Phosphate levels related to brown algae???

[Sdeluca10]

So after a lot of time and effort I have gotten my levels fairly stable. Still dialing it in but I’m getting there.
Today these are my parameters
-Cal 473 (working on narrowing it down to consistent 450)
-Mag 1455 (I’m not even dosing Mag. Water changes bring it down but it slowly creeps back up only dosing Cal)
-Alk 11.7 it was as high as 13, I haven’t been dosing. Was waiting to hit 11.5 and then I was gonna try to dial in the alk dosing to keep it 11.5 stable.
-phosphate 0.20
-nitrate 0.0 (I know that’s too low but right now I’m trying to get my phosphates down to 0.0)

All Hanna testers**

The reason for the thread is, I’m getting a lot of brown (I’m guessing diatom) algae. On the glass and sand bed. I’m not sure what’s causing it but it builds up to where I have to clean my glass and sand every other day.

Part of me wonders if it would be because I don’t have enough water flow, (I’m working on upgrading my pump and powerheads as they are getting old but that is pricey…) But I find it hard to believe that that alone is causing the problem. Not to mention I have healthy SPS, LPS, Zoas, and leathers. Good coloring, good growth, ect. All and all the livestock seems to be doing well.

I have a reasonable amount of snails, crabs, shrimp.

I just can’t figure out this brown algae problem and it’s unsightly…

Any thoughts, suggestions??

 

[afboundguy]

How old is the tank? My tank is only about "6 months" old even though I threw most of my old live rock in the sump I used new rock in the display tank and I still get some brown'ish algae on the sand.

I also feed extremely heavy so that doesn't help. Do you have any snails that sift through the sand? I just added a few a week or two ago and that has helped. I am also a big fan of dosing phyto to help with nuscience algae (hence the over the top 7 strands of phyto I do ) so that is always an option. There's tons of benefits to dosing phyto as well (corals look better, algae on the glass comes off super easy and takes longer to build up, helps pod population)

 

[Sdeluca10]

How old is the tank? My tank is only about "6 months" old even though I threw most of my old live rock in the sump I used new rock in the display tank and I still get some brown'ish algae on the sand.

I also feed extremely heavy so that doesn't help. Do you have any snails that sift through the sand? I just added a few a week or two ago and that has helped. I am also a big fan of dosing phyto to help with nuscience algae (hence the over the top 7 strands of phyto I do ) so that is always an option. There's tons of benefits to dosing phyto as well (corals look better, algae on the glass comes off super easy and takes longer to build up, helps pod population)

I started this tank in January of 23, so 2 years. I do have nassarius snails.
I know little to nothing about “dosing phyto”.
I was just under the impression that you wanna keep your phos low, like as close to zero as possible. That’s why I was questioning if that was the issue. How high is too high for phos?

 

[dz6t]

Is this brown algae only on sand bed and glass? No on live rocks? Does this brown algae always there after you set up your tank or it comes and goes?

 

[EddieG]

Do you siphon your sand during water changes?

 

[Sdeluca10]

I don’t notice much, if any, “brown” on the rocks. It does seem to only be on glass and sand bed. It comes off very easily. And yes I do syphon sand when doing changes.

 

[afboundguy]

I started this tank in January of 23, so 2 years. I do have nassarius snails.
I know little to nothing about “dosing phyto”.
I was just under the impression that you wanna keep your phos low, like as close to zero as possible. That’s why I was questioning if that was the issue. How high is too high for phos?

It can be complex'ish but essentially dosing phyto can and should help reduce nuscience already but sucking up the nutrients in the tank that would normally be used by nuscience algae.

For example if you have dinos you can add phyto that is cultured with silicates so when you dose those specific strands they should suck up the silicates in the tank so there's less of them in the water to fuel the dinos.

 

[dz6t]

View attachment 215227
I don’t notice much, if any, “brown” on the rocks. It does seem to only be on glass and sand bed. It comes off very easily. And yes I do syphon sand when doing changes.

It can be simply bacteria buildup on glass and sand.
Bacteria film on glass is normal, actually if there is no bacteria film on glass every day to every few days, it will make me worry.
Bacteria film on glass is a sign of healthy tank.

 

[Sdeluca10]

Did a deep cleaning today. 20% water change. Syphoned sand, scraped the entire glass, changed out mechanical filters, cleaned up the powerheads (and they seem to be working better). And while I was at it I changed up the aqua scape. Kinda separated softies, anenomes and put all the SPS frags on the structure in the middle.

 

[Sdeluca10]

After doing some research, I believe my best bet to rectify this issue is to add a UV sterlizer. Thoughts? Unfortunately they are not very “cost” friendly. If anyone has one laying around that would be suitable for 150-200 gallons I may be interested.

 

[NeverlosT]

In my opinion, your issue may stem from an imbalance between nitrate and phosphate. I think folks usually shoot for a nitrate number 100x (or therabouts) the phosphate number (so like 10 nitrates, 0.1 phosphates). In your case, I would probably dose some neonitro (or feed heavily), possibly run a bit of gfo in a sock to taper down those phosphates. The other numbers (alk/CA/Mag) seem really high to me but your corals look happy so if it is working, I guess keep it up!

Before I got a UV I would buy some pods and phyto and dose both. They are cheaper and great for the ecosystem.

Anyhow, just some observations, good luck! Great tank!

 

[TPhan]

After doing some research, I believe my best bet to rectify this issue is to add a UV sterlizer. Thoughts? Unfortunately they are not very “cost” friendly. If anyone has one laying around that would be suitable for 150-200 gallons I may be interested.

DO u have a microscope? Take a sample of the brown stuff to find out exactly what it is. A microscope is also a fun tool to have in this hobby, its very interesting to look at all the microscopic organisms in your tank.

 

[Sdeluca10]

I upgraded my return pump and replaced an old powerhead with a brand new one. The additional water flow seems to have rectified the issue. Time will tell!

 

[Reefried]

I’m glad your issue seems to be getting better. For me your goal of keeping alk at 11.5 is too high. You can definitely have a thriving tank with stable alk anywhere between 7-12. However with 11.5 as a goal you do not allow enough of a “buffer zone”. In other words if your desired consistent alk was 9 then you could fluctuate (not that you want to fluctuate) down to 7 and be fine and up to 11 and be fine. And by fine I mean most things should stay alive buying some time to get back to your goal number. If you try to maintain 11.5 your alk could drop to 9.5 and things will surely survive and be fine, but if you fluctuated up to 13.5 that would be dangerous.

Also a phosphate level goal of 0.0 is terrifying to me! Over time, assuming consistent husbandry and feeding practices each and every tank will fall into its own zone where it almost “wants” to be. I set up my tank with goals of 10-20 nitrate (with 15 being my perfect number) and phosphate between 0.05-.10 (with .07-0.8 being my perfect number). However with my current fish load and feeding habits, which hasn’t really changed in a year. My nitrate is consistently 22-28 and my phosphate is fairly consistent at 0.10-0.20 with the average of two years of tests being 0.13. Today I tested and it was .30!! And everything looks just fine. Obviously consistency is key. I never overreact to a test or two. I just dial in stability. For example I typically feed mysis cubes, usually buying two months worth, and feeding the same set amount on the same set days. When I went for food the last time they were out of cubes and I bought a big sheet of mysis. Now obviously breaking off chunks from a sheet is not consistent. So my numbers fluctuated more than I would like both ways, up and down. Not a big deal. When I have the cubes available I know exactly what my nutrient levels will be as I feed the exact same thing all the time.

 

[Sdeluca10]

I’m glad your issue seems to be getting better. For me your goal of keeping alk at 11.5 is too high. You can definitely have a thriving tank with stable alk anywhere between 7-12. However with 11.5 as a goal you do not allow enough of a “buffer zone”. In other words if your desired consistent alk was 9 then you could fluctuate (not that you want to fluctuate) down to 7 and be fine and up to 11 and be fine. And by fine I mean most things should stay alive buying some time to get back to your goal number. If you try to maintain 11.5 your alk could drop to 9.5 and things will surely survive and be fine, but if you fluctuated up to 13.5 that would be dangerous.

Also a phosphate level goal of 0.0 is terrifying to me! Over time, assuming consistent husbandry and feeding practices each and every tank will fall into its own zone where it almost “wants” to be. I set up my tank with goals of 10-20 nitrate (with 15 being my perfect number) and phosphate between 0.05-.10 (with .07-0.8 being my perfect number). However with my current fish load and feeding habits, which hasn’t really changed in a year. My nitrate is consistently 22-28 and my phosphate is fairly consistent at 0.10-0.20 with the average of two years of tests being 0.13. Today I tested and it was .30!! And everything looks just fine. Obviously consistency is key. I never overreact to a test or two. I just dial in stability. For example I typically feed mysis cubes, usually buying two months worth, and feeding the same set amount on the same set days. When I went for food the last time they were out of cubes and I bought a big sheet of mysis. Now obviously breaking off chunks from a sheet is not consistent. So my numbers fluctuated more than I would like both ways, up and down. Not a big deal. When I have the cubes available I know exactly what my nutrient levels will be as I feed the exact same thing all the time.

Very good information to take into consideration. Thank you for the advice!