Brown algae

[bheaven]

I believe that it is diatom algae and its starting to cover a lot of sand and live rock.

I have a 125G reef with 150w MH & attinics.

Water params are 0 ppm for Ammonia, Nitrite & Nitrate.

My pH has dipped to 8.0 normally its approx 8.2.

I believe that I got a bit lazy on my water changes (I scaled back to approx a 10% change each month) which brought it on. I've stepped up the water changes two 10+% water changes last week & I'll be doing another 10+% water change tomorrow (its been a week since my last change). I'm planning on weekly water changes fro now on!

I beefed up my cleaning crew by adding a sand sifting cuke, trochus & narsariaus snails. I've also upped my skimmer and have been trying to remove the brown algae with a turkey baster.
It's not a very easy or successful process!

I don't know my phosphate level as I don't have a test kit for that yet.

Any suggestions on how to get things back under control?

Thanks in advance.

 

[whosinpower]

Could be diatoms, could be something else

Could be diatoms, could be something else

Does the algae kinda look like brown ugly snot with air bubbles?

Are your snails happy or have they stopped moving?

If the algae looks like a brownish dusting - then it may be diatoms....but if it looks slimy, brown with lots of air bubbles after being exposed to light for a few hours - then it might be dinoflagellates. You do not want or wish dino's on your worst enemy. Reason I ask about snails - is that dino's release toxins in the water that are quite hard on snails and inverts.

 

[bheaven]

Snails and inverts appear happy.

Algae doesn't really appear slimy. It looks more like a blanket.

 

[Rhodophyta]

Bryozoans produce a carpet or blanket-like coating, something like moss on a rock although they are an animal, not a plant. There are thousands of species of them, nearly all marine. They do, rarely, show up in aquariums that are exceptionally close to approximating the ocean.

Eradicating bryozoans is probably not necessary on the off-off-chance you do have them. They need better conditions than our analogs of the reef can provide and are therefore short lived occupants of our tanks. Scrape them away from anything they may be bothering during their brief captivity. Any sudden change or a drop in the pristine conditions of a tank is likely to wipe them out overnight.