Suggestions on changing setup?

I upgraded my setup from a 65g to a 135g about 5 months ago, and i've been having some pretty bad algae issues from the get go. My problem is not strictly algae either, i have tons and tons of detritus build up on top of, and underneath almost all of my live rock. the back wall of the tank has a thin layer of hair algae that also collects the detritus, there is red hair algae that is quite hard to remove from the rocks, cyano on the sand bed, green hair on the clam shells, long strands of a thinner green looking algae that is very tough to break even a single strand of.

Old tank

Current FTS

Green hair, red hair, long strands and detritus

Cyano fungia

Green hair clam

Return Pump My return pump is a Catalina 4000 which is rated at 1300gph. i currently have it running through 5/8 inch piping with about 5 feet of head, and then over the back into the tank and exiting through a DIY spray bar. I also have the line T'ed off at the bottom, a small amount of flow running through my UV filter. I think I'm probably getting way less return flow from the pump than i could. My plan is to change out the plumbing to a 3/4 inch pipe (1inch if the plumbing fits), putting the UV on a seperate pump, and instead of a spray bar just have a T on the return for 2 different exits, hopefully this will help with flow and will also send much more water and detritus into my sump.

Return pump teed off to UV on right and return to tank out to the left

Rock Work I currently have what some people refer to as a wall of rock. my rock work extends from about an inch from the glass on both sides basically all the way across the tank. It's good because there are lots of caves for fish to sleep/hide and i get differing flow rates due to impeded flow in certain spots. I also get dead spots. Detritus build up is probably my biggest issue at the moment and my plan is to remove some rock, and slightly rearrange it so water moves in and around the detritus traps easier.

Lights I have a 5 foot 4 bulb Ati sunpower module hanging inside my custom hood. This light is intense, i had it elevated holding the sides up on wooden wedges, and i dropped the light 1.5 inches every 2 weeks for 6 weeks. Still it bleached out my Acan, and i feel like it could go back up a couple inches, so i'm planning on putting some wedges back into the fixture. with the light higher up i feel maybe the light will be spread out a little more, and hopefully help my algae issues. I also need to clean my plexiglass cover.

Flow I purchased, from china, 2 sunsun dual head powerheads that really just push water like crazy. however, the magnets have already worn out (4months) and when i turn off the pumps to feed, and then turn them back on, they usually make loud whirring noises and also spin backwards. I'm replacing them with a couple 1400 gph Koralia Evo's, and 2 older Koralia 2's and also a 4 pump wavemaker. My dual head pumps stick out really far from the glass creating large shadows and they just kinda don't work that often. I also run 2 Koralia 2's along the back wall low to the sand bed. Any suggestions on placement for these?

back wall covered in hair and view of powerheads

another view of powerheads

Protein Skimmer I have a Etss Reefdevil, and the thing is just really finicky. Sometimes it will work awesome, and other times it won't pull any skimate for weeks on end. I'll have to raise it 1/4 an inch or drop it or turn the pumps off and on or clean it. I'm going to try to run the skimmer on a Catalina 3000 and see if the bigger pump can do anything for me (it was on a CA 1800). If not then i'm purchasing a Bubble Magus cone skimmer once i get back from vegas. Right now i'm running an old coralife skimmer meant for a 55 gallon tank, emptying the cup once a day, but still not pulling that much out.

baby skimmer just not cutting it

Water Changes I currently do a 50 gallon water change at least once a month. this is i'd say 35-40% of my total water volume. Because my nutrients seem so high as of now, i'm planning on doing a 50 gallon water change twice this week. Also my top off water comes directly from my brand new RO/DI system from bulk reef supply.

Any suggestions would be great, I'd really like to get this algae and detritus issue taken care of. Thanks in advance, really appreciate any help i can get.

 

What are your water parameters??? Particularly nitrate and phosphate??

M

 

Some thoughts... detrius on the bottom... potential causes... 1) poor flow, detrius sinking to the bottom and collecting versus going to overflow. 2) Inadequate CuC? Do you simply need more snails and crabs?? 3) Over feeding.

I also run GFO to keep my phosphates down... thus the algae.

Just some thoughts.

M

 

Good choice on more frequent water changes. Remove all algae you can by hand. As you do water changes, robbing the existing algae of nutrients will cause it to die, releasing more nutrients into the tank. Removing it before it dies will make the war much shorter. Turkey baste your rocks off daily. If you have to add more powerheads to keep detritus suspended where the filtration can catch it, do so. (Do you use mechanical filtration?) Get a larger skimmer if you can. Use Purigen in a filter bag, use GFO in a reactor. Using macroalgae in a fuge for nutrient export will help too.

Good luck.

 

I would just get a new skimmer, reefdevils aren't very good in my experience.
then I would get a media reactor and put either phosphate remover or bio-pellets(these are new and tricky to get to work sometimes).

 

BTW --- nice tank!!!

M

 

Sorry to hear. I will be following this thread as well since I am on the verge of an algae break-down soon. Good suggestions as stated above, I will try what I haven't yet.

 

Right on, thanks for all the replies.

I just ordered a Bubble Magus Nac7 cone skimmer so that should be here in a few days. Also a CUC is definately in order. I originally had a ton but iv'e been finding dead hermit crabs all over the place these past months so something had been picking them off, i'm gonna grab some more today. I started pulling off some hair algae yesterday as well as siphoning up as much cyano as i could. Today my plan is to change the plumbing for my return pipe, completely clean out my sump, rinse off all my live rock in my sump as well as some live rock in my display tank. I have 50 gallons of water outside so water change is also happening. I also caught my 3 foot brown bar eel last night and he's going to a new home, so that should help my bio load.

Any suggestions as far as power head placement to help with the detritus issues i'm having?

Also i had a couple rock boring urchins in my sump, i decided to put them up top to help clean off some of my rocks, good or bad idea? they've already cleared a really small portion, but they cleared it really good.

Feeding wise, i feed my corals about once a day, sometimes every other day. target feeing my fungia, Duncan, Hammer, sun coral, favia, acans,candy canes and palys. The fish usually get a good portion of the food, and i also feed a small amount of pellets in the morning. My wimpy protein skimmer was probably not keeping up at all so that was a contributor. I'd cut down on feeding but i'm addicted to see these corals grow fast, my duncan sprouted 8 new heads these last 2 weeks

I'll test levels and post them up later today

 

Got some work done, vacuumed out the sandbed and did a 40 gallon water change, also scraped the hair algae off of most of the back wall. I also took out of a bunch of rock and rinsed it and scrubbed it, and i'm only putting some of it back in. I re-did my plumbing with 3/4 in and 1 inch piping the entire way with just 1 exit for flow back into the tank. The flow is way more intense now with this setup. I also repositioned my 2 smaller power heads so instead of running along the backwall, they're on the backwall facing forward and slightly upturned towards the front glass on the edges. My return flow increased so much from my return pump plumbing change that my old overflow box couldn't handle it and i had to buy another. unfortunately the new one i bought (eshopps PF-800) also couldn't handle the flow so i'm going in to exchange for a 1000gph model. I cleaned off my lights and adjusted my mounting so they hang an inch and a half higher. I also picked up 4 turbo snails to help out with the rock situation. hermit crabs will happen soon. New skimmer hasn't shipped yet, but soon i hope. gonna do another 60 gallon water change tomorrow and get my new overflow box running, pics tomorrow after the change.

 

All of that should certainly help!! Good job.

M