advice on clean up critters

[chrisareston]

Todays Picture

 

[chrisareston]

It all over the sand (use to be white sand)

 

[fishfreek]

Is the algae red? If not why is thta coral skeliton red?

Does it come off in thin sheets?

Be careful to not point it directly at the substrate.

Or you will have a white storm of CC and sand.

 

[reefrunner69]

hmmm...
It looks like you got an algae farm goin on there It looks to me like you got three different types of algae in that tank, diatoms, cyanobacteria and maybe some dinoflaggelates. Of the three the hardest to get rid of are the dinos. If you'll look at this thread, it will give you some useful info on algae control....
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/viewtopic.php?t=15

 

[chrisareston]

Its brown , not red, and the coral skeleton was white when I bought.

 

[chrisareston]

Its not red slime algae, its real hairy and the hair strands kind of float up. Any ideas of getting rid of it?

 

[srcooper]

diatoms

I have a 75gal s/w tank that is approx 4 weeks old. I was have a major problem with what I thought was brown algae. It was covering everything in a matter of days. The more I read on the net, the more I am convinced it was diatoms. I kept asking people for advise. They kept saying to be patient. It was hard because it made everything sooo ugly. I purchased a R/O unit with a DI filter. Did a couple partial water changes with that. I was really getting fed up. Then one day, I noticed the brown was getting lighter. It has stopped all together now. I just should have relaxed and let it do it's thing. I am still cycling because my Nitrites are still up. Ammonia is gone though.
Be patient.

 

[roadster3043]

The brown algae is part of the cycling process. Remember algae thrives off nitrates, which can be high during the cycle. Just wait, IT WILL GO AWAY.

Greetings.

If nitrates are at 0 all the time, what else is the algae feeding of?

 

[reefrunner69]

If it is a brown/rust colored dusting, it is probably diatom algae. Diatoms need silicate to create their cell walls, silicate is typically what fuels diatom growth. You can either use a silicate removing media, or you can use herbivorous snails to clean it up. I use snails, I also wipe the glass 1-2 times per week, when the diatoms are scraped from the glass, the corals get a phyto treat. Another big algae fuel is phosphate. Phosphate is easily removed from your tapwater with an RO/DI filter.