Algae problem wont go away

[tomderly]

Dear Reefers,

About 3-4 months ago, I started seeing algae on my rocks. Since then my nitrates and phosphates have been at untraceable levels. Over the past few months, most corals in my tank have turned white, and started losing tissue. At this time I was feeding the tank once every other day. I believe this algae is consuming all nutrients before my corals do.

In an effort to up my nutrients in the tank, I am now feeding the tank daily. I added 2 more fish including a tomini tang in hopes that it will pick at some of the algae. I think I'm going to start dosing NeoNitro to attempt to give my corals access to Nitrates, however I am afraid this will also feed the algae problem and make it worse.

This algae is impossible to scrub off so manual removal is not an option. It grows everywhere including my overflow where there is barely any light. I want to try lights out for 3 days but I'm worried this would be the nail in the coffin for most of my corals.
Any help is greatly appreciated:)

Details:
Calcium: 390
Alk: 8 dkH
Phos: 0
Nitrate: 0
Salt: 1.025
70 gallon tank - 20 gallon sump
10% WC every other week
(I upgraded from a 20 gallon to this 70 gallon tank 8 months ago)

 

[blaxsun]

I'd get some more cleanup crew. Spiny astrea snails and ring cowries, urchins and an emerald crab or two will help (though keep in mind this won't happen overnight).

 

[jda]

You are going to need something to consume the algae. Snails, crabs, limpets, chitons, urchins, etc. Algae will grow in any tank and the tanks without algae just have things that will eat it. You need a good amount since most of them want to hang out on the glass and not do any of the dirty work on the rocks... like 150 various snails (cerith, astrea), 30 hermits, 2-3 urchins and a handful of other things is not out of the question. Sometimes, you have to gather up the snails and return them to the rocks.

If you want to get nitrogen to your corals, dosing ammonia is better than nitrate. There is a thread in the chemistry for about why and how to do this, instead of nitrate. Adding a fish, or feeding more, can do the same thing. Aminos are also a better way to get some nitrogen and phosphorous into the tank - better than dosing nitrate and phosphates.

Thank you for the clear photos that are not super blue. Do you use a heavy-blue light schedule? If so, introduce some daylight in there and they could get more color. If you already do, then never mind.

 

[Outlaw Corals]

You could get rid of that problem very easy and naturally without having to add any type of chemicals anyway, that’s what I did personally, I got myself a algae scrubber, problem solved in my tanks never looked better