How long did your tank go through the "ugly" stages with brown algae?

[RussC]

Yes, I fought Mother Nature. When I saw the brown algae I immediately jumped into action as though something was not right. Fix it now mode! I lost.

After being calmed down and reassured by the local veterans that this is normal for any new, healthy tank, I began to become more curious about the diatoms that are causing the brown algae and how long will they last. So I thought I'd ask Reef Central and see what you have been through.

My tank is almost 2 months old. When the first bloom hit it was likely due to phosphate because I Immediately got the gfo media reactor and things cleared right up pretty quick. I thought I'd won the battle.I was so proud. Wow I was wrong. the next wave hit like a ton of bricks and came on like a ****ed off x girlfriend. I was told by several the all I did was delay the inevitable. Its brown. its ugly. And its back with a vengeance. And now I'm curious.

For those that have been there done that, how long did it take before your algae basically starved itself to death and begin disappearing? After all, if my phosphates are relatively 0, Its got to be the silicates from my substrate and other rocks in the tank. Eventually they have to consume all of it. I've been told at least a two month stretch. So how long did you go through it?

 

[Vincero]

Mine seemed to last a month or so. I would always come home to diatoms on the sand/glass, as well as a brown hair-like, scungy algae on my rocks. It was always easily removed with a toothbrush...

I started my tank with man-made reef rock because we're not allowed the live stuff in NZ. Maybe that had something to do with getting over the uglies relatively quickly.

I'm currently cycling some dry rock (turns out we can get that here) to build up my existing acqascape. It's very likely I'll get the uglies again; this time they could last longer depending on how much phosphate this extra rock leaks.

Guess we'll see...

 

[billdogg]

I have been keeping marine tanks since the mid 1980's. Diatoms come and go, as does cyanobacteria, hair algae, bubble algae, bryopsis, etc etc etc. There are many things you can do to mitigate the outbreaks. The worst thing you can do is panic. Calm down, figure out WHY, and fix the why. The WHAT will go away on it's own if you figure out why and change things so the what is no longer happy.

 

[tjm9331]

I have been keeping marine tanks since the mid 1980's. Diatoms come and go, as does cyanobacteria, hair algae, bubble algae, bryopsis, etc etc etc. There are many things you can do to mitigate the outbreaks. The worst thing you can do is panic. Calm down, figure out WHY, and fix the why. The WHAT will go away on it's own if you figure out why and change things so the what is no longer happy.

+1 to this

diatoms are usually caused by the silicates in your tank, all new tanks have silicates in one form or another. Diatoms will then explode and then once the silicates dissipate the brown algae/diatoms will start to disappear usually only to be replaced by green hair algae and or cyano

I believe my brown algae stage lasted a month to a month and a half. The tank is maturing during the first year to 18 months of first being put into service. just be patient and you'll be past the uglies in no time.

 

[MurphyLong]

Mine came in like a bomb... No small traces here and there, just came home from work and BLAM! Brown snot everywhere. Stringy snot with bubbles, and it was setting in so much, it would detach and float to the surface like it was being removed manually. It was a reverse-rain of it, basically. How did I combat it? The same way I fought off GHA.. I let it do what it wanted. I let it go crazy, covering everything and only cleaned off the few corals I had to keep them from getting damaged... I actually extended my photo period to 13 hours and just ignored them. (It wasn't easy.) They lasted a about 3 weeks, maybe a little less, and then went away as fast as they came in. Just kept the skimmer going and no water changes.

They started to recede and within 3 days of them starting to fade, there was no sign of them. It worked when I had GHA too. Just kept it off corals and kept drains clear, and let it skim out.

 

[nathanemmerich]

+1 to Murphy

Let it go. When it slowly clean it out. Mine went crazy, all I cleaned was the front glass. Lasted less than a week.

When the green hair algae comes leave it on the back glass but remove it from your rocks. Let it grow like crazy on the glass when it slows scrape it off the glass and throw away and you should be done. If not check your di water