Help with live rock

[16Reefer170]

I have a 3 year old RSR170, with live rock and sand that was transferred from my 3 year old 36g bowfront aquarium (6 year old live rock). The aquarium is doing well now, but I am having trouble getting over the sins of the past. I am now running:
- BRS RODI with 6 stages
- Simplicity 120 skimmer
- BRS mini reactor with 2:1 ROX.8 carbon and GFO
- Two PP4 wave pumps (4000L max each)
- AI Hydra HD 26 light @50% of the BRS recommended AB+ spectrum.
- four 1.5” bio-blocks in the sump.
-dosing kalkwasser /vinegar solution hourly with a dosing Pump.
- two large balls of chaetomorpha growing in the sump

10% water changes weekly.
Filter sock changeout 3x per week.

0 nitrates and 0 phosphates with the Read Sea test kit.

Unfortunately.... almost no Coralline algae, and the live rock has a constant 100% coverage of green hair algae “fuz”. If I let the po4 rise at all, the GHA takes off. I go after as much as I can with tweezers and toothbrush often, but it persists.

I recently pulled the only piece of rock I have without corals growing on it (fairly small piece) and did a massive cleaning. H2O2 rinse, scrub brush, salt water soak, vinegar bath more scrub brush, fresh salt water bath for a few days, and now used water change water soak.

What came off the rock was disgusting. Brown green filth.

The real question is what to do with the rest of the rock. I can not attack without killing rather mature corals, but I need to get it to where I can run “healthy” po4 for zoa’s and Coralline.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

May I have a closer picture of the fuzz please.

 

[16Reefer170]

 

[16Reefer170]

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

That’s some weird stuff right there.
#reefsquad anyone seen this?

It does appear to Be very bad thin with delicate tissues though. It may be worth a shot trying fluconazole/reef lux hd.
It’s pretty effective on gha’s and def bryopsis strains.

 

[16Reefer170]

Thank you. Very much. The tank has been 0 nitrates and at or near 0 Po4 for over 1 year now, so it’s time for a new direction. I have recently stoped skimming (temporary equipment failure) , and stoped using the GFO, as I want to see where the levels go (0Nitrates / .08 Po4 after 1 week now). I need the skimmer back on-line before I try anything else, and will probably be debating the options for a long while before I do anything drastic. I do plan on returning the now “cycling” pice of clean live rock back to the tank after the skimmer is back on line in two weeks or so. Hopefully it will populate with coralline, not GHA.

After that, I’m thinking:

Increase clean up crew (currently 1 trochus snail, 2 Creith and 1 nassarius) - probably the safest, and maybe sooner than later. Recommendations?

Or ReefFlux?

Or Dr Tim’s waste away?

Lot’s of pros and cons to both dosing options. I’m fairly cautious at this.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Thank you. Very much. The tank has been 0 nitrates and at or near 0 Po4 for over 1 year now, so it’s time for a new direction. I have recently stoped skimming (temporary equipment failure) , and stoped using the GFO, as I want to see where the levels go (0Nitrates / .08 Po4 after 1 week now). I need the skimmer back on-line before I try anything else, and will probably be debating the options for a long while before I do anything drastic. I do plan on returning the now “cycling” pice of clean live rock back to the tank after the skimmer is back on line in two weeks or so. Hopefully it will populate with coralline, not GHA.

After that, I’m thinking:

Increase clean up crew (currently 1 trochus snail, 2 Creith and 1 nassarius) - probably the safest, and maybe sooner than later. Recommendations?

Or ReefFlux?

Or Dr Tim’s waste away?

Lot’s of pros and cons to both dosing options. I’m fairly cautious at this.

Reef flux.

 

[Ron Reefman]

You don't have any fish in the tank (I didn't see any)?
Maybe try a small algae eater. I have a small scopas tang in my 40g cube and it ate all the hairy algae I had (not like yours). Or you could try a any herbivore like a lawnmower blenny.

 

[16Reefer170]

Thank you for the suggestion, I do have 2 clown fish, 1 Midas Blenny, and 1 Azure Damsel, so i am pretty full for a 34g display. I don’t feel comfortable with any size tang in a tank this small. I did have a lawnmower Blenny for a while, but he outgrew the tank, and never ran out of food.

 

[16Reefer170]

 

[16Reefer170]

I was able to isolate one small piece of the algae, Could it be Bryopsis?

 

[Jay Z]

You don't have any fish in the tank (I didn't see any)?
Maybe try a small algae eater. I have a small scopas tang in my 40g cube and it ate all the hairy algae I had (not like yours). Or you could try a any herbivore like a lawnmower blenny.

Flame fin tang ended up being my best algae eater in my tank. Guys a beast for clean up. Not sure if they all are..

 

[16Reefer170]

Hi all. I still am not certain if it’s GHA or Bryopsis, but I decided to dose Reef Flux anyway. I guess we will see in 2 weeks how it goes. Fingers crossed!

 

[Seamore2001]

T

After that, I’m thinking:

Increase clean up crew (currently 1 trochus snail, 2 Creith and 1 nassarius) - probably the safest, and maybe sooner than later. Recommendations?

That's a crazy tiny cleanup crew. You could have 4x or 5x as many and still have room for more. And no blue leg hermits? They like hair algae too.

Also I didn't see whether you had a refugium - they can be very productive and good for nutrient removal as well.

 

[16Reefer170]

Thank you for the advice. I have had a hard time keeping snails in the past, but since I banished my hermit crab to the sump, the snails I have have not lost a single one. Once the reef flux runs its course, I am going to add 2 more Trochus and another Narssarius. Any other favorite snails to recommend?
The sump has a nice ball of Cheato, growing slowly under an Amazon “grow” light. Also thinking of an upgrade for that eventually.

 

[16Reefer170]

Update.... I broke the rule of one change at a time,. I changed everything at once, and this time it actually worked out awesome. Since the tank is 3 years old, with 6 year old live rock and sand, I decided to go all in. After removing the carbon and GFO, I set the skimmer to its minimum DC pump setting to avoid filling the cup, and dosed the reef flux. Sine I have not been able to detect Po or No for over a year, I also stopped mixing my Kalkwasser with vinegar. The reef flux seems to have cleaned up the tank nicely, Chaeto is growing like mad in the sump, Nitrates are still zero,and phosphate is between .04 and .06 on the Red Sea kit. No water changes over the past 3 weeks. It’s the best the tank has looked in quite some time. Live rock still has as a green tint to it, but no real growth of algae. The purple may even be taking over the rock again.