Black Tuesday.

[skipper]

Well tuesday was not a good day. I usually come home from work to a clown waiting to be feed. Tuesday, he wasn't there. When I took a closer look, I found him in-between some rocks, with the crabs eating him. Now I am not sure what the cause of his death was, but that wasn't the only problem. It looked like my rocks had been spray painted brown (im guessing it was brown algea). All my parameters are good and I can't figure out the cause of the clowns death. But the main reason I started this post, was because I never want to see that brown crap again. I use tap water so thats probably cause for the outbreak. My question is if I get a RO+DI, what are the chances of this happening again and what other options do I have? To start, I am going to cut back on the amout of time my lights are on. Any and all advice will be helpful.

BTW, I got a firefish too and he/she is doing fine.

[got bait?]

Your tap water may have high amounts of PH. You are much better off with the RO/DI water, but this is no sure fire way to stop any algae blooms. How old is your tank?

[sw-addict]

I had the same problem some time back because I used tap water scince then I have switched to ro/di water and my tank is always clearer and I have not had any algae problems. As far as the clown I am sorry to hear about it keep an eye on those crabs.

[skipper]

I set the tank up at the end of december 2003. The first brown to show up was at the end of last week and was the size of a dime. I would remove it everyday and it would come back only at the one spot and same size (on my skimmer). Was same size and place tuesday morning and then tuesday evening, was everywhere. Glass, cc, rocks....When it hits, I guess it hits hard.

[afilter]

Skipper,

Need more info. to really help. I would guess that your water source may contribute to algae problems. I know I use to use tap and then discovered it was the source of my high nitrates. Very likely your tap water contains things you are not even testing for. I would always recommend RO for any SW setup.

Please post all water readings along with type of setup, size, filtration etc.

You mentioned feeding, this can also be a source of algae problems if you are overfeeding.