Need some algae brainstorming

[perryxcore]

So heres the short and skinny:

Had a thriving tank for two years or so and then went out of state for two very long periods of time. Over the course of vacation/touring my tank was overrun by this long thick sprouting green algae. It was pretty overwhelming to be honest I mean every square inch of the rock was infested with this crap. So I finally took every single rock out and (you couldn't scrub this stuff off) manually trimmed with scissors as much as I could off the rock.

Couple months later had to repeat process...its like its growing roots into the rock or something! So now I have an anemone and have started to put coral back in the tank and I cant easily remove all the rocks again. I've talked to my LFS and they think a tuxedo urchin might be able to help. I attached a pic of the algae to help, it almost looks like a type of macroalgae to me.

Do you think the tuxedo urchin will help at all or would be a waste of money? Also any other brainstorming help would be much appreciated!

 

[perryxcore]

I also forgot to mention, my water parameters are under control, I do a water change once to twice a week on the 30g tank which has a 150w 20k radium light cycle of 7-9 hours a day.

 

[perryxcore]

still looking for some input, I went ahead and picked up a healthy lookin tuxedo urchin so I'll update if he helps out

 

[gar732]

Some specs on your tank might help. Are you dosing anything, are you running GFO? Are you testing for phosphates, if so what are you using to test? I've got the same stuff in my tank and it really took off in my tank once I increased my feedings and It can be a lot worse than it is. I know what my problem is though, its my old skimmer that I'm about to replace.

 

[gparr]

As with all nuisance algae problems, they exist because there is a food source. Until you remove the food source and keep it out of the tank for a consistent/extended period, the problem will not go away. Getting animals to eat algae is treating the symptom, not the problem. You need to get your phosphates and nitrates reduced to zero and keep them there. This involves persistent husbandry, effective skimming, and use of carbon/GFO and/or some kind of macro algae (preferably Chaeto) in a sump. Chaeto should be lit on a reverse cycle, though, given your situation, I would light it around the clock until the tank algae dies off and stays dead. If you go the GFO route, go slowly as it will eliminate phosphates quickly and shock your system. Carbon and GFO should be used in some kind of reactor to be most effective. Also note that your phosphate test kit is not a reliable indicator of the level of phosphate in the water because the nuisance algae will remove phosphate quickly, not leaving any for the test kit to detect. The only test kit you need is your eyes observing whether the nuisance algae is thriving or dying. Also, cut your feeding quantity and frequency. If you're feeding flake/pellet food, consider switching to a better quality food or to frozen food. Also note that this information and much more on algae control can be found by doing a search of the site or the Internet.
Gary

 

[perryxcore]

Appreciate the feedback. The nitrates are at 0, salinity is between .24-.26, I have a bag of carbon in the first chamber in the back of the biocube, I dont really have a place to put chaeto with the second chamber being used for other filter, haven't tested for phosphate in the last couple weeks due to no funding to get a new test kit, and I had been feeding spectrum pellets but I've now moved to switching between mysis or rod's food