Yep
 

I live not far from bear creek as well. Feeding schedule is once every 2 days (1/4 cube of mysis, and nls pellets) I don't over feed. Only as much as the fish and crew eats. No sump, a small Biocube skimmer , running only a small bag of fluval carbon in an aquaclear 70. For flow I've got the aquaclear, 425?gph koralia, and a koralia nano. My tank was doing very well before the API filter. Crazy amounts of growth. Only thing I've changed up was the water source. If I change 50% of the water will it shock anything? I always match my water up before using it. I don't want to go digging in the sand to find the nassatius snails, but I will if I have to. On a side note my hammer coral and soft corals look great

Phosphate! 50% won't shock anything as long as the parameters are close (if not spot on). I have seen an european reefer changing 95% water during maintenance for years ;) All you need to do now is bring down the phosphate and check whether it rises. If such happens, you got something leaching in the tank. Instead of worrying about anything, just do a water change: it is always the cure for almost anything :)

Hmm
 

Got 15g of water on the go hopefully this will help

Sorry for asking this question but what's the size of your tank? I didn't keep track :redface:

Tank
 

It's a 29g standard. Only reason why this is making me so mad is because the tank was doing soooo well.

I can totally understand. **** happens :( Two pumps burnt in two consecutive weekends in my tank. Its just part of the hobby and hence not a lot of people survive this hobby. Do another 15 gallon and maybe take a sample of water to LFS for a quick phosphate test.

Aye its the curse and blessing of a smaller system when things go wrong they go wrong fast whereas in a larger system you often have time to correct a problem in a small system the death of just one fish can affect your system within hrs. Having a much larger skimmer pro-rated will give you time in a smaller system to correct the problem with less of an immediate impact I have found.

When things want to go wrong, system size doesn't matter. :(

+1

I have run over the years 3 size tanks. A 12, a 75, and my current 28. After many frustrating years I think I finally have things figured out. I have run the 28 now for 3 years and have never had a problem. (Knock on wood)

My routine involves a 30-40% water change(RODI) every 8-12 days. I add nothing else, I have never used a test kit of any sorts on this tank. Only livestock loss was one fish.

My other secret. I have always run a phosban reactor in the tank from day one. My idea is to prevent phosphates etc from overwhelming the water column and live rock rather than reacting to it after it becomes a problem.

Ridding a tank of hair algae once it takes hold is a frustrating task. Water changes by them self dont take all of the phosphate and other nutrient out of the tank as much of it still dwells in the sand and live rock. Until that is removed the hair algae will persist.

In the past i have dealt with the problem using a 3 fold approach.
1) Try to deal with the excess nutrient issue. Phosban reactors with GFO or any other phosphate sponge will do. Have also used a liquid tank additive Phosphat-E by brightwell aquatics with good success.

2) Frequent water changes with RODI water while pulling as much of the hair algae off in between

3) Removing the liverock 1 piece at a time and scrubbing teh hair lagae off with a stiff brush it while submersed in fresh salt water with a rinse in clean saltwater after the scrubbing. While it is not always possible to scrub all the rock I do as much as I can

If you have sand in the tank, I might also suggest going bare bottom as this is also a nutrient trap.

In any case, this wont cure itself overnight and without some effort. Once you do though I still recommend running a phosphate sponge as a prevention measure.