Want to nip it before outta control (PICS)

Here are a few pictures of my tank. I want to nip this algae issue before it takes over. I have been doing 5gal weekly water changes religiously, cleaning out the skimmer basket when its dirty, and cleaning my equipment at least once every 3 weeks. I have a picture of my powerhead today, some rocks, and the return from my 8 gal hob refugium. I have a 55 gal, and test my water with the test strips. The only thing i notice high is my nitrates, but they are in the ok range. Should I take out the rocks, scrub them?? Or decrease lighting times. (now DT lights are on 7 hrs, and my fuge is on the other times.

I only have that 1 korilia 3 powerhead, and just ordered a korilia 750 evolution pump off ebay.

what kind of clean up crew do you have? and how many hours of light are you running?

I have 14 hermit crabs, and a sally lightfoot crab. When i had my diatom stage i got a bunch of snails but they all died, because i didn't acclimate them properly i'm assuming.
My hob refugium lights are on from 11:30pm-4:30pm and my tank lights are on from 5p-12a.

doesnt sound like your overlighting... i would definitely reccomend snails they eat up that stuff. some mexican turbos would clean it right up.( at least they helped in mine) and what kind of water are you using? RO?

Are you using tap water or ro water, and how old are your bulbs?

I'm using an RO/DI unit, but i know my filters are in need of a change. i just bought solar extreme 4 bulb fixture thats 6 mo old.

Getting more flow will be very helpful, also get liquid tests the strips are wildly inaccurate. Also be wary of the light foot, they arent reef safe and will go after your fish eventually.

I would also get some snails.

It's very hard to avoid the initial algae cycles - this is because the increase in PO/NO is somewhat unavoidable until the natural filtration methods "grow" to handle the load.

What I would suggest is to heavily load your refugium up with macroalgae (like caulerpa) - these guys suck up waste like nobody's business. Once it completely fills your refugium, harvest it down to about half-mass. That will export the nutrients out of your system. It's like a less efficient algae scrubber.

Snails and other members of the clean up crew are effective, but the problem is, they poop too, and the waste goes back into the system, so the conditions for algae growth are simply masked.

I added another Korilia evolution PH. Question could I do doses of vodka, & or sugar to help with my nitrates and phosphates?

I would suggest not doing that. It's fairly complicated, and in my opinion, takes too many nutrients out of the tank. Here's a good starting place, though.

Personally, I'd say find other ways to reduce the N & P, and work the cause of the excess nutrients.

It can also crash your whole tank if you overdose, something to be wary of