Brown Algae

spils · 12-30-2006, 12:36 AM

Hi All,

Ive done a search on brown algaes and yes I am going through that cycle at the moment. But a lot of my rock has brown algae on it that is an inch long. Im pretty sure its not hair algae, What could it be?

Thanks again!

Doug1 · 12-30-2006, 01:25 AM

It could be cyano or dinoflaggelates, can you expound on the tank and its history a bit

spils · 12-30-2006, 01:38 AM

Ok,

Its a 20 gallon perspex tank. Running 175watt metal halide, external fluval cannister, and Jebo skimmer. Only set the skimmer up today. The tank has been running for around a year but my son crashed it by tipping a whole container of flake food in. Since then I replaced shell grit with sand and all levels are normal again. Its been about 5 weeks since that happened. The metal halide has only been up and running for around 4 weeks now too, prior to that I didnt have an algae issue.

I hope that gives you some more info. I'll try to post a pic if I can

dobejazz · 12-30-2006, 08:14 AM

Thanks for the info Someone that has more info will jump in

hng · 12-30-2006, 09:55 AM

Hmmm....a phosphate issue due to the flake food? Do you have live rock from the old setup or is everything new? If old rock, then it could have stored a bunch of phosphate from the food overload. Only other thing I can think of is a lot of silicates from your water. Do you use ro/di? I had a similar problem with my brown algae phase, but I don't remember it being that long, maybe a centimeter or so but not an inch.

LiquidLunch · 12-30-2006, 10:29 AM

Pix are almost a must with these ID threads. I have a brown wafer algae that can be pealed off in sheets. It is a macro algae and I have been told by several people that it is a sign of good water quality. Again, without pix, I could be talking about something totally different. In my case, removing the rock to scrub it off was the only solution. An urchin didn't touch it and I didn't want to "experiment" by adding a Naso or a Foxface.

Loverotties · 12-30-2006, 11:08 AM

Give us your water perimeters.

Ronjunior · 12-30-2006, 05:16 PM

Sounds like you started over 5 weeks ago with a new substrate, may just be normal cyano outbreak. If so, give it a few more weeks. I'm looking forward to the sheets of brown yuk too, changing mine out in a few days as well. I had some weird blobs growing 1-2" as well along with sheets of cyano on the sand that would eventually float up with so many bubbles....looked like a nightmare, then it was gone!

spils · 12-30-2006, 06:26 PM

Thanks for your replys. Water perimeters are as follows:

PH 8.1
Ammonia 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 2
Salinity 1.027
(I need a better test kit to measure phosphates, etc etc)

Having another look it is around 1- 1 1/2 cm long. Theres a heap of green algae underneath too. As for the live rock. Yes it is the old rock. Im starting to think the bloom may be from the new mh light/substrate.

I'll get a pic posted ASAP.

Thanks again.

hng · 12-30-2006, 08:07 PM

I really doubt that the bloom is due to your lights or substrate. Lights don't cause algae outbreaks in the absence of excess nutrients. A new substrate has not had a chance to buildup waste either. I think it's your rock or your water.

spils · 12-30-2006, 08:56 PM

Okies np's. Whats the next step then? I dont use RO/DI water should I look at doing this from now on?

Ronjunior · 12-31-2006, 03:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spils

Thanks for your replys. Water perimeters are as follows:

PH 8.1
Ammonia 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 2
Salinity 1.027
(I need a better test kit to measure phosphates, etc etc)

Having another look it is around 1- 1 1/2 cm long. Theres a heap of green algae underneath too. As for the live rock. Yes it is the old rock. Im starting to think the bloom may be from the new mh light/substrate.

I'll get a pic posted ASAP.

Thanks again.

Well, maybe someone else can step in if they have seen any "new tank syndrome" effects when swapping out substrate...last time I did, I had the brown algae outbreak with sheets exactly as you described.

Got corals, fish? Specific Gravity is a bit high and pH a little low.

Viv · 12-31-2006, 04:11 AM

Yup, use RO/DI if you can....makes a biiiiiiiiiig difference. Sounds to me like some of the trouble could be do to lack of water movement. Besides, the RO/DI water, you may want to invest in something to help move the water around in the tank, like a power head or tunze, or closed loop system....check these out under the search button and you'll pull up threads of people looking for the answers to the same or equal to the same question, and of course you can question here....but IMHO (In My Honest Opinion, you need more water flow/movement/circulation within your tank. Happy reefing

hng · 12-31-2006, 11:02 AM

Just out of curiosity, what kind of sand did you use? I hope it wasn't silica play sand. I wouldn't go make any dramatic changes at this point if I were you (except for using ro/di water). Brown algae is ugly, but it is almost always a self-limiting phase that a tank will go through. It is simply diatoms binding the free silicates in the tank, once all the silicates have been incorporated into biomass, the bloom will end. Mine lasted almost a month when I first set my tank up. One thing that will help is to remove as much of it as possible (kinda like using chaeto to bind and export phosphate). The algae should be easy to siphon up using some airline tubing and i would do that every night if possible. Siphon into a plastic 1 gal jug, let it settle overnight, and pour the clear water back into the tank the next morning. Doing that helped end my brown algae phase within a week. HTH, and good luck!

spils · 12-31-2006, 04:35 PM

Thanks for all the help guys. I'll keep you posted!