Brown Algae

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sdellin

Aquarium Advice Addict
Joined
Jun 8, 2005
Messages
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Location
Vacaville, California
Hope this doesn't post twice, sorry if it does, but it did something funny a minute ago when I submitted it.

I have a lot of brown algae (diatom algae???) in my tank. I had it before and did a water change after brushing it off the rocks with a little scrub brush. I got it again when I went on vacation and someone else was feeding my fish. I brushed the rocks and removed the algae from the front and sides of the tank , then did a water change to remove it once it was in the water, but it came back faster this time, like in a week, as opposed to last time, which took much longer. I left some of the algae on the back for the snails, maybe I should have removed it all.

I checked nitrates and other stuff. Nitrates went to 40 while I was away, but they're back to between 10 and 20 now and have been, so I don't know if it's normal to get this brown algae so often/quickly.

Forgive me if I'm petty, but I really prefer to look at the purple crystaline and red algae, and the cool green stuff, not this icky brown. Please advise. FYI, protein skimmer not hooked up yet, will that help this problem?

forgot the picture, here it is.
 
How long has your tank been set up? Are you still cycling? What's in your tank? Did anything die?
 
I have live rock, two cleaner shrimps. regal tang, ocellarous clown, three blue-green cromis, 2 blue cromis, one serpent star, four turbo snails and a sally lightfoot crab, oh and one hermit crab.

Tank set up since April 19th, I don't think it's cycling, but I did do a 50% water change (recommended by "Salt Water Aquariums for Dummies" to deal with algae bloom. To start my tank, a friend gave me a 15-gallon tank with some fish and I used his sand and live rock and some of his fish, added a bag of live sand and it cycled instantly. I just remembered that recently I added a bunch of rock that someone gave me from a fresh water tank (so it's not live), but I heard somewhere, after I had added it of course, that too much dead rock at once can cause problem. Could that be why this is happening? All of the dead rock is covered with algae, so it won't be dead for long, maybe this will work itself out?

One green cromis died the day after I bought it, but everything else is fine and nothing has died that's been in there since the beginning.
 
Absolutely yes, the rock is causing your tank to cycle again. I'm not sure what your outcome will be on this one. Sounds like diatoms and it's usually a sign of the end of a cycle. I'm sure someone else will know better than me. Keep up with your water changes. I hope your fishes are still ok.
 
I have the same problem Will it go away one the cycles complete? Does adding the stuff called 'Cycle' work to speed it up?
thanks,
Scott
 
Yes it will go away on its own. If you are seeing this your cycle is probably coming to an end. I would wait until nitrates are 0 and ammonia are 0 and then do a 20% water change. HTH
 
my cycle has been done for a while now and I'm still getting the diatom dusting...I've also a cyano problem(slight) and I believe it was triggered by a dead tunicate.. and now it's being maintained by the phytoplex that I'm feeding once a week.. what are u feeding the tank?
 
I am feeding twice a day. Usually spiruline flakes in the moring and meaty food (shrimp, marine cuisine) at night. I used the Salt Water Aquariums for Dummies book to get started and in there the author recommends feeding twice a day. Is that too much?

All of my fish are still fine and the nitrates are between 10 and 20. The fish don't look stressed, actually they look really healthy. Assuming the dead rock is causing the recycling and I have the diatoms indicating end of cycling, can I just scrub off the algae and do a water change to get the algae out? I did that last week, but is doing it again so soon going to hurt anything? I've been doing water changes once every two weeks.
 
Yes that's to much. You should only be feeding once a day. IMO flakes pollute your tank. You mentioned at night. You do feed when the lights are on right? If your fish don't eat everything in a couple of minutes your put to much food in. Stick to the frozen foods. Mine usually eat what I feed within 30 seconds to a minute. But they are very eager feeders.
 
I only feed mine every other day. Been doing so for 8 years with no algea problems. Knock on wood. Have a good day
 
I do feed only when the lights are on. I make sure they eat it all up (little piggys, they scarf it) and I fish out anything that I see that goes to the bottom.

I kind of got that flakes pollute from reading in this forum, so I suppose I'll stop the flakes, but how do you make sure the herbaviors get algae when you feed the frozen meat?

Okay, so only feed once per day, got it.

I have that pocket guide to marine fishes, and in there it tells you which fish should be fed when. Some of them, it's recommended to feed three times a day, but most is says twice. The guy who gave me his tank also said once a day... fair enough, once a day it is. This is not the first time I've found the book doesn't agree with the experts or my lfs.

Thanks.
 
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