tank has gone nuts

[theo4thorn]

My tank (75g) is 2 months old and everything was going fine. Good water qaulity, fish are doing well, and nothing out of the ordinary. Now i have all of this brown algea all over the substrate. What is it and how to get rid of it.

 

[bertoni]

[welcome]

Such blooms are fairly common. It might go away on its own. I assume this is a film, not a plant-like structure?

 

[slowradio]

you will find that your tank will experience a number of blooms. wait it out and keep you quality as good as you can. good flow helps too. it will go away in time.

 

[demonsp]

It maybe time for a clean up crew. Is this a sandbed substrate ? Also besuer to have good flow this helps.

 

[theo4thorn]

I added an emerald crab, five hermits and a cleanershrimp. I am only using the the filter and protien skimmer as the flow back into the tank what should i get for power heads

 

[zma21]

Maxi jet 1200's, at least two.

 

[teena]

im running 2 seio 820 one @ each end facing each other

 

[demonsp]

No flow is big problem . I used 2 rio 1400 with duckbills and flow adjust on both ends with great succes. But im sure there are many variations. The powerheads should have been in a long time ago. They help reduce algea and are needed for oxygen.

 

[theo4thorn]

I thought this may be the problem but wasn't sure what i needed or where to put them etc. I am hoping to get the new lighting and the powerheads soon. I would like to add some corals in a couple more weeks. Is this to soon? Thanx for the help it is greatly appreciated.

 

[bertoni]

I would wait on the corals for a while. First, get the powerheads or some circulation, let the tank stabilize, and get rid of the brown film. Then, consider the corals, in my opinion.

 

[theo4thorn]

I have been patient. Sounds good I would rather do it right than do it twice. The tank is only a couple months young and it is my first ever. But it is exciting. The family are all hooked

 

[Icefire]

I'm like you, just got the Diatome alae @ 2 months.

I already got some corals and they do great under T5.

Get a tunze 6025 or Koralia4 as powerhead, 6025 can be modded @ 1200GPH easily.

 

[theo4thorn]

Is the diatome algea good or bad

 

[AZDesertRat]

Bad but its a normal part of the maturing process.
Things to do to help get rid of it are:
1. Use only RO/DI water never tap water. Do regular 10 to 20% water changes and use a good quality salt mix.
2. Add more circulation. MaxiJet 1200 powerheads would not be my first choice, they are power hogs at over 20 watts each for only 292 GPH movement. Better choices are Tunze Streams or Nano Streams, Rio Seios or Hydor Koralias. I recently removed a Seio 1100 and 820 in favor of two Koralia #4s and really like them so far. Lower power consumption so less heat, better flow and better mounting option with the magnets instead of suction cups.
3. Gets lots of snails of different varities. Myself I have a couple of Turbos, quite a few Golden Astreas and lots of Nassarius and Cerith snails. I also have two small Fighting Conchs but one would probably work fine.