My tank is going down hill but y?

[thegza]

Hello fello reefers
I will give a little background first, I've been fish keeping for around 15+ years, fresh water that is. 8 months ago I made the switch to saltwater, loads off research prior but I felt I was ready.
Fast forward month or 2 I now have live rock 2-3 fish and a few small experimental frags. Everything is doing fine apart from algae growth, the addition of phosguard helped to combat this but remained a bit of problem.

In November I had a very embarrassing moment while marking adjustments to my ro filter I realised I wasn't actually using it right. I was actually collecting the waste water and throwing away the filtered water [emoji17] smh
I did a 50L water change and week by week changed 25L using ro.
From December it all seemed to go down hill. My zoas don't open much they seem to be shrinking. Brown algae has taken control off my sand and rocks and I can't seem to pull it back. I have palythoas that used to open up like dinner plates but now they have folded back on them selfs and the catching tentacles are invisible. I have mushrooms for that seem fine but growth is now very slow if any.

So here I am, I want to bring my tank back to health slowly so I can identify what has helped with what.
First thing I want to destroy is the tuffs or algae which nobody wants to eat.
So my first question. I was planning on removal of the worst hit rocks to the sump where it's dark.
Would this help kill it off without loosing the benefits of live rock?

I also have some white/clear tube like thing which I am guessing is some kind off sponge. Anybody know what this might be?

Thanks for reading
Any help would be appreciated.




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[kingfish22]

what are your water parameters? Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, pH, Alk, Ca, Phosphate, Magnesium, and salinity

 

[socalireefdood]

do a HUGE water change clean out your filters and your sump!

 

[Navig8tr]

To answer your primary question, you will not lose any live rock benefit by moving it to the sump and the darkness will eliminate the algae. Keep in mind that you need to remove the algae as it starts to die off or those released nutrients will just continue to feed the algae in the main display.

The battle you are having isn't uncommon. All newly established systems go through these cycles. Continue with 10% weekly water changes. I would suggest the addition of Mexican turbo snails to combat the algae. Your corals could be reacting to toxins released by each other or introduced externally. I would utilize PolyFilter or ChemiPure as well to remove toxins from the system.