Hair Algae Outbreak

[chefstylez]

My tanks having a horribly bad hair day! I haven't kept up w/ the husbandry needed to keep it up ever since I started my last sememster of nursing school this august. So now I'm faced w/ a battle of hair and cyano algae. All spots of the rock that can touch light pretty much have algae on it.

Tank specs:
90G w overflow
RODI Captive Purity 3 stage 75G
Mag 9 for return also powering UV
30G sump
2 TLF reactors running GFO and Phosban
ASM-G1s w/ Sedra 3500
2 Koralia 3s, 1 Koralia 2 for flow
Current 150W MH w 14k Phoenix bulbs. Bulbs are as old as the Spring swap
About 150#s of live rock and 1/2 inch of Live sand. All from previous owner.
5 fish 2 clowns, Hippo Tang, Anthia, 6line
4 shrimp 2 cleaner, 1 peppermint, 1 blood
3 starfish. sand sifter, serpentine, blue lankia? sp?

Feed tank twice a day:
Pelets for fish, a pinch
2 small size frozen cubes of homemade stuff for coral
frozen krill, brine shrimp all rinsed in RODI then blended w/ couple drops of Kent Zoecon and package of the frozen red package stuff forgot the name.

I was told that I might get an algae bloom from using his old sand, and I guess they were right. I've done all the usual stuff: Change filters in RODI, water change every week w a big one once a month, turn lights of for a few days, Siphon then siphon again after a few days then do water change, run phosban.

So my questions are:

What are my options as far as keeping the system as it currently is?
Chemicals, more water changes

Can I get rid of all the rock and sand and start over w/o having to have my corals be babysat while the tank reestablishes? Different variations of, such as keep rock take sand out.

Pics are in my tank link. Just picture it w/ a bunch of green hair LOL

Let me know what you think.
Responses Appreciated. Thanks in advance

 

[Quang]

chef i noticed you have no clean up crew listed. maybe start with a few snail and emerald crabs and see what they can do.

notice that you just went through with a tank move, my best guess is that your tank is going through a mini-cycle from the transport die-offs.

what do your test kits read?

 

[Fragmented]

"Feed tank twice a dayellets for fish, a pinch,2 small size frozen cubes of homemade stuff for coral frozen krill, brine shrimp all rinsed in RODI then blended w/ couple drops of Kent Zoecon and package of the frozen red package stuff forgot the name.

Seems like alot of food when feeding 2x per day. Try cutting back on the feeding.

I have PB tang,purple tang,harlequin tusk, flame angel 2 firefish and a candy hog. I feed 1 & 1/2 frozen cubes per day

 

[Mr.First]

Too much food, get rid of the sand as best (and slowly) as you can. cut down the hours of light, water changes. good flow. get your hands in there (watch out for the clowns, they bite) pull out the hair. Youdidnt mention corals in your list. I assume you have some Zoa's wait for your Hippo to eat them.

 

[chefstylez]

Thanks for the replies. I have reduced the food and light time. I have plucked the algae before but will do again. If I do remove the sand slowly, when can I start to add again?

Thanks again!

 

[fripclaksid]

Thing you can do:
Add a foxface to the tank (they're pretty popular for eating algae, even hair)
add a few mexican turbo snails (at least 5 in your tank)
and the fastest would probably sea hares. THey're notorious for destroying hair algae. But the down side to the hares are they release toxins into the water when they die. Can starve to death if your algae runs out!!

 

[Awibrandy]

Yup, clean up crew!!!!!! Don't feed so much of that pellet stuff. I have a bunch of jars, and rarely feed my fish any of that. I normaly feed frozen foods thawed and rinse in regular tap water of which is then drained/squeezed through a brine shrimp net until there isn't a drop of water left.
I'm really curious as to what caused your ha outbreak as I didn't do any water changes from April to September without any algae outbreak. I suspect the pellets, and the 2 X a day feeding.

 

[Aquatic Life Direct]

what are your parameters?