What else can I do?

[reefwars]

Originally Posted by coolhandgoose

Nitrates and phosphates are nearly 0

I really hope they aren't Dino's.

sure looks like it to me. if your phos and nitrates are near zero you shouldnt be getting that much algae.

running media??

i would start looking into dinos as crappy as it sounds

[coolhandgoose]

Could it be calothrix?

I really lack for clean up crew in my tank. I have one brittle star, about 5 Astraea snails, a conch I just added and a huge nassarius looking thing. I would count my cleaner shrimp but it seems to eat fish and coral food.

I am running gfo in a phosban reactor and just added cheato.

I'm thinking of doing another water change tomorrow and seeing how things go. Let the cheato and new lights have a chance to work.

[Proteus]

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/blog...sons-i-learned

[coolhandgoose]

The article says that snails can die from Dino's and I've never had any snails die and I've been dealing with this for a couple months now. It's just recently that I've started to really try and fix my tank with the steps I listed above.

[reefwars]

where did you get the sand or was it new??

[coolhandgoose]

I had the sand from before when the problem was bad. I took it out a few months ago, rinsed the crap (literally) out of it and it sat dry until a few days ago when I rinsed it again, and let it soak in some to/di before I added some yesterday. I haven't added even a quarter of what was in there before.

[reefwars]

something seems off to me when i look at the pics every shot has algae of some kind growing. you have new bulbs , good water,running gfo and have a cuc.....your bioload is low and no nutrients......

i would think your old "bad sand" is still bad , probably releasing stuff you couldnt wash out enough of.

[coolhandgoose]

I only added it yesterday though.

I'm thinking I may have to be patient which is hard for me. I'm really tempted to do another round of chemiclean.

Here is another pck of a rock with the algae.

[Proteus]

Did chemi clean do anything.

I wonder if your rocks are leaching

[Borderjumper]

I feel your pain.. im dealing with the crap too in my RSM. Mine is my own fault tho. Ive been using a phosphate binder with awesome results in my big tank by doing a couple of drops daily directly into my filter socks. Well since i had a LITTLE patch of the brown bubbly in the Red Sea Max I decide to dose the RSM too.. so some drops directly into the tank for a couple of days then whoa! Now i have brown bubbly, green and red algea everywhere.. the sand bed is growing brown clumps!! I totally spaced that i have a POS skimmer, no sump and no filter socks to remove the phosphate binder. I think i have very successfully bound all my phosphate to my rock and sand

Ive done waterchanges 3 weeks in a row of 60%, blasted and basted rock, suctioned the sand and it isnt doing anything. Im on day 2 of a 3 day complete blackout. Im feeling pretty guilty of my fishes tho, so i think i will unwrap the tank tonight and feed the fish with just the available room light. Tomorrow the plan is to blast the tank and stir up as much crap as i can, do a 60% water change, set up my UV and run the diatom filter for a couple of days..If this doesnt help on to plan C.. which i dont have yet!