Help with green hair algae outbreak

[zulin]

Hi reefers!

I am coming to you because I have been battling this algae during half of this year and I haven't been able to eradicate it from my tank it is always growing, I have to clean the rocks all the time with a toothbrush. All started after my vacation period, when I returned I saw that the phosphate levels had raised a lot, after that I started to see the algae growing, on that time the algae was green hair algae and bubble algae.

I reduced my phosphate levels close to 0, the bubble algae died after a short period without phosphates in the tank, but the green hair algae kept growing more and more. I tried to use Vibrant, right now I have been using it for 3 months 2x dose per week without any result.

I made and ICP test with ATI lab, that I will share with you on this post, trying to understand what's going on in my tank, on that test I saw high levels of nitrates, the strange thing here is that I test the nitrate with Salifert and Redsea and both are giving to me the value of 0, so I am a bit confused on that. Just in case I put a bag with Seachem Purigen (85ml) on my sump.

I will list all the equipment that I have in my tank so you can have a better picture about my setup and maybe some of you could give to me an advice or some steps to follow because I am close to giving up on this.

My tank is 300L (79g) with a sump of 80L (21g). On my sump I have a Clarissea 5000 connected to the input of the water that comes from the tank, after that, I have skimmer Nyos 120, also I have a UV 18W light running 24h. On the sump, I have different sections where placed 1L of Matrix, Rowaphos, and Seachem Purigen. On the tank, I have two Maxpect Gyre 250 and an ATI 6x80 T5 light running 8 hours. The tubes have 6 months of use.

My dosages are Nyos Kh, Ca and Mg every day and I dose 4ml of Xaqua RGB once a week. I feed my fishes two times a day with gamma and right now I am not feeding my corals trying to keep my organics as low as possible.

Also, I am changing 5% of the water every week using Red sea salt.

Regarding the animals, I have 4 Chromis Viridis, 1 Salarias Ramosus, few different snails (trochus, Nassarius, Strombus), 3 peppermint shrimp and one Mesphilia Globulus.

My last parameter reading:

Temperature: 25.2 °C
pH: 8
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 0 ppm
Phosphate: 0.021 ppm
Salinity: 1026 SG
Alkalinity: 7.0 dKH
Calcium: 420 ppm
Magnesium: 1290 ppm

So, I tried to give to you all the information that I think it is important to understand my setup, can any of you help me fight these algae?

Should I reduce the light period?
Should I run an algae reactor?
What are the algae eating if there are no phosphates and nitrates?

I will appreciate any help, thanks!

This is an example of the algae growing close to my Utter Chaos

 

[Retro Reefer]

How old is tank? Probably going through new tank uglies which can sometimes take a year or two to get through.. cutting back your lighting a little won’t hurt, I would introduce a large diverse CUC including hermits.. you need a lot, I would start with 30-40 pieces and work your way up if needed.. you may need as many as 80+ Pieces to get it under control along with you scrubbing rock with toothbrush when doing your water changes

 

[zulin]

How old is tank? Probably going through new tank uglies which can sometimes take a year or two to get through.. cutting back your lighting a little won’t hurt, I would introduce a large diverse CUC including hermits.. you need a lot, I would start with 30-40 pieces and work your way up if needed.. you may need as many as 80+ Pieces to get it under control along with you scrubbing rock with toothbrush when doing your water changes

Hi! Thanks for your answer

Could you please recommend to me which species of CUC you will introduce to my tank?

Thanks

 

[Retro Reefer]

It’s a lot personal preference but I like to introduce as many different species as possible especially if I’m fighting algae as they all have different grazing habitats and types of algae they will eat.. here is what you get with the Reef Cleaners CUC package for 75 gallons, I would start with about 1/3 to 1/2 of that and see what happens..