Brown Algae

[manderson0805]

I just set up a 46 bow front, with about a 3 inch, 50% live sand bed, and about 45 lbs of live rock, that was fully cured. Not even a day after I got the rock in the water, brown algae covered the open sand. I have a 192w jalli light, actinic light on 10 hours a day, 7100k bulb on about 8 1/2 hours. Is this just a cycle for the algae, or do I need to change something? btw, the tank has a 20 gallon sump, with a turboflotor 1000 skimmer, and mag drive 5 return pump. Thanks for any advice.

[dbelshe]

Brown algae is pretty much normal for a new tank. give it a few days and it should start looking better.

[Prismaco]

I got the same thing in my tank right now...Its almost all gone now...Welcome to the saltwater....


-Paul

[Prismaco]

Here's the thread that I made about the brown algae

Brown Algae Thread....



-Paul

[tdwyatt]

Originally posted by manderson0805
I just set up a 46... ...Not even a day after I got the rock in the water, brown algae covered the open sand.... ...Is this just a cycle for the algae, or do I need to change something?

This is normal, but you didn't mention what your source of water was to make your ASW...

Tap water often contains amounts of organosilicates and small amounts of silicion dioxide, especially if your mains water comes from a sandy river source. These silicates feed diatom blooms, which will settle as a golden or brown "dusting" on most of the tank surfaces. The silicates are used by the diatoms to make their tests, and although they can still grow to some extent in the absence of silicates, they will often crash after two or three photoperiods due to changes in their ability to continue growth when silicate is limited. Silicate is then competatively taken up by sponges and to a limited extent some spp of turnicates. This will pretty much remove the available silicate from your system IF YOU ARE REPLACING YOUR EVAPORATIVE LOSSES WITH ro/di OR DISTILLED WATER. RO/DI will not completely remove silicate from the water column, but it does limit it to a good extent, and once your system matures, silicate currently present should no longer pose a problem. Continued use of tap water will pose many problems with nuisance algae if this is how you're replacing your evaporative losses or making ASW. The silicate could have been in your rock or in your substrate as well, it will depend on what your sources for these items were.

It could be high phosphates or high nitrates as well, but most often, the golden dusting is silicates.

HTH

[manderson0805]

I used 60 gallons of RO water, between the tank and my sump. Everything tested ok, with just a small amount, almost unmeasureable, of ammonia in the water. Everything else is doing great, except the fact that the person I got the live rock from, didn't do a good job of keeping current throughout his tank, and I forgot to scrub it before I put it in the tank.....At least I know my skimmer is doing it's job. It sounds like this should be a temporary thing, hopefully.....