My 240 in-wall Re-build.

Well... I have been battling Hair Algae for a few months now and I decided to do a tear down and a slight rebuild. Hopefully to fix some problems.

I have always used forums for re-search, but never participated until now. I would love some input as I am always eager to learn.

I have been in this hobby for about 8 years now and have made just about every mistake you could think of. According to Mrsaltwatertv.com I was a "Tank Dabbler". This is my 8th tank over the years from upgrading to larger sizes/moving. I finally settled with a custom 240 (96X24X24) that I built into a wall with a 120 gallon Sump/Fuge. I think now I have decided to be full blown reef.

Here is the break down of all my equipment:
Skimmer: SRO 5000
Lighting: (5) Ecoray LED 60D's
Chiller: 1/2 HP
Return: MAG 1800
Closed loop #1: Reeflo Dart (3600 GPH) with flow accelerators
Closed loop #2: MAG 1200 on a spray bar with flow accelerators
Media Reactor #1: Running Marineland premium activated carbon.
Media Reactor #2: Running Aquamaxx Phosphate out.
Auto Top off, gravity fed, from a 35 gallon tank to a float valve.
Just installed an algae scrubber sized to about 1.5 cubes daily fed and CFL's for lighting.
2x filter socks from the drains.
I dose Vodka and the 2 part B-Ionic
300 lbs of LR

about 1" of Black sand (coming tomorrow)
I have a RFL controller arriving tomorrow.

 

For that last three days I removed all of the live rock and DSB. I scrubbed all of the live rock down and removed the hair algae along with detritus. Over the few days I did allow the rock to completely dry. I'm not too concerned since I still have rock running in my fuge with the remaining live stock and coral. I will also add some bacteria boosters once the water volume is back from my 35 GPD Kent Hi-S RO unit. I saved about 150 gallons of the old water.

The only thing I should have done here is bake the rock... I didn't want to wait a month. I hope this doesn't bite me in the @$$ in the future.

I shop vac'ed my white DSB, out about 4",(what a mess) and will replace with a shallow bed of black sand.

Once the tank re-cycles I will add the proper "clean up crew" from reefcleaners.org appropriately sized.

Here are some pics of where I'm at..

 

How bad of a GHA problem are we talking about? (I was really trying to think of another way to say this) Do your fish poop a lot, is there a lot of waste? Next question....is your ATS producing anything yet? Are you positive it's GHA? If it's bryopsis you may need another approach, but the only wayfor me to say that is if you post pics to properly identify what you have. (Please post pics, I'm dying to see an 8 foot tank )

edit:
Thanks for the pics, I replied too fast I think. As for your algae problem, it's hard to see any from a distance. Awesome build if I may say.

 

More..

 

And more..

 

Im 99% sure it was GHA. It wasnt "feather like" just slimy green strands that detached easily. It got up to about 50% coverage growing everywhere, even the sand. Most of it was my fault with faulty heaters allowing the water temp to drop on a few occasions to around 70 degrees. I never overstocked nor did i have a large coral load. At the hair algae outbreak, I as more of a FOWLR tank I had a few triggers that decimated my clean up crew. I had a Hammer coral that got pretty large which i fragged into multiple pieces, Originally started at about 5 heads and grew to about 25.

Right now live stock, I have the triggers banned to the refugium until I Bring them back to the LFS. I have 2 Damsels (Non-super aggressive type),a scopas tang, less than 10 Hermits for now..

Ill post more pics of the GHA in a minute...

 

Very nice setup, welcome to 3reef

 

More...

 

That tank is going to have some nice flow! Looking at your setup makes me want to build a new tank lol. I enjoy the setup part so much.

 

Thanks.. Here is the algae left in the fuge.. Now, again, I accidently allowed the temp to drop to 70 degrees last night. The algae has turned from green to brown as its dying. Once my DT is back up and running the fuge is next to be scrubbed.