Is this GHA or something else? Need advice.

[MarkDarnell]

Algae started about a month ago. Its on the substrate as well as rocks. Some CYANO also, but very little. More concerned about the GHA as it wont go away.

14 month old tank, 220 gallon.
Water paramaters are pristine using API. I check PH, Nitrate, Nitrite, Amonia, Phosphate, Calcium, and KH.
Sump has skimmer, filter socks only.
Have an ATO.

Various corals in tank.
Various fish in tank.
Lots of cleanup crew (snails, conch, shrimp, etc)

Corrective measures so far:
Changed out 1 year old lamps.
Purchased more cleanup crew (more of everything from Reef Cleaners)
Increased water changes to 35gallon every week.
Manual removal by hand as much as possible, then scrub with toothbrush and siphon as much as I can get with wife helping.

Looking for any suggestions. Do I need a refugium, a reactor, do I need to buy some magical cleanup crew member that I am unaware of, anything?
The wife hates this algae as do I, but she likes to remind me about it all the time

 

[zwulfke]

Looks like it and it's a sign of over feeding

 

[MarkDarnell]

I havent changed my feeding style though?!? I went over 12 months without any trace of it and then it started. Everything I researched on here said lamps, so I started with that first.

 

[brandon429]

In our pest algae challenge thread this would be the breakdown:

The presence of low level patchy growth of GHA indicates a productive reef not necessarily one with a problem. In nature, the purest reefs must produce tons of algae to feed grazers and when you see a real reef while scuba diving that has only minor or no visible algae issues, you are seeing the work of grazers, not nutrients. In the wild, the purest waters of Fiji grow tons of GHA...we are able to fix many tanks by acting directly on algae and leaving the water as is

I'm seeing spotty coverage in your tank, not blanketing.

wouldn't assume algae is a nutrient issue initially here, but some areas can't be ruled out yet.

This sandbed is thicker grained and slightly more retentive than oolitic sandbeds, small detail as well.

just kill off the algae, easy, then it's dead and you might retreat a few times until it stops coming back or gets to the point of rare direct control needs, and you have time to find grazers that will remove it. It does not come back perpetually, it's a downslope we show for many cases, a pre test tells. We predict grow back per tank fairly well by the test. Most of the time it's simply loss of algae and the keeper is rather stunned.




Good luck!
B

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Yea what he said.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Try scrubbing it or finding a grazer.
I'm guessing from the pics you have a big skimmer and this may be an SPS tank.
It may have taken a while but something built up and you got some algae. Finally.
Your sand is pretty large grained is it argonite? And how deep is it?
Guessing it's shallow.
A little cleaning in the bed there may be a good thing for your style of Reefing. Do it in small steps so you don't stir too much up.

In my dirty tank I pride myself on the different colors of corraline cyano and algae that pop up. And go away.
My SPS is a deep sand bed with a sugar sand. I never get algae on the bed unless something not so good is happening.
Actually come to think of it my dirty tank never gets algae on the sand. It's a DSB too.