Old tank syndrome-ish? Really out of ideas.

[heide264]

So I am about half way through the rocks. Never been squirted in the face by bubble algae until now. Also really wish I would have bought some heavy rubber gloves. I think I need more flow. A lot more. There is a lot of crap on these rocks.
I think the sandbed is a lot of the problem. I never had much flow around it because the sand would fly around. There is a LOT of junk on it. I am not sure what to do about this. I might just remove most of it and hope it doesn't screw up the tank cycle too much (and have a lot of saltwater on hand incase it does). It's bad.
I uploaded some pictures of it. You can see that monti cap/hammer and how much they have grown compared to the 18g rubbermaid they are in. Candy is in the bucket.
Check out the sandbed pictures and let me know what you think. http://www.photoshop.com/user/heide2...5ca8f1fc2e23dd

 

[sean48183]

I wouldn['t start over. You have some good corals there that are expensive to replace and they are growing so something good is happening in your tank. If you haven't already removed your sandbed you can do so buy siphoning it out during a water change. Just run the hose over the sand bed and suck it out with the water. Try getting a little more circulation thru that sump(Don't need a ton) and let that light pound it for a couple weeks. You will be suprised

 

[beaslbob]

Actually for a 5 years old tank it seems to be doing pretty well. fish and corals doing fine just a bit of hair algae.
I would check out calcium alk magnesium and use the diy dosing scheme. But you have a plate coral and hamerhead that seem to be doing fine so that is probably not a cure all.
One thing that will help is killing the lights in the display for up to a week to kill off the hair algae. Then resume with less duration lighting. The idea is to rebalance the refugium with the display so that the algae in the refugium are more in control.
just my .02

 

[heide264]

Uploaded some more pictures. One of the 2x25W light fixture over the sump (had to make some reflector umm, modifications... but got 2x20W power compacts in there), and two of the tank as it stands now. I am going to pick up an actual return pump; any suggestions? I'm looking for something I can T off and put more flow through the sump with. Tank has 1" overflow plumbing.
I like the rock arrangement much more, and I tried to allow spots to put power heads to increase flow.
I traded in a handful of monti cap "chips" to the LFS today. The store owner who went to high school with me gave me 5g of that premade saltwater (RO/DI unit in the works), 3 blue reef crabs, and 2 little conch type snails for the sandbed. Not a bad trade - those conch snails are pretty pricey along with that saltwater that robs my wallet. I trust that more than the RO water I get from another LFS, however.
Going to do a 5g water change tomorrow pulling out a lot of the sand and crap that's still on it out. Wanted to give it a day to settle to prevent a cycle and so my hands could regain their sense of touch.
I might try your lighting suggestion, but I don't want to risk the corals in the tank. That plate coral really likes it's lights. Levels are fine; if anything pH is higher than I like - I can't drip kalk at its level of 8.2 =(. They are going to be reset anyhow with water changes over the next week. Thanks beasl.
Things are looking much, much better =). Worst case scenario it should hold me off until summer when I have cash to work with.

 

[heide264]

Just for completion/follow up sake and reference, the tank seems to be running very well. The sump is really pumping out green umm, stuff. Display tank looks pretty clear and all the corals/fish are doing great.
Just have to wedge a couple power heads in my new rock arrangement to make sure it doesn't happen again, and make sure I do all my water changes by siphoning out the sand bed (going to be a long term project; RO/DI is in the works now).
Thanks for everybody who posted suggestions and help. This fix should really help out. Hopefully this summer I can finish off the junk/sand bed and get some other stuff in there again =).

 

[sean48183]

Sounds great. remember to pull out that algae from your sump every couple weeks. As it starts to grow on to itself it will kill some algae underneath releasing nitrates. If you do this and keep the light cranking you shouldn't have any problems. Good luck and post a pic in a few weeks.