the underlying problem. By this, the algae grows but is consumed by the urchin.

This is the only thing that worked for me. pull and brush off what you can....low nutrients....mature stable water....balanced photoperiod. Death to the green nuisance.

I am very much a proponent for snails, ninja Astrea for green hair , Mexican turbo for red hair, Nars for sand.....