Brown Algae

[gregp]

I've been cycling my tank for almost two weeks now and have recently gotten a ton of brown algae occuring all over my live rock (with a little bit of green as well) Is this a fairly good sign?? Also, can someone tell me what this thing may be in my rock. (It's red and it has little white tips and pops out when the light is on, but darts back in once the light is out.)

[RLG2182]

What kind of water are you using? Tap water, or RO water from LFS? So far, from what I read, this can be caused by Phosphates in your water supply if using water from a metropolitan supply.

[gregp]

I am using tap water. Will snails and such feed on this?

[RLG2182]

From what I gather here, they will... but depending on how big the outbreak is, they might not get to it all. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I would definately clean it off the glass, but make sure you don't irritate the sand too much since the algea will spread.

Cut down on how long you have your lights on, and do a small water change with RO water from a LFS. If you have a small air tubing line, use the hose to lightly syphon (sp?) off the top of the sand's surface while you take out your water for the change. I learned that tap water will only lead to problems down the road (especially if your tap water is bad). Some people I hear do not use it, and I myself didn't use RO water when I had my tank, and I had similar problems that never really went away. Cooincidence? Probably not... at least with me. Not sure if you can afford an ro/di unit, but I would at least suggest to get RO water and go from there. Cheers

~~Rob

[phases99]

These types of algae are very normal during this period. Astraea snails will go to town on it but do not add them until you are finished cycling. Using tap water can intensify the breakout and will likely cause additional algae trouble down the road. Look into purified water for long-term success.

[runway1]

No intent to hijack and I think gregp will have these questions as well; Does using sea water directly from the lfs solve this problem?

I'm 11 days into my cycle and started seeing the identical effect. Should we add a cleaning crew upon full cycle? Which cleaners are best for brown algae?

[Phyl]

Diatoms are a natural part of the startup process. They will generally burn themselves out fairly quickly. If they persist or come back in a fully cycled tank it is indicative of problems. I wouldn't be concerned with having them at this stage (nor would I be worried about the type of water you used). We started our tank with tap and haven't had any problems with algae. That being said, we're not temping the waters of fate... we've switched over to RO/DI. It really depends on your source water.

You can go to reeftopia or liveaquaria to get an idea of what their cleanup crew packages contain. We got ours from reeftopia. They've been a great addition to the tank. We went with 3 types of snails, blue leg hermits and red leg hermits.

[gregp]

Thanks for the replies everyone! Just a note, I was taking a peek at my tank last night and turned on the light and saw this neon pink think almost the size of a piece of angel hair pasta! It was pretty cool looking and within ten seconds raced back into the rock!

[runway1]

Dude....whoa.....did the Twilight Zone jiggle begin?

[bluejam]

I am a week into my cycle with LR. I also got this brown algae everywhere. It came overnight and is covering the rock and a portion of my sand. I don't like it and hope it will leave on it's own. I have done a search on this and most say this is normal during cycling. How does it go away and when?

[RMPD109]

Diatoms are caused by silicates in the water. As stated above it is a normal process and will burn itself out over time. I added some red leg reef hermits and turbo snails upon completing my cycle. They made quick work of the diatoms and I havenot seen any buildup since. If you are still in the cycle you can scrape the glass but they will be back quickly.

[IfoundNemo]

Snails are good algea cleaners, but they don't eat the algea as fast as a molly can. I used a molly to clean up algea in my SW and FW tanks when needed. Very good results.

[bluejam]

I don't have any on the glass. It's on all my rock and dead coral pieces.

A side note: I had a little anemone that looked like a lttle flower with a green/blue light in the middle. About the size of a quarter. Today, it's gone! What could have happened to the little guy?

[Nels22]

your little anemone is probably Aptasia, which is a pest. Anemone's are able to move about the tank when they see fit, so it is still in there, and just dying to multiply 20 times, it's best to use joes juice or kalk to rid these little devils.