Brown algae

[FishAddict413]

Over the past month or so I have been getting brown and light green algae over pretty much everything in my tank, glass, and very thick brown algae on my live rock. I haven't changed anything. Phosphates have always been 0.5 in my tap water (I am waiting on my ro system in the mail to change that) my hardness is also about 16 which is why i just bought an ro system. My temperature has been varying +/- 4 degrees about 76-80 due to the weather lately. Nitrates are 10 or less. I have been changing out my bio balls and replacing it with live rock rubble in my canister over the past month about a 1/4 at a time. Could this be my tank cycling again because of the exchanging of bio balls? Thanks you guys are always great and very knowledgeable.

 

[Sadielynn]

Could be a myriad of things , it could be dinoflatulates (SP) or diatoms ... How old is your tank ....
Moving things in and out could recycle your tank if the LR is not cured ... it could also be just new tank syndrome....
Dinos will be persistant and will slime everything .....diatoms are usually short lived and will burn out when the "food" supply is gone ... they usually occur at random in new tanks and will be there and gone usually about the first year whilst things stablize out ...
What size tank are you using ?
The ro/di should also help a great deal as well as doing H20 changes weekly

 

[Krypt]

Chances are the algae is being caused by the introduction of the LR. When you first add the LR to your sump, it will have some die off of organisms. This die off will create excess nutrients in the water and can cause a temporary algae bloom. Best way to fight against this until the rock gets settled and stops emitting nutrients into the water is weekly water changes and lower the amount of time your lights are on.

The RO should be a great help for you. With your level of phosphates I'm surprised this is the first time you've had an algae growth problem. Getting the phos levels down as low as possible will greatly help you out.

 

[FishAddict413]

My tank is 4 years old and the rubble LR I have been using is live rock thats been in my tank the entire time. Just crushed a larger piece with a shovel. I have had algae blooms in the past but not this bad. I do have brown/red/ green slime algae too on the glass.

 

[Sadielynn]

when you removed it and crushed it did what kind of surface did you crush it on .... did you protect it from the shovle and the ground ?
You ay have also disturbed some nutrients in the tank that caused a mini bloom to start ...
How often do you do H20 changes ?
What size tank ?
How many fish ?
How often do you feed?
What is your lighting and when was the last time you changed your bulbs?
Have you gotten new testing kits they do expire about 6 mo to a year after opening them ?

 

[FishAddict413]

when you removed it and crushed it did what kind of surface did you crush it on .... did you protect it from the shovle and the ground ? On stone patio outside
You ay have also disturbed some nutrients in the tank that caused a mini bloom to start ...
How often do you do H20 changes ? Every 2 weeks
What size tank ? 125 gallon
How many fish ? 5, clown, coral beauty angel, chromis, hippo tang, yellow watchman goby
How often do you feed? once a day, frozen brine or marine cuisine, flake and garlic additives, also algae on algae clip
What is your lighting and when was the last time you changed your bulbs? 1 month old bulbs VHO 2 actinic 2 flourescent 10 hours a day
Have you gotten new testing kits they do expire about 6 mo to a year after opening them ? new kits

 

[Sadielynn]

my first thoughts are that you may have brought something in from the shovel and the patio...lots of things could have contaminated the rock ...
Reduce feedings to every other day or every couple days , rinse the frozen foods with RO/DI
reduce lighting and increase water changes to 20% or 30 % weekly
are you actively skimming ?
Do you have some one that can cross test as it has happened to me atleast that I have gotten bad kits ?