so, ive had a bit of a phosphate bump

[ngreenaway]

and though ive got my levels under control, im left with this to deal with. any suggestions? as far as corals, i only have a few palys in here i wont spill any tears over if killing the lights for a week or so will help

 

[ngreenaway]

looking at the photo, i just realized theres some cheato which snuck into the tank that may be misleading as long hair algae on the far left. the problem is the 2-3mm long stuff dusting everything else

 

[spieszak]

Generally a lights out period isn't going to hurt anything... all you are really doing is simulating a couple stormy days on the reef, which is stressful to a degree, but no where near deadly.... Having said that, I've never been a huge believer in it, just because of the fact that its purpose is mainly to rush stability. Generally the algae isn't hurting anything but your eyes, and as as far as nature is concerned, its a solution, not a problem. Getting your params under control is much more important, and once they are under control and maintained that way, it will more often than not fade out on its own. (depending on the beast you are fighting, although it appears to me that you are dealing with the garden variety hair algae.) For some a lights out period has been a tank saver, so its not that I'd advise against it, I personally though like to try to let things settle out a bit in their own time..
Do you have a CuC helping you with removal?

 

[rayn]

Best to figure it out now though. Short HA turns into what my wife call the underwater cat.

 

[ngreenaway]

im trying to knock it out before it gets out of control, as it did on this tank with a previous set up. i too had the underwater cat, so i salvaged what i could, tossed what i couldnt and started over when i moved the tank from seattle to tacoma.
i have a couple fish to pick at the algae, but theyre definately not making a lot of headway.

soooo...essentially, i should wait it out, and hope it goes away? i thought of using a short bristled brush to scrub it off, and hopefully it gets pulled out in the sump or killed off with the uv sterilizer..but im concerned i may be realeasing it to find new places to take hold as well

 

[spieszak]

Anything I post is just opinion, and your mileage may vary of course, but I've always been on the aggressive side when it came to removal.
We all seem to agree with the fact that algae growth for the most part is dependent on available nutrients and that that is in most cases the limiting factor.. so I've never understood the argument that removing causes it to spread. I don't disagree that that may in fact be the case, but I don't see the point as we understand that what we need to do to control it is limit nutrients. If it spreads, and you continue to limit nutrients, its dies in all the places it spread to also. (generally speaking.. in the case of something like bryopsis, or bubble algae where the limiting factors seem to not be as nutrient related in some cases)
So, I don't see the harm in manual removal and would always advise it. When I've had outbreaks, I've always removed as much as possible, and at the same time worked on figuring out where excess nutrients are coming from, be it that my gfo was used up, or my makeup water was creeping in TDS, or whatever else....
If you intend to try to scrub it off, do yourself a favor and get a hard bristled rotating toothbrush like a 'spin brush' or the like. They are under $10 most of the time, and can be really useful. There are always places in the tank where you can't really 'scrub' the rocks because of lack of space. The rotating toothbrushes make it so that if you can reach it, it can be scrubbed.

 

[ngreenaway]

i was gonna get a toothbrush and cut the bristles down so theyre less flexible (seems i can only find soft and medium brushes these days)

ive got a fairly large bag of chemipure and another of phosguard in my sump right where the tankwater flows in and across each media.
the skimmer in the sump is a fairly new cadlights one, but while it was breaking in i was supplementing it with a well seasoned remora. after the new skimmer was broke in, i shut down the remora to kill some of the noise

 

[rayn]

Agree with being aggressive. But throwing the oxymoron in there...be patient. Try something and see if it helps. Yes/No? Try something else. Don't throw to much at it at once or you could throw the tank out of sack worse then it is.

 

[ngreenaway]

i agree, dont wanna troubleshoot too many things at once, but it is hard being patient sooommmeeetttiiimmmeesss.......like when you dont wanna see the problem get worse

 

[ngreenaway]

Alright, despite a full can of phosguard my phosphates are as high as ever and climbing. I swear, this has been the bane of this tank all along, in its previous setup as well as now. Feeding is average for the fish in this tank- they don't get overfed, and feedings are only once per day...how does everyone keep their phosphates in check?