I.D. For this stubborn pest ?

[Orange bam bams]

For starters parameters are as fallows at moment 430 cal 9 alk 1500 mag (purposely high) I have battled w/ this for about 6 months Making some progress but then take two steps back I do bi weekly 15% water changes routinely nitrates /phosphates zero test readings pest blooms after water changes a bit I use ro/di Tds 0 my parameters are usually very stable also my sps and lps seam to have thinned tissue colors have gone more pastelish please help me iD so I can kick this stuffs butt I have a couple of guess's but wanted to see WhT others think ?? Oh and all my snails kicked the bucket one after another till none left ! It seams to pick up air bubble but deosnt make em I don't think it stays short on rock but gets long and wavy on glass walls it covers all my rock like a blanket it has chocked out most of my macro in fuge also

In the last one the back wall is usually full I siphon it out as much as possible but come back I run carbon and gfo In reactors changed bi weekly on the mark also run an oversized reef octo skimmer ! I'm getting desperate in this war lookin 4 any
Way to improve my chances of being victorious ! Without wiping out tank or dismantling it in a give up type of way (not happening lol)

 

[Orange bam bams]

One more lol

 

[laskopyre]

hmmm, kinda looks like bryopsis.

 

[wysiwyg]

its either bryopsis or hair algae

 

[Young Frankenstein]

Stop testing for phosphate and nitrate, you have plenty of it, something must be feeding this algae, it doesn’t mater what name it has.
How many gallons is your tank? How many gallons is your refugium?
Step 1 stop carbon filtering it increases phosphates.
Step 2 your lighting seems excellent, therefore more algae.
Step 3 run refugium lighting 24/7 with 10k bulb and high flow
Step 4 stop the GFO you are just wasting money because it seems you are just producing too much nitrate and phosphate, too much for any GFO to consume.
Step 5 pictures of the entire system
Step 6 DO NOT GIVE UP you will wing at the end, you did the most critical step and asked for help.
Lets get to work

 

[Rockadile]

Id say bryopsis raise your mage to around 1600-1700 and tat will help eliminate it. I know it sounds like a lot but many reefers in my area have done this and it has worked wonders. Also as Young Frankenstein said your PO4 test wont give you an accurate reading, you can see your PO4 is high simple because of your algae alon with the rest of what he said is excellent advice.

 

[Orange bam bams]

Stop testing for phosphate and nitrate, you have plenty of it, something must be feeding this algae, it doesn’t mater what name it has.
How many gallons is your tank? How many gallons is your refugium?
Step 1 stop carbon filtering it increases phosphates.
Step 2 your lighting seems excellent, therefore more algae.
Step 3 run refugium lighting 24/7 with 10k bulb and high flow
Step 4 stop the GFO you are just wasting money because it seems you are just producing too much nitrate and phosphate, too much for any GFO to consume.
Step 5 pictures of the entire system
Step 6 DO NOT GIVE UP you will wing at the end, you did the most critical step and asked for help.
Lets get to work

I will work on some more pics of the whole system should be up soon ! My total water volume is about 155 accounting for rock and other things main tank is 155 bowfront 75 gal sump (about 35 gal water) main tank current is 2 mp40w es's and 1 tunze 6100 two returns (forgot flow rating of pump) fuge is about 20 gallons ! I did change my fuge lighting to opposite the DT awhile back as someone had called me crazy for 24/7 fuge lighting I will go back 2 24/7 as that was in the back of my mind! So as far as reactor/filter media stop what I am doing ? Should I just run a skimmer and fuge? What do you suggest for media usage intervals if any? Was step 2 sarcastic or lights appear fine? I replace about every 8 months 2 x 20k reeflux 4x ATI t5 and 2 feet of the tank is LED lit 2:1 blue over white ! Asking 4 help is always the easiest step but a smart man knows when it's for the better !! Lol thanks in advance 4 all the help !!

 

[Rockadile]

I So as far as reactor/filter media stop what I am doing ? Should I just run a skimmer and fuge?

Absolutely. For whatever it is worth. In the 4 years I have been in this hobby which I know is not very long, I have never run any kind of reactor outside a kalk reactor or a fuge and have never had an issue with any kind of algae.

 

[Dave3112]

Looks like hair algae to me. That tonga branch rock will always have it. In my experience anyway. I love the look of it but I won't use it anymore because it grows HA in my tank(s). You can try a sea hare or some Mexican turbos for the display and as suggested above stop the carbon and run fuge lights 24/7. It takes time and effort but you can get rid of that stuff.

 

[Rockadile]

I just did a google image search on dinoflagellates reef tank looks pretty similar

 

[sndstream]

Im with most, its either bryopsis or hair algae. Kinda tough to tell but if they look like little ferns it's a good chance it is bryopsis. Ive had it and imo is pure evil. I tried everything sea hares, lettuce nudi's, fox face, different snails, and kent tech m. Kent did work but it ended up jacking my tank up after I went past mg = 2000. Ive read somewhere that critters willing to eat bryopsis is more miss than hit and also read its due to bryopsis being toxic to the critters (or more readily available tasty foods). Im absolutely certain of what I was referencing to so take it w/a grain of salt. Pray it's not bryopsis lol....

 

[Orange bam bams]

I just did a google image search on dinoflagellates reef tank looks pretty similar

I had initially thought that especially w/ all my snails slowing way down and dieing which fed the algae more !! The stuff on my rock though looks more like caLothrix and the stuff I get on my back wall to me appears to be different more like Lyngbya which are both types of cyano I think But those were just some of my thoughts or guess's from pics I have seen around

 

[Orange bam bams]

Oh and I keep temp at 77 f and it sits at about 8.1-8.2 ph I run skimmer line outside and use 1 tsp per gallon lime water for ato also dose calciu
Chloride and soda ash w/ 1.1 ml/min dosers

 

[Orange bam bams]

Also would raise mag higher but test kit only goes up 2 1500 I use salifert

 

[Orange bam bams]

Im with most, its either bryopsis or hair algae. Kinda tough to tell but if they look like little ferns it's a good chance it is bryopsis. Ive had it and imo is pure evil. I tried everything sea hares, lettuce nudi's, fox face, different snails, and kent tech m. Kent did work but it ended up jacking my tank up after I went past mg = 2000. Ive read somewhere that critters willing to eat bryopsis is more miss than hit and also read its due to bryopsis being toxic to the critters (or more readily available tasty foods). Im absolutely certain of what I was referencing to so take it w/a grain of salt. Pray it's not bryopsis lol....

No fern appearance that I can c but from what I have read is there are many different bryopsis species some without the fern ? Correct me if I'm wrong there

 

[Young Frankenstein]

If your lighting was not strong, you would not have so much hair algae or grow sps, I think you have a nice setup. If we twik it a bit all will fall in their place. Photos and also how much are you feeding ? Remove all media just check alk and ca

 

[Young Frankenstein]

What type of salt are you using ?

 

[Orange bam bams]

I don't feed much everyother day a small chunk of rods food or mysis !! I use reef crystals (box) !

 

[Orange bam bams]

FishroOm/sump

 

[Orange bam bams]

Standing just outside fishroom