though I perform weekly 10% water changes (always cleaning the gravel), reduced my livestock, minimized feeding the fish, installed a wavebox, I constantly have brown alge covering all my live-rock. the live rock in the sump are nice and clean with coralline alge growing well, but in the main tank - despite all the efforts - it does not seem to get better. I recently moved a few nice live rock pieces from the sump into the aquarium, and now they are all brown. What can I do - why are the brown alge striving in the main aquarium and none in the sump??
brown alge!
- Thread starter MarcoPolo
- Start date
I bought a new lighting system (2 Metal Halide Lights, and 2 'pink' Fluorescent Tubes) 4 months ago. I use RO water. No direct sunlight, but plenty of natural light in the room (however, both tank and sump get the same amount of natural sun light, but problem with alge is only in tank).
Get some snails also. They are algae eating machines. I bought 5 snails and put them in my tank and they took off. I had hair algae and they loved it. Then I started getting the same algae as you and they started goin after that. I have 5 turbos and 1 mystery (I dont know what kind it is but the shell is pretty). Just look around at the different sites for a cuc. I found a realy good deal on www.liveaquaria.com go have a look. You can build your own and if you dont want to add more hermits then you dont have to you can get a lot of snails that way. Word of warning though. Stay away from the sea hare. It'll get huge. I already looked them up to see if I could put them in my tank and all the websites I've seen say to stay away from them. Do you run a skimmer your tank? That might help some. Also put some lr in your fuge area with your cheato.
it's good to know there are people ready to help. Please continue to give me hints - as I have put sooooo much effort, patience, time (and money) into this tank, and I'm really struggling with the alge.I know how you feel. Its like you give your life to this thing then it starts puttin out algae and lookin funky and you feel like a failure. Atleast I did lol. My husband wanted me to get rid of it cause he didnt like the algae. Well I got news for him. I have a 55 freshwater also that is florescent green right now cause my Texas Cichlids had holes in their heads lol. But in a week it'll be clear gain lol. SW tanks take a lot more patients and energy than I thought. As a matter of fact yesterday we had a power outage I went bullistic on the power company until I learned that a line pole had been washed away from the monsoons here lol. Then I started callin them every 15 min till power was back lol. Good luck. I know that you will get it undercontrol.
That'll be cyanobacteria, not algae. It eats light, carbon dioxide, and water...plus other waste products, but the 3 it has to have I listed first. Only one of those can be denied it. Turn out your lights for 3 days (it'll be safe even with corals or clam) and the 4th day use actinic-only if you have mh lighting. If that notably diminishes the stuff, or erases it, that's exactly what you're dealing with. And if you do that operation once a month, you can take it out by strong skimming. Caution: if you have a heavy infestation, killing it off means a load on your skimmer. Test your water during this period and watch your skimmer. Make sure it is working all-out.
black_majik
New member
Do you mean diatoms? Brown Algae is actually more like a bacteria it's called diatoms. These little creatures bloom in areas with increase levels of silicate, and in some lesser cases iron. Now before you run off trying to buy a test kit for silicate you must know you cannot test the tank water you must test your water sources. Especially your primary source ( water changes, top-off etc.) because if your primary source has elevated silicate levels in every time you do a water change or top-off you are feeding the bloom more and more. As for animals that feed on it, that is never a good choice because in the home aquarium unless you plan on keeping the brown algae as a massive source of food you will eventually starve the animal and also diatoms grow so fast ( I'm talking in a 2-4 hour period you can see a new patch form) those animals do not feed fast enough. As for lighting, I can never blame lighting for blooms algae needs a nutrient source and lighting keep you nutrients down or away ( silicate) and the algae will stay away.
PM me if you have any ??s.
Nick
Yes, diatoms are another choice of what-it-is.
Both diatoms and cyanobacteria are eukaryotes, ie, proto-life, diatoms leaning more to the plant side of life, cyano more to the animal: diatoms are reliant on silicate; cyano on light and carbonates. Cyano changes its color to advantage itself of the light spectrum where it is. Cyano is easier to get rid of than diatoms, so hope it IS cyano. If the lights out treatment works, it's cyano: if the algae starts releasing bubbles in light, it's cyano.
Both diatoms and cyanobacteria are eukaryotes, ie, proto-life, diatoms leaning more to the plant side of life, cyano more to the animal: diatoms are reliant on silicate; cyano on light and carbonates. Cyano changes its color to advantage itself of the light spectrum where it is. Cyano is easier to get rid of than diatoms, so hope it IS cyano. If the lights out treatment works, it's cyano: if the algae starts releasing bubbles in light, it's cyano.
Michael - I've had this aquarium for 15 months (an upgrade from a previous smaller tank). I bought the new lights 3-4 months ago, and the wavebox just a few weeks back. I knew that having new metal halide lights would have caused some algae growth, but with frequent water changes I was hoping it was going to dissapear after a few weeks...which it didn't. If you have any advise - it's more than welcome!
well i was just checking, sometimes carbon is whacked in tanks in high quantites and this lets too much light in because its removed the yellowing, or new lights are added, i asked about the age as it seems that new tank owners do this without thinking and get a bloom, i recently had a brown algae problem which lasted 5 weeks, everything was normal and thriving and it came from nowhere, couldnt understand it, however what i i did was buy a new skimmer as mine was not up to scratch, i reduced light on times to just 4 hours a day, i did nothing else at all, i even layed of the water changes, within a week of the new skimmer and reduced light on times it was gone, litrally gone, this made me think about why it came so quickly from knowhere, i think i added probably a little too much carbon on my last change over, and at the same time i added new reflectors on my t5s, nothing else at all was changed, im wondering now if you reduce the lights to 4 hours and up the skimming if this may work for you, it may not as your problem is probably different however just athought
ReefGirlSara
Member
I'm trying to ID what I have - it is all over my lr and sand, and starting to get on the corals - it is orangish brown and kind of slimy/stringy. When the lights are on there are bubbles visible all over the glass and in the brown stuff. Do the bubbles mean it's cyano? I started having this problem when I took my DI cartridge out, I thought I had a replacement, but had to order it, I have it now but this stuff is getting WAY out of control!
Tswifty
New member
Sounds like cyanobacteria. Fueled by light as stated above. I just did 2 days of darkness to battle it. Here are some pictures that may help you ID it.
Also, the "after" pictures are attached... I'm not too optimistic yet, and won't declare victory until I manage to go a month without the stuff returning.
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Also, the "after" pictures are attached... I'm not too optimistic yet, and won't declare victory until I manage to go a month without the stuff returning.
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