Losing the algae battle, one slow day at a time

[SkylineView]

Hello friends, I could use some advice. I’m about a year into being a reefer, and my tank is slowly, inexorably, being taken over by some kind of algae (it’s very fine long strings, consistency of hair). I’ve tried not to freak out about it, but nothing I’ve done has helped. It’s starting to ruin my enjoyment of having an aquarium as it takes over literally all the surface area of the live rock and is starting to choke out my coral. Included below is all the detail of the tank and things I’ve tried. In advance, please know I appreciate any comments or suggestions… I’m out of ideas!

Things I’ve tried.

• Turned the lighting schedule way down, both duration and intensity
• I pull out as much of the algae as possible every week or two when I do a water change (~15%)
• Added more blue legged hermit crabs (~ 15 now… full tank population given below)
• Added a lawnmower blenny and a fox faced rabbitfish (as far as I can tell/have seen, these guys haven’t eaten any of it)

After doing all of this over the course of several months, it’s still getting worse.

Details about the tank. It’s a 75 gallon display mixed reef with a 20 gallon sump that’s been running a little over a year. I’m running a skimmer and have macro-algae growing in the sump with a grow-light which I leave on 24/7. I’ve added ‘pods twice, most recently about 6 months ago.

Tank fish population

• Two clownfish
• Goby
• Flame hawkfish
• Royal gamma
• Six line wrasse
• Two blue chromis
• Lawnmower blenny
• Fox faced rabbitfish
• Two sand-sifting starfish
• ~ 15 snails (mix of breeds)
• ~ 25 hermit crabs (half blue legged, half red)
• I have ~ 6 pieces of coral (just imagine a cheap newbie coral starter pack… that’s what I have; pulsing xenia, green star polyp etc.)

Tank parameters:

• Temp: 78
• Salinity: 34 ppt
• Ph: 8.0
• Ammonia: 0.25
• Nitrite: Trace
• Nitrate: ~ 5
• Calcium: ~ 440
• Alkalinity: ~ 7.7 (I realize this is low, but I want to sort out the algae before I start dosing)
• Magnesium: ~ 1200

Again, thanks for any tips or avenues to consider. I feel like I’m going to end up needing to pull all the rockwork and toss it, and start fresh, but I desperately don’t want to do that.

 

[Rick's Reviews]

Pictures please, I've 'imagined' coral as in your description

 

[SkylineView]

Pics of what's going on. First pic is from the least-impacted part of the tank and offers a good backlight. The second pic is what most of the tank looks like. Getting covered.

 

[Rick's Reviews]

Everything looks great except this greenery on your single rock, the best thing to do is manual removel, you should get rid of this 'mass' via manual removel, it will Definitely help you keep control of growth and easier to remove in the future

 

[Lavey29]

Your alk is fine for your nutrient level. What is your phosphate? Reduce lights to 6 hours with blue and uv only for 3 weeks. Raise magnesium to 1500 turns GHA white for die off. Diverse cleaner crew with tuxedo urchins and turbos. Get your hands wet with daily manual removal.