Figured it was time for an update and hopefully I can get some advice too. Over the last few months I have been dealing with various algae (and possibly bacterial?) blooms. My water has always had this cloudy tinge to it and the rocks and sand get gross pretty quick. it always looks better after a water change and good scrubbing, but the algae always comes back. I did not have any issues last time I set up my tank. Here is what it looks like now...
Its been set up for months now so all the organics from the dry rock should have broken down by now. I have been changing about 10 gallons of water a month. It was hard to keep on top of it as I was working out of town all summer.
Updated skimmer to a Bubble Magus Curve 7 - works great.
Added a small cleanup crew in July - slowly losing my snails and hermits. Ive lost about half of them now. Also added a small mushroom rock. Seems to be doing ok but I know they are pretty hardy.
I'm a little worried about adding any more livestock until I get this cleared up.
I was thinking of removing the sand (it was reused from my previous setup) and going bb. Also thinking of doing a 100 percent water change. Any suggestions?