Please help!!

[Tipton34]

I have been struggling with brown algae for a couple of weeks now. It releases bubbles and is dark brown. It covers everything. I bought a tester for phosphate and have been treating that. It has back down to around .25. However the algae is not going away. Nitrite, nitrate, and ammonia are all good. Any suggestions???

 

[Schism]

.25 is still elevated and contributing to the problem. Also any algae in the tank is holding bound phosphate and nitrate so the algae has to be removed also to remove all the nutrients.

Also do you have a pic of this? Another possibility could be dinoflagellets.

 

[bavass]

Look at BRS, get a reactor, and start running GFO to reduce phosphates. You want them below .05ppm. They are actually higher than the test shows because the cyano is consuming them faster than you can test

 

[Tipton34]

I've tried vacuuming it all out, but it came back. I hate to have to keep Vacuuming all of it out. Because it takes out a lot of my sand

 

[Schism]

I've tried vacuuming it all out, but it came back. I hate to have to keep Vacuuming all of it out. Because it takes out a lot of my sand

Unfortunately its really the only way to get rid of the nutrients. Also of its dino's they can be very hard to get rid of even with low nutrients.

 

[Tipton34]

What if I left it, wouldn't it use all the nutrients and die off?

 

[Schism]

What if I left it, wouldn't it use all the nutrients and die off?

Sure eventually. But not when you are continually introducing nutrients (food) into the water. Also once it dies all those nutrients become free again where they will start to be taken up by more algae during light hours.

That approach will likely not solve the problem.

If its dino's then they do not die-off easily to begin with.

 

[Tipton34]

Oh, didn't think of that. How do I know if it is dinos?

 

[Schism]

Oh, didn't think of that. How do I know if it is dinos?

Look up some pics on google and read about them. They are hard to ID but often times a stringy mat algae looking substance retaining bubbles is a common sign.

A pic would help say, but again its difficult to diagnose dinos to begin with. Only reason i question whether it could be or not is because you mentioned lots of bubbles.

 

[Tipton34]

Here are some photos. Pretty ugly

 

[bavass]

They will continue to come back until you solve where the nutrients are coming from. One the best ways to reduce phosphates is GFO. One of the biggest ways to get phosphates in your tank is overfeeding. Are you using tap water or RO/DI?

 

[Tipton34]

Ok, does it hurt the fish, invertebrates, or coral? It doesn't seem that it does the fish have been grazing apon it pretty heavily

 

[Schism]

Ok, does it hurt the fish, invertebrates, or coral? It doesn't seem that it does the fish have been grazing apon it pretty heavily

The algae? No it wont hurt them however it can irritate corals especially in severe cases. Overall just ugly and a sink for nutrients which can cause other algae out breaks when the dieoff occurs so its best to clean up as much as you can along with slowing its growth with tools like GFO that was suggested.

 

[Tipton34]

I don't have the funds for a gfo right now

 

[Schism]

I don't have the funds for a gfo right now

Its not necessary, just helps. Gfo and a reactor are fairly cheap tho just for a future investment idea