Aquarium 6 months old, have a question!

[mandarinjay]

My aquarium is 6 months old, I use ro/di unit for my water. Spectapure max cap 90 gpd. I have new pc 50/50 lights. I went through the diatom stage, now I get this brown algae on my substrate constantly. I was wonder, green algae is starting to appear. A little coralline algae is starting to appear. Should I be doing something to get rid of this brown algae? I know the green algae will compete for nutrition, and I’m starting to get a good amount of green algae. Is the green algae good? Also, my substrate is aragonite. It just looks horrible brown and wondering if this is normal for a somewhat new tank. Any tips would also be appreciated, I am new to this hobby and new to this forum as well.

 

[pokerfish]

with new lights and fairly young tank, your going to have an algea bloom...i had air bubbles rising from my sand after i added ho lighting, and massive algea bloom ran its course...i dont think theres any harm in physically removing what you can, but you will be fine as long as parameters are good...

 

[mandarinjay]

I was wondering if it might be phosphates or silicates, i was thinking of getting some phosphate remover. What do you people think?

 

[pokerfish]

i have used it in a hob aquaclear ( i put it in a bag like carbon)...seemed to work...i dont think it can hurt, but it was hard to tell if it solved my problem, or the bloom ran its natural coarse...you can test for phosphates but usually you get a 0 reading as the algea is using it and it doesnt show up on test...

 

[jayinh]

a media reactor with a phosphate removal media work work best, maybe cut back a bit on lighting time. i had a bit of a bloom as my tank was early/new ( still is young imo ) and i did a lights out for like 24hrs and it all cleared up. also are you doing water changes

 

[mandarinjay]

Every two weeks I do a water changes religiously (ro/di for changes and top offs), I change about 15 to 20 percent. Right now I do 9 hours a day on my daylights and 11 hours on my actinic. If I do cut the lights out, wouldn’t that be bad for the corals. Also wouldn’t that be bad for the green algae that are starting to bloom? I have heard the green algae will eventually starve the brown algae; competing for nutrients. If that is the case, maybe I should just keep running the cycle? If any input please let me know, thanks!

 

[banshee1]

I would definatly cut down on your lighting.it is normal for a young tank to have blooms but like jay said get a reactor and minimize lighting.your corals will be fine.try cutting out about 2 hours on each cycle

 

[djk83]

That's way to long of a photoperiod. Algae needs illumination to grow cut back your hours and remove as much as you can manually.

 

[mandarinjay]

What is a typical photoperiod?

 

[beelezebubba]

is the algae on the sand bed growing in a very thin layer on the sand or is it forming strings with air bubbles inside it? just making sure it's diatoms and not dinoflagellates

 

[mandarinjay]

I think it could be dinoflagellates, when I turn off my power heads for feeding for about 15 minutes I notice a film on the bottom of the sand bed. I think there might be diatom too, not sure? Anyway, after turning on the power heads, this film gets lifted off the sand bed and filtered out but, the sand bed seems to have brown algae as well. How would I go about getting rid of this? Should I do lights out for a day or two if safe? I would also like to know what a typical photoperiod for my tank should be.

 

[mandarinjay]

I have two corals in the tank right now. I have a hammer frag and a duncan frag.

 

[mandarinjay]

I was also researching somewhere that dinoflagellates can kill any species that eat it like snails. I had a snail dye on me the other day. Any info would help. I also researched what was recommended in the beginning of this post, using GFO phosphate remover. Also would still like to know a normal photoperiod for my tank with two lps coral frags. Thanks again!

 

[djk83]

I do 8 hours a day.

 

[Kungfukid]

Do you have corals in your tank? If you do not, you can go with just a few hours of light in a day and slowly go up from there.


The brown and hairy algae will not go away unless you do something. A small water change (twice per week) will help and siphon out the top layer of your sand each time you do the water change will help.
Feed less on the fish
More flow if you do not already have enough
Cut down On the lightning if you dot not have corals
Also, check if your protein skimmer is rated at lease for the size of your tank

Hope this helps

 

[beelezebubba]

I think it could be dinoflagellates, when I turn off my power heads for feeding for about 15 minutes I notice a film on the bottom of the sand bed. I think there might be diatom too, not sure? Anyway, after turning on the power heads, this film gets lifted off the sand bed and filtered out but, the sand bed seems to have brown algae as well. How would I go about getting rid of this? Should I do lights out for a day or two if safe? I would also like to know what a typical photoperiod for my tank should be.

it's hard to give you a definite i.d. without a photo. if you could get one at the end of the day when the lights have been on for a while it would help a lot. otherwise if it grows really fast and looks like stringy brown snot with air bubbles trapped in it, it's prolly dinos.

if it's diatoms- do nothing major. cut your photoperiod down to 6-8 hours/day if you want, do some water changes (check your ro water to make sure it's still giving you 0 tds, if it's not that could be the source of your problem) and just focus on maximizing nutrient export.

if it's dinos, do small water changes as often as you like and siphon out as much as you can every time you do one. leave the lights completely off for a day or two (it won't hurt the corals, just make sure you have decent gas exchange so you don't get a pH swing) and google around for other remedies. i forget if elevated magnesium was the preferred method for dinos or bryopsis (maybe it's both) but i would start with the stuff i mentioned before you go messing with the water chemistry. using some gfo couldn't hurt (and might help) so do that as well if you want to.

there's lots of kinds of dinoflagellates, from the brown snotty stuff we hate to the kind that live in our corals to the kind that cause red tide and kill people. not sure if the brown stuff is toxic to snails, but if it was they prolly wouldn't eat it.

 

[mandarinjay]

I ordered a reef master test kit. I also ordered seachem reef fusion 1 and two set. I also purchased seachem phosguard. I was wondering what you guys think of seachem products? I am glad to know the saltwater test kit that i have does not check for all the things i need to be checkin g for when it comes to reefs. I thank you all for the information, i hope to have a good first experience in the saltwater aquarium hobby. I am news 6 months into this hobby, and trying to take in as much information as i possibly can, when it comes to this aquarium. Also, for the kungfukid, i have an etss evolution 500 with a mag 9.5 running my skimmer. The skimmer is rated up to 250 gallons and i have a 72 gallon aquarium.

 

[djk83]

Dinos or diatoms whatever they both need light and nutrients to grow. Cut back and add your phos guard and you should be good. I have tried many different types of media I like the gfo from bulk reef supply and chemi pure elite better than the phos guard.

 

[mandarinjay]

Thank you all for the input!

 

[djk83]

Your welcome