New Tank - Help

[nycjwi]

My 20G tank is 3 weeks old. I started with Live sand, Live Rock and Ocean water. Been doing weekly 10%+ water changes. (ocean water from LFS)
Currently have 2 clown, i damsel and anemone.

Levels are as follows -
ph 8.3
Salinity 1.26
temp 78
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - between 0-.5
Phosphate - a little lower then .25

About 4 days ago i got a brown Algae bloom that holds bubbles that covers the sand and green algae forming on rocks. When i clean out the brown algae in the sand it is back in full force the next day. My understanding is that this is part of normal cycling process.

My question is as this tank seasons (assuming I don't add anything else or change light feeding pattern) will the Phosphate level eventually go down or do i need to treat for them.

I assume that and Nitrate are what is feeding the algae bloom.

thx ji

 

[mcgyvr]

Elevated phosphate is typically associated with overfeeding.. (you guilty?)
If you don't correct that (assuming you are overfeeding) you will likely always have that problem..
But yes.. as a tank "matures" some bacterial levels "should" increase some and provided you aren't putting more in that going out the levels will reduce on their own..
And of course you will be doing water changes which will reduce it,etc...

So all in all..
Welcome to a new tank..
Welcome to the "ugly stages" of a new tank.. (usually brown diatoms, then green film/hair algae then sometimes cyanobacteria)..
It (all) will pass provided you keep up with water changes to keep nitrates/phosphates low.
It won't hurt to siphon as much of the cyano out during water changes too.. Your snails,etc..(clean up crew/CUC) will/should take care of the diatoms/algae..
Enjoy..

 

[derektedrow]

Agree with mcgyvr. Just part of maturing your tank. If by some chance your "brown algae" (I'm guessing diatoms) doesn't die down in near future maybe get yourself a silicate test. I struggled with those as an ongoing issue. Every time I did a water change I would get a diatom bloom and then it would dissipate slowly until I did another water change. My issue was I was using RO water vs. RODI. I added a DI unit and no more diatom blooms. RO units don't take silicate out of the water. DI units do.