Algae growth on live rock

[rocksanchez]

Hi all,

 

Sorry for the lengthy post, I know information is key here and wanted to provide as much of it as possible. I wasn't sure where to post this and since I class myself as a beginner I thought this would be the best place.

 

My RSM nano system, with a couple of upgrades, has been running since October 2019 and overall I'm quite happy with what I have so far, I'm stocking very slowly and trying to learn as much as I can about everything that goes inside so one day I can get to the level some of you guys are at on here.

 

Recently I have been having problems with GHA (thats actually brown) growth and strange white fuzz on my live rock and I'm a little stumped at what it is or whats causing the issue. I am finding myself cleaning the glass almost daily from the brown film that forms on it and my sand is in constant need of cleaning of the same brown stuff so I'm sure I have an issue somewhere 

 

Without going into too much detail of the process that got me to where I am, here are the important bits and some pictures.

 

Tank:

Red Sea Max Nano 75 litre / 20 gal

Red Sea LED 50

Stock skimmer

Jecod DCT-1200 return

Jebao SLW-10 wave pump

Tunze nano ATO

Stock filter socks and 'bubble trap' sponges in rear

Rock - Dry rock (marco?)

Substrate - Carab Sea Ocean Direct (it's a little deep and would like to get some of this out if I can)

 

Livestock:

2 clowns

1 Royal Gramma

GSP 'mat'

Rasta zoa

Scrambled eggs zoa

Red Hornet zoa

Single Acan head

Small Monti cap frag

1 red legged hermit

4 banded trochus

 

Params / test kits:

Temp 27c / 80.6f

sg 1.0264 / 35ppm / Aquaforest Reef Salt

Ammonia 0 / API

Nitrite 0 / API

Nitrate 2-3 / Red Sea

Phosphate 0 / Salifert

 

Water changes 25% weekly

Feed 1/4 cube frozen mysis / vitalis pellets once a day. reef roids once a week.

 

Everything seems happy, thriving and growing although one zoa frag is slowly being taken over by this hair, it's no longer opening fully and its creeping towards the others. I'm starting to get a little worried it'll suffocate so have some h2o2 on order incase of emergency.

 

Can anyone help ID what this stuff is and how I can get my rocks clean. I'm happy to take my time to get this cleared up as that seems to be the safest route. The white specks are sand caught up in the white fuzz.

 

If you need more pictures I can get some

 

Thanks in advanced for the help, much appreciated

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[seabass]

Do the Trochus snails seem to eat it?  My initial thought is to beef up your cleanup crew with some more herbivores (maybe with several different types of snails).

 

Also, your are a large part of the cleanup crew.  I would manually remove the algae that you can.  Also, I'd use a turkey baster to blow the detritus off of the rocks.  At 8 months of age, the sand bed could have easily built up organic mulm.  Lack of sand bed maintenance is a common problem as a tank ages.