Brown algea question

[SJSobczyk]

Morning,

I am having continuous problem with my 75 gallon FOWLR tank that has been running for a year and half. Recently i added Chemi-clean to get rid of my red algea. This product works like a charm, but after the 48 hours i do a 20% water change with RO water and a brown algea covers everything. I notice it dies down after a couple of days but what could be the cause of this? Initially when i started the tank i did use tap water but i have done enough water changes using RO water that this shouldnt even be an issue.

I read that a cause of the brown algea in the tank is phosphates. Is this true?

I have a dogface puffer in the tank and he eats shrimp/prawns. On the bag of the frozen food it mentions that the products have phosphates in it, could this be a continuous problem causing the brown algea? I feed him about half a shrimp/day and clean the remaining pieces out the next day. If so could anyone recommend any other frozen food that does not contain phosphates.

So all in all i am dealing with a brown algea issue that has gotten worse after my water change, but is still present when water changes have not occured.

Not only that i am dealing with hair algea all over my live rocks, its not a big nuisance but i would like to trim it down. Lighting is down to 8 hours/day and i havent tested for Nitrates or phosphates, but i am thinking of adding Phosban and a Nitrate sponge to see if it effects it at all. What do you think??

Thanks
SJSobczyk

 

[RMPD109]

The brown algea is probably diatoms. These are the exception as they are not caused by phosphates but are caused by silicates. They are common in new tanks and I assume in your setup due to the water change. Check your source water from the ro/di filter. It may be time to change the filters in the setup. Test for the phosphates and if you have a silicate test you can test for it too. Diatoms will usually burn out on there own once the silicates are depleted. HTH

 

[austinsdad]

I'd recommend a testing kit. Nitrates is something to definitely watch as you establish a new tank and add fish. Phosphate test is important too IMO in order to tell you how your tap water is and whether it'll add to algae or cynobacteria blooms.

 

[SJSobczyk]

Thanks for the quick replies. The tank has been established for over a year now. This has been an issue in the past couple of months though. I just can not seem to get rid of it. The water i use i buy from my local grocery store and is labeled as RO so i figure they have some good standards to keep up with since they supply water to the whole country. Anything i could use to get rid of the silicates? Is there a products like Phosban, etc that i could run in my cannister just to see what the end result would be? Should i try and run some phosban as well to see what the result is??

Thanks
SJSobczyk

 

[austinsdad]

I'd really test for phosphates before you decide what to do next. Test that store water while you're at it too. I do keep a bag of Rowa Phos in my sump. Expensive as heck and I'm not sure of it's effectiveness, but I cut back on feeding after the holidays recently also and it seems to have helped.

 

[RMPD109]

Is the RO water bottled or from a machine? They dont keep up with the filters in the machine very well so that may be the problem. Dont add anything to the tank until you are sure there is a problem with it. Even then a good water change with good water will do the most for it. See if the LFS has a test for silicates before buying your own because you probably wont use it much. Test the source water and that will give us an idea of what the problem may be.

 

[SJSobczyk]

The RO water is bottled, not from a machine, comes strait from Arrowhead Water. All the information is located here: www.arrowheadwater.com . I will look into a silicate/phosphate test kit and see what comes out of it!

Thanks
SJSobczyk

By the way can anyone give me a good respone on my other post:
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/viewtopic.php?t=44956

 

[Phyl]

What kind of salt are you using? What foods do you feed the tank? You should run the silicate, nitrate and phosphate test on your RO water and your saltwater prior to adding it to your tank. Maybe you'll find something in there...

 

[SJSobczyk]

I use Instant Ocean sea salt. The dogface puffer eats frozen shrimp/prawns and the yellow tang eats frozen mysis shrimp. I dont see anything that could really be causing the outbreak besides the RO so i will have to look into it more!

Thanks
SJS

 

[PumaKrieg]

Phosphate levels