Need some advice/opinions (mainly ATS)

[Xxxtremewv]

Ok so im relatively new to the saltwater world, and have a plethora of questions but heres a good place to start. I think ill give a brief overview of where i am and that will give you a better idea of where I stand.

I always had fresh tanks growing up and through college, and now that im finally settled in one place, I wanted another freshwater tank, So I bought the equip (75g tank, fluvall 406 canister filter, heater, ect.) and about 3 weeks into the cycling my girlfriend looked at me and said ya know, you should try saltwater. Sounded cool, so why not. Next thing I knew I bought 90lb of live rock and before long was up and going. I was going ahead and using the fluval just as a means of water circ and some mechanical filtration and it doesnt seem to do bad if i clean it weekly. I added a jabeo wp25 in to give good water movement, and got a HOB reef octopus skimmer to do some skimming. Then I went and invested in a Kessil AP700 lighting system for it, which is wonderful. This was all April/May of last year btw. Only thing I really hate is that I already bught the tank for a freshwater application and it was not predrilled for a sump.

Now on to the good stuff, In the tank right now are 1 blue hippo tang, 2 clowns, a flamehawk, a diamond goby, a pajama cardinal, a baby valentini puffer, a few green chromis, and a firefish. As far as corals, I have a few little frags of acan, a torch, a frogspawn, a bubble tip anemone, and a green tipped hammer coral, and a few zoa frags. All organisms seemed nice and happy except for the bubble coral i had that got overtaken with green hair algae, which leads me to my question - HELP! GREEN HAIR EVERYWHERE!

This stuff is sticking around in really thick patches all over the tank and glass. I already know what has caused it and thats overfeeding. Up until a few weeks ago I was feeding waaay wayyy more than was necessary, but this has since been corrected and its not getting any worse, but still not getting better, just hanging around. This has been an ongoing problem for months and months

as far as levels in the tank, i have 0 amm and 0 nitrite and the nitrate sits around 10-15 usually, maybe more like 5 on a fresh change day, Phosphates the highest ive see is about 1 i think, but its usually down to almost nothing. I use that biogen stuff in the canister. The salinity sits at a very consistent .023 and the ph is right about 8. Temp stays 77 or 78 very consistantly. I do pretty aggressive water changes trying to eliminate this, usually 20g on sundays and todd in maybe a 5 a time or two a week. Lighting is not left on more than 10 hours a day tops

The water is extremely clear and nice and the corals still light up all bright and wide and the fish seem just happy as ever swimming in between big bushes of algae.

Ive been looking for advice on how in the heck I can get this pesky algae out of here, and I keep running onto articles about algae turf scrubbing. Do you guys think this could be a good option to try? nd if so, can you point me into a direction of the best brands to buy or how to go about doing this? And any other pointers or tidbits I can pick up here?

Thanks a ton in advance!!!! Looking forward to joining the community here

 

[mcgyvr]

You just need to get the phosphates and maybe nitrates down..
Water changes will take care of that over time..
Or you can run some GFO to remove the phosphates and let the water changes drop the nitrates..

While you can do an ATS and they do work well too I'd just suggest using the above methods for now and see how it goes from there..

If you have a good skimmer you could also simply do some carbon dosing (vodka/vinegar,etc..)

 

[Xxxtremewv]

Phosphates were shoeing like 1 and right now its down it looked about .5 or less, never seen more than 1. And nitrates never has been over 20 at the worst, right now its sotting 10.

Just driving me nuts, been sticking around for a

 

[mcgyvr]

Well your overfeeding caused the problem more than likely.. Its just food that wasn't consumed and was allowed to break down and "pollute" the water..
Water changes alone are enough to fix that issue but all the other methods.. skimmers/ATS/refugiums/carbon dosing/GFO/carbon,etc.. are just extra tools that can be used to reduce the need for water changes.. But a water change is not just about that.. It also helps to replenish "trace elements" and other things that are depleted over time or elevated over time..

Your phosphates are super high and are the cause.. You need to do something to get them down as you are just providing "fertilizer" for the algae to grow on..
Once your levels drop and there isn't as much "fertilizer" in the water the algae will slowly die off..

You can even use "manual removal" techniques (scrubbing/hydrogen peroxide dips) and things like snails/crabs/urchins to go after/consume the algae but if you don't work on those phosphate levels then the potential is always there for it to keep growing and more than likely grow faster than it can be removed..

strive for keeping your phosphate below .03ppm and nitrate levels as low as possible.. (under 10 or less.. 1-2 is great for all corals).. BUT you also don't want those levels to be a true 0 either..
Corals are just like plants.. Plants need fertilizer to grow.. Too much and you burn/hurt the plants.. too little and they don't grow.. Just the right amount and the plants thrive..

Fish can easily tolerate the higher levels.. corals cannot.. some like leathers/softies can do just fine with elevated levels but SPS,etc.. corals will not fare well in the same levels that softies may be "ok" with

 

[reefgeezer]

Ok so im relatively new to the saltwater world... I keep running onto articles about algae turf scrubbing. Do you guys think this could be a good option to try? nd if so, can you point me into a direction of the best brands to buy or how to go about doing this? And any other pointers or tidbits I can pick up here?

Thanks a ton in advance!!!! Looking forward to joining the community here

This is a good time to take stock of your situation and make some tough decisions. IMO, an ATS that would operate with your current system won't solve your problems.

In my experience, being able to register N & P with a test kit while there is a lot of algae in the tank indicates that your levels are very high. It means that N & P are being produced faster than the algae, the live rock, and whatever you have in the Fluval can remove it. In my opinion, there isn't a single magic gadget that you can add that will resolve that issue.

Having been there once, if I were in your shoes I'd simply try to maintain the system without adding any more equipment while I learned more and planned an upgrade that has a chance at managing N & P. It sound like your girlfriend might be on board... that's half the battle sometimes!

Big water changes, 50% or more several days in a row, regular and aggressive manual removal of the algae, adding something to the Fluval that absorbs phosphate, and that sort of thing might help mange the system in the interim. I'm not familiar with your HOB skimmer, but if it is efficient enough, a process called carbon dosing might help. You need to read about this process and think very hard before trying it though. It can wreck your system if not done correctly.

Good luck. Don't get discouraged. We've all been down this path.

 

[Xxxtremewv]

Thank you for the advice! Im going to try a couple big water changes this week and a couple smaller ones in between amd start there. Thanks again