Chaetomorpha turing brown

[Davidb6]

I put some (hand full) CHAETOMORPHA in my newly cycled 65 gal reef tank 3 days ago (on the bottom wraped around a piece of rock). The algae is starting to turn brown. Does this indicate that my water quality is poor?

Gravity â€"œ 1.024
Temp â€"œ 78
PH - 8.4
Ammonia â€"œ 0
Nitrite â€"œ 0
Nitrate â€"œ 0
Calcium â€"œ 350
Alk â€"œ 9.8

Tank completed the cycling two weeks ago; added 4 small (1.5 in) green chromis. Fish are doing fine.
Lighting is just staring to reach the full day/night cycle (MH 5 hrs per day, T5 12 hrs per day)

 

[Davidb6]

Brown algae is staring to form in the tank...could this simply be brown algae?

 

[Davidb6]

No response....Hmmm

 

[jhentr]

It's just brown algae/cyno/diatom going thru it's cycle in your new tank. Diatoms will cover everything from rocks to sandbed to your cheato. When you do a change of water, just swish the clump of cheato in the bucket of old water to shake off the diatom/algae/cyno. It should look good as new again and plop it back into your tank. Mines did the same when I first setup too.

 

[moosejac]

Everybody, all together now...

"Chaetomorpha turning brown, turning brown, turning brown,
Chaetomorpha turning brown,
My fair lady!"

Sorry, had to post that, it will be in my head all night...

It does sound like a diatom bloom though...if you can, increase flow in the "brownest" of areas, and just give it time...