Advice? Biocube - start all over??????

If I am going through the process of tearing down I wouldn't take the chance . I would get all new. As for the corals I would be afraid to chance them as well since it sounds like you have tried everything . I would probably qt them and make sure they are free and clear as well

 

So my suggestion may seem a bit convoluted but here follow with me. I would probably bite the bullet and begin the teardown. (think of it as a massive spring cleaning )
Consider purchasing either a clean up crew or coral friendly cleaner, perhaps a copper-band butterfly. Something to aid in the QT/cleaning process for the corals.

Move your corals to something temporary like even a large rubbermaid tub with plenty of circulation and light but no toxic effects.

Once you get the cube all set up Yes, with new rock - there is always someone tearing down a tank with extra - you could either cycle through cleanly before adding your corals or consider starting all over with your current rock.
That would obviously necessitate a complete sun bleaching and long-reseeding cycle
but it depends on how attached you are to that specific rockwork.

You could almost certainly find a new, good home for that fish then or just keep your cleanup crew and now have a 'from scratch' tank to get going on the right foot.

Sounds simple, of course, I'm not the one having to do it. Good luck! Let my favorite advice I always violate apply - NOTHING GOOD EVER HAPPENS FAST ON A REEF TANK

 

I would second the all new rock and all new sand, but if you want to save some time, start cycling rock in a container while you work out the logistics of everything else. At the same time, you might want to think about possibly upgrading or changing out tanks. I know when I wanted to change my 65 I upgraded to a 90 You could even downsize to a smaller tank setup too.

Dipping the coral in H2O2 should kill any algae prior to moving it to the QT or frag tank. I've had great success with H2O2 in removing byropsis over the years and I do this on most frags I buy.

 

I had a similar issue about a year into my large tank. I have several tangs and emerald crabs, along with the standard clean-up crew. I also tried sea hares but they didn’t make any impact and eventually died.


I was eventually able to get it sort of under control but the hair algae is not completely eliminated.


First I started vodka dosing and got my Nitrate down to 0.25 from about 5.0. I will add that the vodka dosing didn't do a lot to remove the phosphate, which is still at about .1 to .04 on a Red Sea test. This took about a month.


I then scrubbed the rocks clean down to the coralline algae base with brushes and replaced them back in the main tank.


I turned down the RED leds on my lights. I am not sure how much of an impact this had but since I made this change at the same time, I thought it should be included.


The algae has not returned to the areas that were cleaned. I had several tangs that were not doing their jobs when the algae was out of control but now seem to work the rocks more. I read somewhere that the longer hair algae takes in more iodine and becomes more is more distasteful. Possibly the tangs are now doing their jobs better now that the longer algae is scrubbed away.


I feel like if I had completely scrubbed all my algae away like you have, and kept the nutrients down I would have completely eliminated the issue.


I would also close by adding a MACNA utube link to an interesting discussion about phosphate and hair algae. The gist of which is to suggest that there is more than just phosphate and nitrate that impact the hair algae issue.

 

If it was me. I would take it all out. Acid bath and cycle in a tote. I would do the same with the ceramic block. I would also get rid of sand and water. Dry out tank and clean it.
If you want different rock. I am running the Walt smith 2.1 real reef rock. I really like it. It's dry and you can come up with some really nice aqua scape with it.

I am sure if you take a couple days to aqua scape your tank before you add water you will come up with something you really like.
I just did a scape and left it for a day or so to make sure I liked it. I ended up tearing it down and redoing it 4 times before I had something I liked. Also keeping coral placement in mind when doing it.

 

You are ok killing the rock? If so just soak them in peroxide. If you don't want to go that far take them out, run peroxide over them and scrub well with stiff brush, dunk in RO water (or salt) but discard that water because it will have peroxide in it. Then I would even do another dunk in clean water before putting back. Just be sure it gets in the nooks.

I buy sodium percarbonate online. It's cheap. Active ingredient in oxyclean, but I get it pure. When added to hot water makes a strong hydrogen peroxide solution. I use it for cleaning fish stuff, carpets, just all sorts of stuff. To really nuke the rock if desired bucket of hot water and couple tablespoons makes a stronger solution (and cheap) of peroxide - not dangerously high for us though.

It really works great on old skimmers and such. I tried everything to clean the haze of brown off old skimmer, soaking in the above solution did it. Just FYI.

 

Oh on thing that really did the nasty bryopsis in was having urchins. They wouldn't touch it normally, but after spot treatment it would discolor and they would eat it. I eventually eliminated it, but took a while.

I had a big Halloween pincushion, normal pincushion, couple short black spiked guys (names fail me right now) - I remember the above eating it.

Also had longspine and couple tuxedo. I love the tux, but I can't remember if they ate it or not.

Once I ran out of algae I had to rehome the short black spiked guys as they ate some plating monties, but they were totally out of food.

Crazy enough the only place I found to have a good selection of urchins is petco at Jordan creek. I think I got every one from there, not all at once, but I would hit every lfs and always strike out, but petco had different ones from time to time and never had one die from there.

 

If anyone in your area has a coral saw, you could ask for their help. I have the gryphon coral saw and I have cut rocks up to save encrusted colonies. Works nicely.