Need Advice or may give up hobby

Turbo snails may help combat the HA.

I'll take you at your word that your water parameters are in check... that's cause of the algae. I haven't been keeping up with your build thread. Sorry. I do, however, need some information in this thread so that I can better help you.

 

Tank size:

Sump Size:

Refugium Size:

Lighting:

Lighting times:

Mechanical Filter:

Protein Skimmer:

Other Filtration:

Powerhead(s) gph:

Clean Up Crew:

Water Change Schedule:

Source of water for top offs:

Source of water for water changes:

Brand of salt:

Substrate and # of it: 

Live rock and # of it:

Base Rock and # of it:

How old is the tank?

Stock List:

Corals you've tried:

Inverts you've tried:

What has died:

Tested for copper?:

What do you feed and how much?:

Do you have room for an algae scrubber?:

Can you do basic plumbing and DIY?:

 

 

 

Wat size tank?

Wat equipment?

How old is ur tank?

Wat are the parameters? Phosphates?

 

Sounds to me like ur algae problem is eating watever is in ur water, then ud be getting a false reading!

 

Sry bout the Qs but we need some more info before we can be any kind of help!

 

Dont give up!

Pics help too!

Dont give up! Just add to your CUC and kill your lights for a while. Keep up with Ll your other maintenance too. We just got over a bad cyano out break, the whole bottom of the tank was red! It can be done, its all part of having a piece of the ocean in our home.

I have wanted to throw the towel in a time or two   :(     BUT have not (yet)      a lot of questions have been asked of you.....answer them, and let the people here advise you

 

you can win this battle.......and then there will always be another....LOL....

Don't give up! I'd cut your lights back to 6-8hrs. Add some chemipure elite to filtration, and if poss. get a hob refugium to get some macro algae growing to compete with the hair algae. Oh and if you can, manually scrub off all the hair algae you can off the rock, preferably in a bucket.

I never said you were a new hobbyist! I'm glad you know the basics, then again, you did ask for help, so I am trying to help.

 

1. Turn your lights off for a few days.

2. Replace your phosphate sponge.

3. Let the algae die.

4. Feed half or less than what you usually do.

5. Replace your light bulbs if they are long over due. When was the last time you changed your lights?

6. Add an additional powerhead for extra flow. You would be amazed at what extra flow will do.

7. After 3 days, increase lights by 3 hours one week, 6 hours the next and then to 8 hours the next. Keep your lights on only 8 hours per day. If algae starts to develop again, go back down to six hours a day.

8.  At the end of two weeks, do a water change

9. Get your protein skimmer working to full capacity, and stay on top of it. Wet skim.

 

Getting your dad to help you with a project, in my opinion, is one of those things that would build strong father/son - daughter relationships. Try it anyway, and see if he will. You never know! As for the project, I'de recommend building an algae scrubber. But, that's a long thread, and you can find information about it in more detail elsewhere.

 

Pics can help in situations like these. It can help us determine severity, powerhead placement, other issues that you may not be aware of etc.

 

A sea hare will eat the hair algae, but once its gone, the sea hare probably will be too :( You can pull it out by hand.....try more water changes

When you test for nitrates and phosphates you get a false 0 reading, that gives you a false sense of all your parameters are good....the hair algae is feeding on it big time. It's there, believe me or the algae would die.

 

luvmyreef's suggestion is the best IMO..get a bucket of saltwater and start cleaning the rocks. Make sure you have good RO water and be careful of over feeding. Do regular water changes, a small amount once a week while you try to get rid of the bad algae. Until you get the algae under control quit buying corals and inverts the high phosphates and nitrates IMO, are what is killing them.

 

Don't worry I was in your boat too! I lost $100's in fish in coral in a few short weeks. Definitely get some good flow going and cut back on those lights big time (6-7hrs)! You say you have a wet dry like I do too. You ever clean 1/4 of your bio-balls at water changes? I assume you change your filter regularly with water changes... I would also step up water changes to about 15 gallons until your tank gets back in check. Add 2 bags of charcoal to your wet/dry system if you don't already.

 

everything else sounds normal. The only thing I can swear by and I preach to new hobbyists, like myself, is water changes at least 25-33% and do this religiously on a schedule. Once it gets better and life starts thriving then you can scale back to smaller or less frequent water changes.

 

I'm no different from you in this hobby and lately I have been so please with my tank as well as my fish and corals also.  I firmly believe this is 100% contributed to doing weekly maintenance and water changes. I change out 30% weekly.

 

 

Man dont give up! I HAVE LOST THOUSANDS in this hobby How many fish do you have? always check your RO water. Even if it is coming from a pet store. (I worked at one, they dont care). I cant remember how old are your bulbs? Are you only running 1 maxi jet? might need another. You say inverts and coral are dying, what are your nitrate and phos. readings? I know it sounds petty but!!! Maybr do 10 gallon water changes per week. give me a min I might have something else.

Have you changed salts recently?

No matter what your test kit readings may say, you have high nutrient levels (phosphates, nitrates, or both). That's a given.

 

Now, you have to narrow your problem down to the source:

 

• Frozen foods are high in phosphates. Some flake foods and pellets are also high in phosphates and breakdown quickly if not consumed.
• Most people overfeed, albeit unwillingly. Fish really need very little food, they just always seem hungry. Don't target feed corals or bubble-tip anemones.
• Test the TDS reading of your "new" water source.
• Your sandbed could be saturated and leaching phosphates (I suspect this is the source of most people's algae problems).
• Your liverock could be saturated and leaching phosphates.
• Your aquascaping itself could be a problem if you have large quantities of rock piled-up without proper flow. Food/detritus gets trapped.
• Old or too much lighting can compound the problem, but it's probably not the source.