Rusty colored algae

[Moosetache]

Have cut my lights back a couple hours a day, had some algae begin to develop on some of the substrate and the white surfaces of a couple of rocks. Just trying to avoid a full bloom. Anything I should be concerned about?

I am a paranoid reef operator.....

 

[dileggi]

Rusty colored as in a diatom bloom?

 

[Moosetache]

Honestly I am not sure....looks like it is only occurring in the lower flow areas of the tank, if that helps. and only on the white surfaces, not on the corraline covered rock surfaces.

 

[dileggi]

It sounds like it could be.

I have an older pic of my tank towards the end of my diatom bloom. It was mostly on the sandbed. I can't attach the pic in here b/c the file is too large. If you would like to PM me with an email address, I can send it to you for comparison.

If it is diatoms, it's quite normal stage of an early tank. Water changes, skimming and using some sort of phosphate remover...like phosban media with or without a phosban reactor will help too!

 

[Moosetache]

If you can email me the pic at mrf2675@yahoo.com I would appreciate it. It sounds like that is a possibility, I have only been running my skimmer in the past couple days so hopefully that will assist. Is it a decent idea to do a 10% water change and sift the sand in the affected areas?

 

[dileggi]

I just sent the e-mail.

Before you disturb any sand, how deep is your sand bed? The water change is a good idea. If it's not a deep sand bed, 5 inches or more, than you will be ok to lightly disturb the top portion. Otherwise I wouldn't do it. I know I really disturbed mine when my outbreak first happened and the next day it looked 10xs worse than before I did it.

 

[Moosetache]

sand bed is about 2-2.5 inches deep....so maybe I will just turn over the very top in those areas.....

Saw the pic, looks pretty similar. Yours looks a bit more "stringy" than mine does currently, but close enough that it must be the same thing. Thanks for the help on that.

 

[dileggi]

Not a problem at all. Sorry for the delay in getting back to this. Mine was mixed....sort of stringy and sort of a fine covering in other places. That was a few months ago.

It's definitely totally normal and expected within the first 2-4 or so of the tank. Usually, anything brown is caused my phosphates.

Good luck.