Just need to vent

[Dom]

I used dry rock.

You need to cycle dry rock before you put it in the tank.

I once made the mistake of putting dry rock in a display without cycling it. The live rock looked like a heavy metal chia pet in about 3 weeks.

Keep after it with manual removal. It will get better, eventually. Mine did.

 

[Pat's Reef]

Algae can only see the nutrients they are in contact with. In this case, it is very low nitrate and phosphate. Nutrients aren’t the cause here. What type of herbivores do you have?

This is a species of Bryopsis, and Bryopsis has the rare ability to fix nitrogen, creating its own food source directly from the basic water chemistry. This is why it’s impossible to starve out Bryopsis by lowering nutrients. You will literally starve every other organism in the tank and Bryopsis will continue to grow. It grows slowly, but it is always slowly expanding its grip over the tank. Before Fluconazole treatments, Bryopsis was considered a terminal issue, with a 5-10 year tank life expectancy before it completely covered everything.

 

[spencjw]

So…… took the rock out, placed in tank water and scrubbed, a lot. Then I rinsed with saltwater, scrubbed a little more and rinsed again with saltwater. Had a little incident since the tub wasn’t as large as I thought my scape broke so had to improvise and rescape. Not fully upset with the outcome, live and learn. Will need to make sure the flow is right once everything settles down. Got it all placed back in, glass scrapped, back wall and powerhead cleaned. Replaced the filter sock, started the skimmer back up and UV light. I lowered my lighting from a 8hr to 6hr peak. So 2hr ramp up, 6 hr peak, 2 hr ramp down. Only 2% white, no green or red. Have all the blues/purples at 30%. Going to give it two days and test. Figure with all the hair mainly gone my phosphates will spike up so will change filter socks daily, continue to run skimmer and UV 24/7. Maintain 5 gal weekly water changes and will use some media to keep phosphates in check. I appreciate all the support and guidance. Wish me luck and will continue to update. Oh and yes, I will be ordering a decent amount of coral once I confirm the scape and flow.

 

[spencjw]

 

[ReefSakes]

If you dont have any corals atatched to your rock work and can easily remove them. Take them out and pressure washer the algea off. Its so much quicker and gets spots you cant reach. Ive done this many times with zero negative effects with newer systems that get over ran with algea.
I've came up with a modular aquascape system that can be easy dismantled to take care of issues like this.

 

[LifeAsDane]

Yes I get it and maybe prudent if you’re inexperienced. However, you’re 7 months in and your lack of corals is making it more difficult. I’m a little over a year and you’re not to far behind me and this is my tank….you’re ready, get some easy leathers, Zoas, mushroom and fill in the bottom and In a short time add some SPS and LPs higher up if desired.

Coral Goals

 

[vetteguy53081]

I have only been in the hobby for around 6 months. I have felt from all the videos and research I have done I was going well and it was fun and easy. Man was I wrong, I have been dealing with hair algae and I can’t figure out how to beat it. I get turned around with the guidance or tips I get from web searches, videos and forums. I don’t know if the algae is throwing off my numbers. I know that the algae will come back if I don’t get my numbers in check but I feel like I can’t truly know what they are or get them in check until the algae is gone but I can’t seem to get rid of them. I plan tomorrow to take my rock out and in old tank water scrub all the algae off the best I can and replace. Right now my nitrates are at 2.3, phosphate at .01, my alk is crazy low 6.4 (new Hanna checker so hope doing right) by calcium is 600 and mag is 1450. It’s a 25 gal lagoon. I use Red Sea blue bucket. All and all up to this point it has been pretty good. I feel like this is where the true learning and test comes. Thanks for the vent, wish me luck.

Is this tank by chance at or near a window?
Calcium high, but would not promote algae. Are you using any tap water for water top off or mixing?
What cleaners do you have such as snails and urchins?