Brown Rust Algea

[honda1733]

Hi... first sorry for my english because I speak french !!!!

2 week ago.. i have a brown rust color algea on my sand and many live rock.

Started: 5 month ago
Salinity: 1.023
Temperature: 79
Nitrate: 5
Alcalinity: 3 meq/l
ph: 8

The last week, I put off my lighting for 3 days, the brown rust algea is gone, but few hours after put ON my T5... BOOM !!!!! the algea is back !!!
Morning before put ON my T5, I have just a little brown rust algea on my sand, but after few minutes after put ON my T5, BOOM algea is back !!!

Lighting equipment: Profilux 2 x T5 HO used with my profilux III.. I dimm my T5 at 35 % only.

 

[Ben_n_Em]

The rust colored algae is common for a young tank. You can use a brush to get it off the liverock. You can siphon vacuum it out of gravel, but not sure what to do about a sandbed. Good skimming and frequent water changes will help reduce algae growth, but time will help as well.

 

[honda1733]

My fish store say: maybe Dinoflagellate !!! is it possible !!!

 

[thebanker]

Doesn't look like dinoflagellates. It looks like classic cyanobacteria. It's not typically harmful, per-se, it's just a pest. Your description of it seemingly disappearing in the dark, then reappearing in the light is the quintessential symptom of cyanobacteria.

Run a search on "cyanobacteria" or "cyano" and you should turn up tons of threads about dealing with this organism. It can become a common pest, and it exists in 100% of all reef tanks.

 

[honda1733]

It's possible a brown cyano ????

 

[thebanker]

I think it's possible, but I'm not a microbiologist. Lets be honest, many of the microalgae we attempt to identify can only be truly identified with a microscope. I've seen cyanobacteria appear blood red in my tank, purple in others, and also dark green.

It could be dinoflagellates, the color is certainly right, but does it exhibit the "bubbly" and "stringy" characteristics of typical dinos?

 

[Demonic]

Well brown rust sounds like the diatom phase, but it should have went through that a few months ago if its 5 months old. Just run some GFO or something along those lines and get a good skimmer to take out the nutrients and you will be fine. Cheato is also an option if you have a sump/fuge.

 

[gonpostal]

It looks like classic cyanobacteria.

I agree. It looks like cyano to me.

 

[honda1733]

I'm not sure.... for this product :

http://www.reefsolution.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=56_59&products_id=1647&language=en

If it's not a cyano !!!

 

[billsreef]

Based on the color it's more likely dino's. They can grow very fast and form sheets much like cyano in some cases. Most cyano's tend be darker in color, generally reds, greens and black. In any event, several methods of control will help with both Limit food input, good skimming, high alk, and nutrient removal...particularly phosphates and silicates. With dino's, a reduced lighting schedule for a couple of weeks can also help. Turn out the lights for 3 or 4 days, then only lights on for 4 hours a day for 2 weeks, before returning to a normal photo period. The reduce lighting schedule will give some other algaes a chance to gain a foothold and compete with the dino's. The dino's happen to be what an ecologist would call a pioneer species...they thrive in "new" conditions, but not so much in established ones. Also getting a few grazers in the tank (snails and urchins) while under the reduced photo period will help.

One last thing in regards to long term, if you haven't already, invest in a RODI set up for your make up water. Often the fresh water added to the tank, or used to mix your salt, has high levels of silicates. Using RODI water eliminates that source

BTW, your English is fine...much better than my French

 

[thebanker]

I know you're calling it brown / rust colored but I looked at those pictures again and it looks very red to me.

Either way, the prescribed solution is the same.

 

[honda1733]

On my liverock !!! It's same a brown rust powder !!!! Is it a Dino ???

Today I put off my light and after around 2 hours !! The brown rust is gone !!!!

I want put a media reactor with full rowaphos and other with carbon !!!

 

[billsreef]

Today I put off my light and after around 2 hours !! The brown rust is gone !!!!

That does sound more like dinoflagelates. Cyano generally is not effected much by lack of lights. Dino's on the other hand are very reliant on light.