Hi Michael...so sorry for your frustrations. It's tough in the beginning - particularly when things aren't moving smoothly. But, once you learn what to avoid or change, the tank maintenance should become easier...and more enjoyable!
Here's some of my suggestions:
1. You don't have a huge bioload for that size tank. I wouldn't worry about that...but, I also wouldn't purchase any fish until you figure out what the problem is.
2. You will need to get rid of the Bio Wheel filter. If you have a tank with
live rock, live sand, and a sufficient protein
skimmer for your size tank, you will be better off without a filter. Many of these types of filters end up becoming
nitrate factories, which could very well be the problem with your high
nitrate levels. Typically, when people downgrade their bioballs, they begin to gradually remove the bioballs. I'm not quite sure how the Bio Wheel is set up, whether there are several wheels and you can gradually begin to remove them. Often when everything is removed all at once it can be a shock to the system. Having said that....it sounds like your system is already having a pretty tough time - maybe completely removing the Bio Wheel (all at once) won't be much worse than where you're at right now.
3. I would NOT recommend doing such high quantity water changes. Your system needs to be able to build up the "good" bacteria levels, and by doing huge water changes, you will also be removing some of the good stuff. I would cut back to 20% per week right now.
4. If the lights are only on 4-5 hours at this point, I wouldn't worry too much about them. Do you have corals? If not, you could even reduce the lighting a bit more until we get this algae under control.
Many people struggle with hair algae at one time or another. Scrubbing off and filtering out is a great way to remove some of the hair algae. It's easy if you set up a canister filter with floss and cycle the water through it while you're scrubbing the rocks. I had hair algae once, in the beginning of my tank set up, and I found it useful to actually pull the bits of hair algae off with tweezers. I kept at it, on a daily basis, until it was short enough that my tangs began to pluck at it and eat it away. You need to be really consistent with this...pull some out each day.
So...your values. Could you list the rest of them, such as
phosphates,
nitrites,
ammonia,
salinity, calcium, magnesium, etc? Let's see if we can't figure this out.
How deep is your sand bed?
RO water is NOT the same as RODI. In the long run, you will be better off investing in a RODI system. You can find pretty affordable ones through E-bay.
What type of salt are you using?
