A tough one to figure out, brown and green smell

[Leroy]

I set up a 30 gal breeder as a refugium a month ago and the algae that is growing is brown with bubbles and will float on the water in the refugium section. The sand gets a tint of brown algae that will form on it as well. The water has an odor of like very green smell to it, I know, sounds weird. I have macro algae and it's light cycled on when main tank is off. I had some zoo and palys frags growing under T5's but moved them to another tank I have running till I figure out why it's floating brown bubbles greeny smell. Has no effect on the tank above with softies and fish. I have no micro bubbles. I had live rock in the tank but it looked like it may want to start growing green algae hair so it's in a bucket of salt water with power head and no light to clean it up. My thought of a decent clean up crew might do the job in cleaning the refugium. It's the weirdest I've encountered so far.

 

[Dragon2115]

I'm not expert on algae so I'm of no help here. But I just had to ask...

What exactly does green and brown smell like?

 

[JohnK]

Have you seen what dinoflagellates look like? Just a guess, but It might be worth a quick google image search to see if they look framiliar.

 

[Leroy]

I'm not expert on algae so I'm of no help here. But I just had to ask...

What exactly does green and brown smell like?

Green is the smell of an example, fresh cut grass or the scent of a green house. It's very distinctive and prominent as the scent is emmited from the refugium. Through life I quess I have associated a scent and taste to color of the item I see, smell and taste.

 

[Leroy]

Have you seen what dinoflagellates look like? Just a guess, but It might be worth a quick google image search to see if they look framiliar.

Thanx, this gives me something to research with a possibility.