Please help. About to lose tank

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Scotty Fraiser

Aquarium Advice Activist
Joined
Mar 18, 2013
Messages
175
I have a 110 gall reef tank with 30 gall fuge. Oversized skimmer. 25 gall water changes every other Sunday. Using aquavitro salt and supplement. Feed every other day. Granular a couple pinches. Then 2 days later frozen my sis. Alternate several foods and once week add reef frenzy. Bio load. Yellow tang. Sailfin tang. Hippo tang. Watchman gobi. 2 shrimp. 3 clownfish. 2 men's. several corals. 1 coral beauty. My problem is brown hair algea. I am also running a reactor with phosguard. And np reducing bio pellets. Rigged a spray nozzle and every three or four days I try to blow the algea off rocks to catch in filter socks. Have to clean socks and dump skimmer every 2 days. I also have a ton of snails and crabs. Also added 2 sea hares to consume it. Plan to start 15 gall water changes every week. Is there anything else I can do. Please help!!!!!! Thanks (not a pro and this site has been very helpful)
Alk 7 dkh
Mag 1360 ppm
Cal 400 ppm
Phos .10 ppm!!! (What should be max)
Nitrate .75
 
I have maxspect mAzarra p series led. I have them set to the automatic setting. Starts to brighten about 9 am. Max out about three pm. And then start to dim. Lights out only slight blue by 9 pm. I can't figure out how to get a shorter light period. Need to do some more studying on the lights. The controller is notvery user friendly to say the least IMO.
 
How old is your tank? What kind of water are you using, RO, Tap?

.05 max phosphates depending on the type of coral your keeping.
 
Cut down on light first. Make it at 8 hours. I have same phosphate reading but so far I am not having any problem. A UV sterilizer would definitely help. No flakes. Use plastic hose to suck out hair algae. Blowing it is spreading it all over the place.
 
Tank is about one year old with 150 lbs live rock. I am using rodi water. My own unit that is also one year old.
 
Hair algae is a long battle. Cut back feeding to 2 or 3 times a week. If able to switch to frozen and cut out flakes and pellets, do so. Before water changes, start pulling out the algae. Do larger or more frequent water changes.

Give it time with this process. It will take a month or 2 before it is all gone. It needs to be gradual anyway, as a quick removal will cause other issues as the underlying, the phosphates, will still remain.
 
I'd change out your filter pads on your ro/di unit a year without changing.... I change mine out like every two months haha
 
I finally started to win my battle with hair algae this past week. About two weeks ago I made it a point to pluck out unwanted algae. If the the hair algae gets too long your snails and crabs wont touch it. Second thing I did was to place my snails on the target areas. If you find them on your aquarium walls slide them off and put them on/near the areas of growth.

Hope this helps
 
My guess is that you have been using tap water and not realizing it by not changing out your RO/DI pads. I'd also change out the Phosphaguard for a straight GFO like Rowaphos.
 
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