Brown Algae Help

[fishflorist]

here are 2 pics of my friend's tank.

His questions are:
1,how to deal with these algaes, is that normal ?
2,what kind of algae they are ? on the glass and on the pump. are they related to silica or something ?


His tank info:
180G
bubble- king 300 deluxe skimmer wet skimming;
8ml vinegar daily as carbon source;
running zeolite , GAC , GFO;
PO4 and NO3 at undetectable range;
3 large tangs and 15-16 small fishes feed daily , some nori and granule food;
use RO-DI water and Reef Crystal salt;
coral growing quite good , with good color;
no coral food added, just fish poo;

 

[bertoni]

That algae does not look like diatoms to me. Such blooms are fairly common in tanks. The feeding rate might need to be lowered, or maybe more GFO might help. Some sort of nutrient control likely will be needed.

 

[fishflorist]

That algae does not look like diatoms to me. Such blooms are fairly common in tanks. The feeding rate might need to be lowered, or maybe more GFO might help. Some sort of nutrient control likely will be needed.

thanks Jonathon, but he is runing GFO and the PO4 is always 0 by the Hanna ULR phosphorus checker, you mean there might still have some PO4 that should be too higher for a SPS tank and should be removed ?

he is running GAC as well , and zeolite, that sounds very much nutrient control , still need more ?

 

[Newtralizer]

It doesn't look like diatoms to me I just had a run in with them and it doesn't look like it to me. I know some people consider them ugly but the Lawnmower Blenny would help to take care of most of the algae on the glass.

 

[wmilas]

I have that algae. Lawnmower blenny wont help. Tangs and the blenny will keep it close cropped but that's it.

The only thing that gets rid of it is ULNS.

I just identified mine as algae (micro scope) cause it was driving me nuts not knowing what it was. I acquired it after trying out algal scrubbing for a while.

So the only way to get rid of it is aggressive nutrient export. It is VERY good at scavaging N&P out of the water. My P reads 0.00 with a hanna digital meter and it still growns.

I'm cranking up the carbon dosing to rid myself of it.

 

[bertoni]

The phosphate could be at zero because the algae consume it as quickly as it is released. If that's the case, then more GFO might help. It's hard to be sure about phosphate in our systems because the test kits are not very precise. Trying some more GFO is easy, but it's only one idea out of many possibilities.

 

[fishflorist]

I have that algae. Lawnmower blenny wont help. Tangs and the blenny will keep it close cropped but that's it.

The only thing that gets rid of it is ULNS.

I just identified mine as algae (micro scope) cause it was driving me nuts not knowing what it was. I acquired it after trying out algal scrubbing for a while.

So the only way to get rid of it is aggressive nutrient export. It is VERY good at scavaging N&P out of the water. My P reads 0.00 with a hanna digital meter and it still growns.

I'm cranking up the carbon dosing to rid myself of it.

do you concern about the ULNS might pale the corals ? cause in the tank of my own, the coral is always getting paler . I use more carbon source than my friend, I guess it is the same thing you are doing to you tank, I have something on the glass too, but not really same with the kind on my friend's, I gusee that might be bacteria mass (you may search my thread several days ago), so what are you planning to control the balance of ULNS and WTLNS ?
that is "way too low nutrient system" , i made this word ...

 

[fishflorist]

The phosphate could be at zero because the algae consume it as quickly as it is released. If that's the case, then more GFO might help. It's hard to be sure about phosphate in our systems because the test kits are not very precise. Trying some more GFO is easy, but it's only one idea out of many possibilities.

here is a question which may be asked many time: can coral live happy in a completely 0 PO4 system ?

 

[bertoni]

I don't know. Corals have a number of ways of taking up phosphorus, so maybe some or all of them could get by on organic forms, for example.