Reef tank failure

[Driftwood58]

I have had an Ada tank running now for a little under two years. For the past year I have been battling hair algae endlessly . I do a 2 gallon water change weekly on my Ada 60f with a 10 gallon sump. I have a protien and for the past 5 months have been running a mini reactor with carbon / Gfo mix. I have two fish in the system and I feed every other day . I have some easy beginner corals that have showed some growth , however for the most part my corals show very little growth and colors are not what they should be . I feel like I'm keeping an algae tank instead of a reef. My phosphate levels are at 2 determined by a Hanna checker. I have spent a decent amount of money on the set up and enjoy the hobby very much , but I don't want a tank that looks like the one I currently have. I feel like I'm flushing money down the toilet literally. Any advice would be greatly appriciated .

[Shewillbemine]

Where do you get your water from? Do you have a sump? If you do, you could add some macroalgae and have it compete with the hair algae. Also, how long is your light cycle?

[Driftwood58]

I do have a sump ...and I use a RODI unit for my water which I test and it reads at 0. I have a few small pieces of macro in there , but the hair algae is in the fuge too. Choking out my macros , maybe I need more of them in there.

[JR!]

emerald crab might be worth a try. they are normally cheap

[ReefJar]

Can you show us some pictures?

 

Have you cross checked your tests with another kit or given a sample to your LFS?

 

You didn't mention anything about your lights. What are you using? When were they last replaced?

 

Have you tried feeding less but more often? Or just feeding less in general?

 

Cheers!

[thedon986]

What light are you using and whats the daily schedule like?

[JavaJacketOC]

get a small turbo to mow down the hair and get it under control then take it back and just manage

[metrokat]

Some pictures would be great.

Nitrates?

Alk?

Calcium?

Magnesium?

Salinity?

TDS?

[ndrobey]

Get: Emerald crab, turbo snail, lawnmower blenny, Chaeto in sump, algae scrubber, and macroalgae in display tank.

[Driftwood58]

I have a nano box duo over the tank running on a 12 hour cycle with sunrise/ sunset 60 min ramp times included in the 12 hour cycle

I'm not sure how to upload pics onto here. I'll figure it out and post them .

[ninjamyst]

what's ur setting on the nanobox? how high from the water surface? the duo is VERY powerful

[Driftwood58]

I wanna say its 12in from the surface. I'm not 100% sure tho . I'll check that and my light settings when I get home tonight.

[shawnd08]

How did you use to test the RODI ? My friend and I both had hair algae problems and ended up stitch water sources within weeks the algae started dying off in my tank.

[mystersyster]

Hey man. I battled it a long time too. I learned a lot. You said you run gfo and carbon together. Ditch the carbon and run the GFO alone, leaving it to tumble. Doing this will greatly increase it's efficiency. There is no reason that you can't get your level of 2 down to around .25 by doing this, along with standard water changes. When you do changes make sure you get as much dead hair algae out as possible.

[plainrt]

Is your tds meter calibrated? I'd cut your light cycle to 8-9 total

[Driftwood58]

Is your tds meter calibrated? I'd cut your light cycle to 8-9 total

Yea it's calibrated .... I'm gong to try and cut the light cycle down to 8 hours then see if that helps.

Hey man. I battled it a long time too. I learned a lot. You said you run gfo and carbon together. Ditch the carbon and run the GFO alone, leaving it to tumble. Doing this will greatly increase it's efficiency. There is no reason that you can't get your level of 2 down to around .25 by doing this, along with standard water changes. When you do changes make sure you get as much dead hair algae out as possible.

Ok I'll try running just the Gfo and take out the carbon . Thanks for the advice

How did you use to test the RODI ? My friend and I both had hair algae problems and ended up stitch water sources within weeks the algae started dying off in my tank.

I use a TDS meter to test my water .

[yomon347]

Live/dry rock can purge phosphates for over a year, resulting in constant algae.

 

I am still fighting algae in my bare bottom tank and its been over a year. It's a slow battle of attrition, but I am winning. It is wierd though, I now have random macro algae growing that I have never seen before.

 

I ran GFO for 6 months but it seemed to grow more algae because it was keeping the phosphate count in the water column low and making the live rocks purge phosphates faster.

 

You really just need to constantly attack it, pull algae from the tank as often as you can. It gets really old, I only do it once a week now. The algae will eventually lose the fight.