Need some advice 32 gal biocube GHA

[jran3498]

Hello everyone,

I am a long time reader but this is my first post as I am truly stuck. A little background to my algae problem. I have a 32 gal biocube that has been set up since April 2019. I have had no issues with any algae really until about August I started noticing gha starting to grow on my rocks. I was keeping up with weekly 5 gal water changes using distilled gallon water jugs from Walmart and still do them now weekly. I cut back on my feeding as I had higher nitrates at the time to every other day. I began scrubbing the algae weekly upping my cuc etc. The algae has spread to just about every rock and on the substrate. Once I get the upper hand, a week later the algae is back and I am spending hours pulling it out scrubbing etc. I have tried to combat it with setting up a mini refugium which has been growing well since septemberish, and about a month ago I began dosing nopox as my nitrates were still high and I am starting to get desperate. My tank specs are the following:
32 gal biocube
ammonia 0
nitrite 0
ph 8.0
1430 mag
alk 8
calc 440
phos 0
salinity 1.025
ai prime hd running saxby modified 2pm-11pm with whites turned down
ato running kalk w gallon jugs from walmart
intank filter with floss, refugium, carbon and purigen (which i change once a month)
tunz 9001 skimmer
sicce 1.5 return with icecap gyre 1k running random flow 40%
carib sea fugi pink deep sand bed and rock from my lfs
probably about 10 assorted snails and 10 hermits (I cant keep snails alive for some reason)
2 clowns
1 sailfin blenny
1 pink line wrasse
1 cleaner shrimp
1 long spine urchin
1 emerald crab

I think my nitrates and phos are false readings due to the algae still thriving and all my corals look good except i have noticed my gsp has lost its bright green color and is more purple now and my torch seems a little receded but all other corals (hammers, zoa, leather, bta are doing well). I feed them once a week I recently reduced nopox to .5 ml a day versus 1.0 ml due to nitrates reading 0 and am starting to feed fish every day again. I thought I was on the right path as coralline algae was beginning to start growing in the tank but this algae seems to be getting out of hand. I am not sure what to do or if this is just a phase in the tank but I am looking for any input that you guys have I miss when my tank looked a lot cleaner and it is frustrating seeing it grow back weekly
thanks for reading!

 

[lkriley]

Wow, you have a lot going on and have a ton of extras to your tank. I also have a 32 biocube. I am dealing with diatoms right now and can't seem to shake them. I think I have had my tank since about August, maybe September. Other than the brown algae, or whatever it is, my tank is good. I don't have any extras. Just what came with the tank, and I switched to Steve R Sled lighting (glad I did). I have been told by others here at R2R that I pretty much have to wait it out. Seems like an eternity. I also do 5 gal changes weekly, but with LFS saltwater.

 

[jran3498]

Yeah I’m just not sure if there is anything Else I should do in order to help with jt