Brown Algae Problem

[muhnandr]

Hello,

Have had my 65 up for a few months now. Chemistry is pretty good, calc is a little high (500) and alk is a little low (7) but other than that, everything is spot on including 0 nitrates and 0 phosphates. Some of my frag plugs (and ins some small random spots on my rock) are growing this brown hair/slime algae. Not quite hair algae and not cyano. Flow in the tank is pretty good, using 2 korlia 3s. It's starting to bum out some of my zoos so I need to figure out how to get rid of it. I will try to get a pick up in the next couple of days. Thanks

 

[Thanks Don]

Are you growing any coralline aglae yet? What is your bioload like? You tank most likely produced Nitrate and Phosphate but the algae consumed it as soon as it was available which is why it tests 0. Do you use RO water? The more info you provide the better answer we can give you.

 

[muhnandr]

Hello,

Yes, rock is very nice and most is covered with coralline. Coralline is not yet growing on glass. Have two black and whit clowns, a six line wrasse, a spanish hogfish and an orange anthia. ASM skimmer handles the load rather easily. I use water from purified-to-go which uses a 12 stage filtration process and is RO/DI. Tek T-5 6 bulb - run 6 bulbs for 8 hours and 2 bulbs for 12 hours. Thanks

 

[returnofsid]

I'd recommend posting this on the New To Reefkeeping forum, for the most viewing.

 

[Chris27]

Give the siphon method a try. Get some tubing and siphon as much of it off as you can. Once done, top off with some new SW.

Doing it this way will serve two purposes, one is that you remove it rather rapidly, the other is that you'll do a few small water changes that will help pull nutrients from the water column.

If you aren't doing so already, give some thought about running a fluidized bed filter with carbon and phosphate remover in it. You're testing 0 for phosphate, but that may be because the algae is just using it up to the point where your test kit isn't registering.

Good luck - it's a real PITA when it really sets in, getting an early jump on it will help.

 

[muhnandr]

here are some pics. it grows mainly on the frag plugs, some small areas on rock, and there is some in the back bottom of my tank.

 

[reefsic]

It doesn't seem too bad! Has there been any changes in lighting/bulbs or duration of photoperiod? Do you use RO/DI when you top off or do water changes?

I too would recommend adding Carbon/Phos until it has seized.

 

[rcorbitt]

I would also try to create some direct flow near the algae. On the frag in the pic, it looks like it could take over and kill the coral.

 

[muhnandr]

Yeah its taking over a few of them like that. No change to lights. Always use 12 stage RODI. Have two chemi-pro's in the sump. Tested last night

Nitrate - basically 0 a little detected
Phosphate - 0
Ph - 8.3
Alk - 7
Calc - 560

I realize I need to bring alk up a bit and calc down but could that be causing this.

 

[Seths Dad]

Trochus and Cerith snails worked for me. I had the the "after cycling brown gunk" and got these guys, they had it gone in a couple of days.

 

[danceswithfish]

Your tank is pretty new. I bet it will pass in time. It never hurts to work on your water quality though. One thing you could do is search for info on hair algea because it might have a similar cause and cure to your algea and there is volumes of info on it out there.

 

[mkenny1818]

I think its just the initial algae anyone will get regardless. If it wasn't only 3 months old, I would ask the same question as reefsic.. whats been changed? Just give it some time and I bet it will pass