Hello everyone,
I am having a reoccurring brown algae problem. I am pretty sure it is not diatoms, however I might be wrong. I once had dinos and that was difficult to remove, but it seems to be all gone. This algae is different and more hair-like. I have completely removed it manually from the tank several times where the tank is absolutely pristine but it comes back. Nitrates are undetectable (I don't have a phosphate test) and everything in the tank is very happy (great growth and polyp extension). However, a pocillopora and stunner chalice has bleached a fair amount. I believe this was from too intense lighting, so I turned down the intensity on my led light. The two corals are now starting to darken up, but the algae still remains after I lowered the lighting intensity. I have attached a few pictures, can someone possibly tell me what algae this is, and how I should go about controlling it?
I have been running GFO and change 4 gallons every two weeks. My tank is a 29 gallon with about 35 gallons total water volume including the sump and its a little over six months old. My flow is around 1400 gph. Here is my bio-load:
False Percula Clown
Sixline Wrasse
Firefish Goby
Yellow Watchman Goby
Bubble Tip Anemone (Growing well)
Various corals
Everybody gets along well. No fighting.
5 Small Blue-legged Hermits
1 Turbo Snail (very inactive, doesn't eat much algae)
1 Emerald Crab (coral safe so far and eats a lot of the algae)
As I have mentioned, my nitrates are very low according to my tests and lfs tests. Could the algae be due to my bio load, lighting, or some other factor? Or should I just add a bunch of snails to mow it down?
Calcium 420ppm
Alkalinity 8 dkh
Thanks,
Nathan
I am having a reoccurring brown algae problem. I am pretty sure it is not diatoms, however I might be wrong. I once had dinos and that was difficult to remove, but it seems to be all gone. This algae is different and more hair-like. I have completely removed it manually from the tank several times where the tank is absolutely pristine but it comes back. Nitrates are undetectable (I don't have a phosphate test) and everything in the tank is very happy (great growth and polyp extension). However, a pocillopora and stunner chalice has bleached a fair amount. I believe this was from too intense lighting, so I turned down the intensity on my led light. The two corals are now starting to darken up, but the algae still remains after I lowered the lighting intensity. I have attached a few pictures, can someone possibly tell me what algae this is, and how I should go about controlling it?
I have been running GFO and change 4 gallons every two weeks. My tank is a 29 gallon with about 35 gallons total water volume including the sump and its a little over six months old. My flow is around 1400 gph. Here is my bio-load:
False Percula Clown
Sixline Wrasse
Firefish Goby
Yellow Watchman Goby
Bubble Tip Anemone (Growing well)
Various corals
Everybody gets along well. No fighting.
5 Small Blue-legged Hermits
1 Turbo Snail (very inactive, doesn't eat much algae)
1 Emerald Crab (coral safe so far and eats a lot of the algae)
As I have mentioned, my nitrates are very low according to my tests and lfs tests. Could the algae be due to my bio load, lighting, or some other factor? Or should I just add a bunch of snails to mow it down?
Calcium 420ppm
Alkalinity 8 dkh
Thanks,
Nathan
