Talk me out of it....

[lbannie]

Or into it!
I have a 90 gallon reef tank with sump. I had a custom stand and canopy made for it as this was supposed to be my “show” tank, last tank.
While I love the tank, I have terrible algae problems.
Mostly hair algae.
I’ll admit it is probably all my fault from lack of maintenance.
I don’t use RO water, we have well, we live on top of mountain, no neighbors at all.
I don’t use a skimmer, although I do have a large coralife skimmer that came with the tank...just never used it.
I have 8 fish, and my latest a foxface, to help eat the algae, ate one of my leather corals instead [emoji35].
There’s beautiful coraline algae underneath all the green crap.

So here’s my dilemma...do I keep saltwater? Try to do more water changes and maintenance?

My other thought is to switch gears and go to African Cichlids.
Much cheaper, somewhat less work.

I really like the diversity of saltwater fish, shapes, colors, and of course the money pit corals.

Cichlids seem to be the closest color wise and I really like how active they are and they don’t hide.

What should I do?

I haven’t found anyone to buy my fish, Petco says they will take them and give me deep discounts on future cichlids.

I’m also debating selling the lights(ocean revive arctic t247s) and the rock

Another question, I have a lot of rock in the tank...would it be better to take some out for algae issues?
I can’t seem to attach a pic

 

[Sniperhank]

The algae issues in the tank are from built up nutrients from lack of care. Removing rock will only remove beneficial bacteria from the system. Manual removal of the algae during water changes will remove those nutrients, but it will take some time to get things back in working order. The same thing can be said for cichlids I'm sure, but ends up being a question of what you value more, the time and elbow grease it'll take to get things back to pristine or the monetary value of dumping it all and starting over a new with something else?...with the knowledge that the same attention will lead to the same problem.

 

[lbannie]

The algae issues in the tank are from built up nutrients from lack of care. Removing rock will only remove beneficial bacteria from the system. Manual removal of the algae during water changes will remove those nutrients, but it will take some time to get things back in working order. The same thing can be said for cichlids I'm sure, but ends up being a question of what you value more, the time and elbow grease it'll take to get things back to pristine or the monetary value of dumping it all and starting over a new with something else?...with the knowledge that the same attention will lead to the same problem.

I think I’m going to try to up my maintenance and see how it goes. I’m thinking I will regret taking my tank apart

 

[Rutrag]

I’m thinking you’ll need to invest in an RODI system to give yourself a fighting chance. Do you know the TDS of your tap water?

 

[lbannie]

I’m thinking you’ll need to invest in an RODI system to give yourself a fighting chance. Do you know the TDS of your tap water?

No I don’t, I’m looking to see where I can get it tested. In the past I’ve gone months without water changes (just too off) so I’m starting with better maintenance